No Will? Unmarried Partners Inherit Nothing Under the Law

When the government launched its consultation on cohabiting couples' rights on 5 June 2026, it drew attention not just to what happens when a relationship ends — but to what can go wrong when a partner dies. Under England and Wales' current intestacy rules, an unmarried partner who dies without leaving a will passes nothing at all to their surviving partner. Not automatically, and not easily.

For a couple who may have shared a home, raised children, and built a life together over decades, this is a legal reality that many people simply do not know exists — until it is too late to do anything about it.

What Intestacy Rules Mean for Cohabiting Partners

Intestacy is the term for dying without a valid will. When someone dies intestate in England and Wales, their estate is distributed according to a fixed set of rules — rules that were written long before cohabitation became one of the most common family structures in the country.

Under those rules, the people who inherit are: a surviving spouse or civil partner, then children, grandchildren, parents, siblings, and other blood relatives — in that strict order. A cohabiting partner, no matter how long the relationship lasted, does not appear anywhere in that list.

That means if your unmarried partner dies without a will, you have no automatic right to:

• The home you shared (even if you lived there for many years)
• Their savings, investments, or bank accounts
• Their personal belongings
• Any financial benefit from their estate whatsoever

The only legal route for a surviving cohabitant is to bring a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 — a complex, expensive, and uncertain process that requires you to prove to a court that you were financially dependent on the deceased. Even where claims succeed, the outcome is far from guaranteed to reflect what the couple would have wanted.

The Government Has Noticed — But Change Is Years Away

The government's "A Fairer End to Relationships" consultation proposes that cohabitants who have lived together for three years or more, or who share children, should gain inheritance rights when a partner dies intestate. This is a genuinely significant proposal — and one that family lawyers and wills solicitors have called for over many years.

But the consultation does not close until 14 August 2026. Any legislation that follows would need parliamentary time that is not yet allocated. Realistically, new rules on intestacy for cohabiting couples will not be in force before 2027 at the earliest — and the full detail of those rules remains to be confirmed.

Until that day, the existing law applies. And under the existing law, the only way to protect your partner is to make a will.

Inheritance Tax: The Gap Nobody Talks About

There is a second financial risk that cohabiting couples face on the death of a partner, and it sits alongside the intestacy problem: inheritance tax.

Spouses and civil partners can leave any amount to each other completely free of inheritance tax. This spousal exemption is one of the most valuable tax reliefs in the UK, and it does not apply to cohabiting partners.

Without a will that plans carefully around this, the surviving partner may face a tax bill of 40% on everything in the deceased's estate above the nil-rate band — currently £325,000, or up to £500,000 with the residence nil-rate band where a property passes to direct descendants. For couples who have bought a home together, saved for many years, or accumulated any significant assets, this is a serious financial risk.

Well-drafted wills, combined with trusts and life insurance written in trust, can significantly reduce or eliminate this liability. But none of that happens automatically — it requires planning, and it requires doing it while both partners are alive and well.

What Happens During Probate Without a Will

Without a will, the estate must go through probate before anything can be distributed. Probate is the legal process of establishing what the deceased owned, settling their debts, and distributing the remainder. Even in straightforward cases, probate takes time — often several months. In contested cases, or where the estate is complex, it can take considerably longer.

For a surviving cohabiting partner left without legal entitlement to the estate, this period can be agonising. They may have no access to shared funds, no clear legal standing in relation to the family home, and no certainty about the outcome — all at what is already the most difficult time of their life.

A well-drafted will does not eliminate probate, but it makes the process significantly smoother and faster, and it ensures that the estate is distributed according to what the deceased actually wanted.

Five Things Cohabiting Couples Should Do Now

You do not need to wait for the government's consultation to reach its conclusion. These steps protect both of you under the existing law:

• Make a will — both of you, reflecting what you actually want to happen if one of you dies. Review it whenever your circumstances change: a new child, a property purchase, a change in assets.
• Update pension nominations — pension funds pass outside your estate and are not governed by your will. Update your nomination of beneficiary forms directly with each pension provider.
• Consider life insurance written in trust — a policy written in trust pays out directly to your partner without going through your estate, avoiding probate delays and potential inheritance tax.
• Check how you own your property — if you own a home together, confirm whether it is held as "joint tenants" (passes automatically to the survivor) or "tenants in common" (forms part of the estate). Many couples are unaware which applies to them.
• Take legal advice — a wills and probate solicitor can review your situation as a whole and ensure the documents you put in place genuinely achieve what you intend.

What Should You Do Next?

Making a will does not need to be a difficult or drawn-out process — but putting it off can have serious and lasting consequences. QualitySolicitors' first contact team can connect you quickly with a specialist wills and probate solicitor near you who can talk through your specific circumstances and help you put the right protections in place. It is one of the most straightforward things you can do, and one of the most important.