What Happens If You Die Without a Will?
If you die without a valid will in Victoria, a statute decides who receives what — and the answer surprises most people. Three questions will show you what the law would do with your estate.
The order the law applies where there is no partner
- 1.Children (or their descendants)
- 2.Parents
- 3.Brothers and sisters (or their children)
- 4.Grandparents
- 5.Aunts and uncles (or their children)
- 6.The State of Victoria
The first group with a surviving member takes the whole estate. Nothing passes to a later group while an earlier one survives.
The following rule sets have not yet been confirmed against their official source by a member of the Ebra Partners team, so the numbers shown here may be out of date or wrong:
- Administration and Probate Act 1958 (Vic), Part IA — authorised version 130 — read 18 September 2026, not yet signed off
- Administration and Probate Act 1958 (Vic) s 70M and s 70N — read 18 September 2026, not yet signed off
This tool provides general information only. It is not legal or migration advice and does not account for your full circumstances — your result may change once the details of your situation are taken into account. Speak with our team before relying on this result. Nothing you enter here is sent to us or stored — the calculation runs entirely in your browser.
Sources: Administration and Probate Act 1958 (Vic), Part IA — authorised version 130; Administration and Probate Act 1958 (Vic) s 70M and s 70N.
This is what the law decides for you. A will lets you decide instead.
Intestacy is a default, not a plan. It cannot account for a blended family, a partner you want provided for differently, a child who needs more help than the others, or anyone outside the statutory list. A straightforward will is not expensive, and it takes the guesswork away from the people you leave behind.
How Victorian intestacy actually works
Dying without a valid will is called dying intestate. Part IA of the Administration and Probate Act 1958 (Vic) then sets out exactly who receives your estate. These rules were substantially rewritten in 2017 and apply to deaths on or after 1 November that year.
The rules are rigid by design. They cannot take account of what you would have wanted, what you promised someone, or what any part of your family needs. They also do not care how long you were with a partner, whether you were estranged from a sibling, or whether a child has been supporting you for years.
The assumption that catches most families out
Where every child is also the child of the surviving partner, the partner takes the entire estate and the children receive nothing directly. The reasoning is that the estate will reach the children eventually through the partner. That holds right up until the partner remarries, makes a new will, or their own circumstances change — at which point the children can end up with nothing.
Blended families are where it goes wrong most often
If you leave a child who is not your partner's child, the estate splits: your partner receives your personal effects, a statutory legacy, and half of what is left, with your children sharing the other half. Whether your children receive anything at all turns on whether the estate exceeds the statutory legacy — and that is a figure re-indexed every year.
A family home held as joint tenants usually passes to the surviving owner outside the estate altogether, which can leave the estate too small for the children to receive anything even where the family is asset-rich. This is the scenario worth a conversation.
If there is already an estate to administer
Where someone has died without a will, the person administering the estate applies for Letters of Administration rather than Probate. Our probate cost and timeline estimator covers the Court fees and how long each stage takes — the fees are the same either way.
Frequently asked questions
Who inherits if you die without a will in Victoria?
It depends on who survives you. If you leave a partner and no children, or a partner and children who are all also that partner's children, your partner takes the whole estate. If you leave a partner and a child who is not that partner's child, the estate is split — your partner takes your personal effects, a statutory legacy and half the remainder, and your children share the other half. With no partner, the Act works down a fixed order: children, then parents, then siblings, then grandparents, then aunts and uncles.
What is the statutory legacy?
It is a fixed dollar amount a surviving partner receives before the rest of an estate is divided, and it only applies where the deceased left a child who is not that partner's child. The Act set a base figure and requires it to be re-indexed each financial year, with the current amount published in the Government Gazette on or before 1 July.
Do my children automatically inherit if I don't have a will?
Not necessarily. If all your children are also the children of your surviving partner, your partner receives the entire estate and your children receive nothing directly. The law assumes it will reach them through your partner's estate eventually — an assumption that fails if your partner remarries or leaves their estate elsewhere.
What happens if I have no surviving relatives at all?
If no one in any category the Act recognises survives you, your estate passes to the State of Victoria. There are discretionary provisions under which the Crown may make payments to others, but nothing is guaranteed.
Can you have more than one partner under Victorian intestacy law?
Yes. Victorian law recognises that a person may leave more than one partner, such as a spouse and a separate domestic partner. Where that happens the estate is shared between them, either under a distribution agreement they reach or under a distribution order made by the Court. There is no formula, which is why this situation needs advice.