An inheritance one

[hopeishere]

Person A dies. They were married to B who died a long time ago. A and B had two children. B had two more from a previous marriage.

A leaves a house but no will. The house was B's originally and A moved into it.

Is it automatically divided between all children? Also one of B's kids is deceased but has two living kids. None of the children now speak to each other.

Are you one of A’s DC OP?

Just been through this. The value of the house is split between the 4 children. The 1/4 which would have gone to deceased child gets split between their 2 children. So living children get 1/4 each, the child of deceased get 1/8 which is rhe 1/4 which would have gone to their parent

Sorry I assumed the step parent wanted them all to inherit. So ignore my post above. Don’t know is actually my answer

Legally, B can leave the house to whomever they wish. Although I would expect for it to be split 4 ways, with the grandchildren receiving 1/4 between them.

@torthecatlady B is already dead - they died before A

@Gensola Ah apologies, somehow I missed that detail!

A inherited the house from B so it goes to A’s DC.

There are a lot of questions that this raises.

1. when did B die - because the intestacy rules (and the amounts) change depending on the date of death.

2. how was the house held? If it was held as 'joint tenants' then B's half automatically switched to A on B's death and was not part of the estate for intestacy purposes. (Same with joint bank accounts).

3. How much were B's assets worth when they died. Under the intestacy rules, the spouse gets all the chattels (furniture, personal effect etc), a sum up to a fixed amount (currently £270k but different in the past) and interest in the remainder (again rules differ depending on when the death was). The amounts above £270k are then split between all the children of B (taking the life interest into account).

Once these questions are answered, and you have a definitive idea of A's estate (whether the whole of the house belonged to A or partly to A and the children) you then apply the intestacy rules again. Under this, everything would be split between A's children alone. B's children are not A's issue and therefore are not included.

Thanks everyone.

B died about 30 years ago. No idea if they had a will. A has lived there since.

Then that's what you need to find out first.
You need to know if there was a will and if so, what it said about the house.

I just looked at that yougov link.
In my case (sorry, OP) my Mother died intestate so estate (house) goes to Dad (who is living in it). If its valued at, say, £370k, then Dad is entitled to 50% of the £100k excess, ie £50k, & each child is entitled to 1/2 of the remaining 50%, ie £25k each. Is that correct?

Ah, if house held as 'joint tenants' (I think it was?) then it doesn't form part of the estate for intestacy purposes?

You can search online to see probate records which might help for details on B's death.

www.gov.uk/search-will-probate

Assuming A inherited the house absolutely from B when B died, then only A's children will inherit under the intestacy rules.

Absolutely this. I do wish people who enter into second marriages looked into making provisions for their own children in a will. This sort of thing, where only children of the most recently deceased benefit, happens all the time. Also lots of people don't seem to realise that marriage invalidates any previous will, so everyone needs to make a new one after marriage.

The right thing to do in my opinion is to share the estate 25% each to the 3 living siblings/stepsiblings with a further 12.5% share to the 2 children of the 4th sibling who is dead.

Yes.
People also seem to think their new partner would be 'fair' so they can just leave them everything because they in turn would ensure the children received any inheritance from their late parent in time.

Ha.

My father married my stepmother who brought no assets of any sort to the marriage. Her two DC and me and my sibling were young adults at the time. DF died, everything went to SM. When she dies, everything is going to her DC. There’s nothing we can do about it, although she admits that she and DF agreed that their estate would ultimately be shared equally between their four DC. It is what it is.

Legally A's descendents get the house unless they were tenants in common with lifetime interest in the house (check online for b's will)

Morally A's beneficiaries should split the money equally between both A's and b's children (further splitting the deceased child's share to their children) - you do this by informing probate of the variation

www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

The land registry may help to find who owns the property. Depending on when it was bought and what exactly happened on B's death it may or may not be possible to pay a small fee to find that out easily.

The possibilities seem to be:

If B solely owned the property on death, and made a will - house goes to beneficiary/ies of will (probably A), therefore A's children inherit on A's death intestate.

If B solely owned the property on death and did not make a will, and died leaving spouse and children - intestacy rules would apply. This link here (table one if spouse and children) shows how much would go to the spouse before children were entitled to anything.

www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/inheritance-tax-manual/ihtm12122

In this case B's children may have been entitled to a portion of the estate on B's death.

If B owned the property with A jointly on B's death, A would have inherited the house and it would then pass to A's children through the intestacy.

Well shes not dead yet so you have no idea what shes going to do with it when she inherits it. She could well make provision for you. Plenty of peiple would do the decent thing.

My father married my stepmother who brought no assets of any sort to the marriage. Her two DC and me and my sibling were young adults at the time. DF died, everything went to SM. When she dies, everything is going to her DC. There’s nothing we can do about it, although she admits that she and DF agreed that their estate would ultimately be shared equally between their four DC. It is what it is
Do you know why your DF didn’t write his wishes in a Will?

I think we all know what the “right thing” would be. I would also hazard a guess that this isn’t happening otherwise I doubt OP would have posted.

TV

If B died intestate then their property assets were distributed according to intestacy law. Wife A AND B's children acquired an interest.

If B had a will then its contents may have already decided the fate of the house after A's death. Also, B may have made some forward provision for B's children after A's death.

A has died intestate so any assets owned by A will be distributed according to intestacy law. A's children will have an interest. But bear in mind, that B may have left the house to A "for their lifetime" and thereafter, to B's children.

First job is to find if B left a will when they died, or not; and what was in it.