- Through its legislation over a number of years, Parliament has provided a set of laws to decide how an estate is to be divided if a person dies in Scotland without leaving a will (i.e, intestacy)
- A surviving spouse is entitled to "prior rights". These are the rights to inherit:
- the home (where owned) up to a value of £130,000.
- the content of the owned home up to a value of £22,000.
- a payment of £35,000 if there are children (£58,000 if there are not).
NB: The above figures may change from time to time.
- After "prior rights" have been dealt with, a surviving spouse and children (including adopted children) have certain "legal rights" to a proportion of the "moveable estate".
- After prior and legal rights have been dealt with, the remainder of the estate (heritable and moveable) is given to surviving relatives in accordance with a prescribed order.
- Further information on other rights on intestacy and the rights of succession is available from:
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