Who can claim an unclaimed estate?

In England and Wales, when a person dies without a valid will, their estate is distributed under the Administration of Estates Act 1925. This Act creates a fixed hierarchy of relatives who are entitled to inherit.

Only people who fall within this hierarchy can make a legal claim. Moral claims — based on caring for the deceased, living with them, or being promised an inheritance — have no standing under the intestacy rules, though in some limited circumstances a separate claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 may be possible.

The surviving spouse or civil partner has the first claim on the estate. They must have been legally married or in a registered civil partnership at the time of death, and must have survived the deceased by at least 28 days.

Cohabiting partners, regardless of the length of the relationship, have no entitlement under the intestacy rules. Only formal legal marriage or civil partnership counts.

If the deceased left children as well as a spouse, the spouse receives the personal chattels, a statutory legacy (currently £322,000), and half of the remaining estate. The children share the other half.

If there is no surviving spouse or civil partner, or once the spouse's share has been calculated, the estate passes to the deceased's children in equal shares.

Legally adopted children are treated the same as biological children. Stepchildren have no entitlement unless they were formally adopted.

If a child has already died but left their own children (grandchildren of the deceased), those grandchildren inherit the share their parent would have received — a principle called representation.

If the deceased left no surviving spouse or children, the estate passes to parents, then to full siblings (and their descendants), then to half-siblings, then to grandparents, then to uncles and aunts and their descendants (including cousins).

Each tier of the hierarchy is only considered if nobody in the tier above exists. So if the deceased had a living parent, siblings and more distant relatives would receive nothing.

The furthest relatives entitled under the rules are half-uncles and half-aunts and their children. If no relatives exist within these categories, the estate passes to the Crown as bona vacantia.

First cousins are the children of uncles and aunts. They are entitled to inherit — but only if the deceased left no closer relatives: no spouse, children, parents, siblings, or grandparents.

In practice, estates that reach the Crown often have distant or unknown family trees. Cousins and even more distant relatives do come forward successfully to claim Bona Vacantia estates.

More distant cousins (second cousins, third cousins) are not within the intestacy hierarchy and have no legal entitlement, though the Crown has a discretion to make ex-gratia payments in exceptional circumstances.

There is no time limit for a spouse, civil partner, or child to make a claim against a Bona Vacantia estate.

For more distant relatives, the position is more nuanced. The GLD generally considers claims for up to 12 years after the estate was referred. After that, the funds may be paid into the National Purse, though a claim can still technically be made within 30 years of the date of death.

The practical message is: if you find a potential match, do not delay. The sooner you come forward with evidence, the simpler the process is likely to be.