Posted: Friday, 4 January 2019 @ 13:43
As many of you will know,
new rules governing the way estates are divided when someone dies without a will have come into play.
This is relevant for the bulk of people as almost two-thirds of UK adults have not written a will..
Of those that have written a will, almost a third are out of date.
From experience there is still too much of a trend to doing your own will which leads to problems.
The new rules principally affect estates worth over £250,000, but rising house prices mean that more estates will breach this threshold.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the average UK house price was £272,000 in July.
The main change in the reforms, which are effective in England and Wales from 1st October is that widowed spouses will inherit a larger share than is currently allocated under intestacy rules at the expense of the claims of any children.
While the reforms look to bring many aspects of the rules up-to-date, they have been criticised for not addressing all of the perceived injustices that can arise under intestacy. In particular, the unmarried continue to have no claim to their late partner’s estate.
We are all aware of the number of people who are not married, but their legal rights are shakey. No a common-law spouse does not have any legal rights.
From October 1st, a widowed spouse will inherit all of the estate, however high its value.
Where there are surviving children, the widow will now receive the first £250,000 of the estate plus half of the remaining assets.
The other half of the remaining assets will be shared equally among any children.
What I would like to see is a decision made on if unmarried people should have rights if they live with someone for a set period. The alternative is that individuals will make legal claims for reasonable provision. This protection comes in the shape of the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975; known as the Inheritance Act. The Inheritance Act is there to help spouses, children, civil partners, cohabitees and other surviving dependants who have been left to cope without sufficient money to enable them to get by.
If a will (or intestacy in this case) fails to make 'reasonable financial provision' then the Inheritance Act will come into play..
In order to bring a claim you must satisfy the Court that you are entitled to make the claim. The Act states that the following must apply: 1.The deceased must have been living in England and Wales at the time of their death..
2.You, as the applicant, must be one of the following:.
- the spouse or civil partner of the deceased;.
- the former spouse or former civil partner of the deceased (as long as the deceased has not re-married or formed another civil partnership);.
- a child of the deceased;.
- where there is a marriage or civil partnership, a person who was treated by the deceased as a child of the family; - immediately before the death of the deceased you were dependent, either wholly or partly, on the deceased. - if cohabiting with the deceased, then you must have been living with the deceased for a period of at least two years..
3.The application must be made within six months of the grant of probate or letters of administration.
Whether one has made a will or not, this is an area of growth, namely trying to obtain reasonable provision when either the will or intestacy fails to provide.