If you are are not married or in a civil partnership, the death of your partner could result in considerable financial uncertainty if they die without making provision for you in their Will, or they do not have a valid Will.
People often wrongly assume that a ‘common law wife’ or a ‘common law husband’ has an automatic entitlement to inherit. However, the idea of the ‘common law spouse’ is legal myth. Quite simply, if your partner dies without making provision for you in their Will, then you have no automatic right to receive an inheritance from their estate.
And if they pass away without leaving a Will, then as their unmarried partner you have no entitlement to a share of their estate under the intestacy rules.
This can cause tremendous hardship for the surviving partner and it has led to calls for greater legal protection to be introduced by amending the intestacy rules.
So can I make an inheritance claim?
Yes. Unmarried partners are entitled to make an inheritance claim against their late partner’s estate if their Will or the intestacy rules fail to make adequate financial provision for them.
Claims by cohabitees can be made under the Inheritance Act where the claimant had been cohabiting for at least 2 years prior to their partner’s death, as husband and wife in the same household. Claims can also be made by a surviving partner if they were being financially supported by the deceased at the time of their death, irrespective of how long they had been living together.
It may be that the laws of intestacy state that your parents or siblings would inherit your estate, if your partner had no children. You could still make a claim on your partner’s estate.