When your partner dies and you weren't married

This is general information, not legal advice. It covers England and Wales – Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules. For your own situation, talk to a solicitor.

What needs doing first?

The doctor confirms the death, and a medical examiner checks the cause. Once the medical examiner's office confirms you can, register the death within 5 days, weekends and bank holidays included. If you need more time, tell the register office straight away. The Tell Us Once service lets you report the death to most government organisations in one go (GOV.UK).

Do you inherit from your partner?

Not without a will. Under the rules of intestacy, an unmarried partner inherits nothing, however long you lived together. The estate goes to children, then parents, then brothers and sisters (Administration of Estates Act 1925, section 46). How a will changes that is in Making a will when you're not married.

Two things pass outside the will. A home you owned as joint tenants automatically goes to the other owner, while a share held as tenants in common follows the will (HM Land Registry). And Citizens Advice notes that money in a joint bank account goes to the surviving account holder.

Can you stay in a home your partner owned?

Not automatically. If the home was in your partner's name alone, or you owned it as tenants in common, your partner's share goes to whoever inherits it. You can apply to the court under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 if you lived together in the same household, as if you were married or civil partners, for the whole of the two years before the death – or if your partner was maintaining you. The court can award what is reasonable for your maintenance (section 1).

The application has to be made within six months of the date representation is first taken out. After that, you need the court's permission (section 4). It is a court case, so get advice early.

What if you rent?

Someone who lived with the tenant as if they were a married couple or civil partners counts as the tenant's spouse when an assured periodic tenancy passes on (Housing Act 1988, section 17), and when a council tenancy in England does (Housing Act 1985, section 86A). It has to be your only or principal home, and it doesn't apply if the tenant had already taken over the tenancy from someone else. More in Moving into your partner's home.

Can you get Bereavement Support Payment?

Possibly. GOV.UK says you can get it if you were living with your partner as if you were married, as long as one of these applied when your partner died: you were getting Child Benefit for a child who lived with you, you were entitled to it, or you were pregnant. You must also have been under State Pension age, and your partner must have paid enough National Insurance contributions or died because of an accident at work or a disease caused by work. It is not means-tested.

• The most you can get is a one-off payment of £3,500 and 18 monthly payments of £350.
• Claim within 3 months of the death to get the one-off payment and all 18 monthly payments.
• Between 3 and 12 months, you get the one-off payment but only some of the monthly payments. After 21 months, you usually can't get any payments.

Is there Inheritance Tax to pay?

Possibly. Spouses and civil partners can leave everything to each other free of Inheritance Tax. Unmarried partners can't. Tax is normally 40 per cent on the part of the estate above the £325,000 threshold (HMRC).

What can you prepare together?

• Write a will each, if you want to inherit from each other. See Making a will when you're not married.
• Check how you own your home – as joint tenants or tenants in common. See Buying a home together without being married.
• Write down who owns what in a cohabitation agreement.
• Tell each other where the wills, the tenancy agreement, the deeds and the insurance policies are. Words like joint tenants are explained in the glossary.