The House Was in His Name and We Never Married

If your partner died without a will and the house was in his name only, the law leaves you in a hard place, and it is better to know what happens to you plainly than to be reassured falsely. Because you weren't married, you have no automatic right to inherit anything. There is no survivorship, because the house was in his sole name and not held jointly. There is no share for you under the intestacy rules, because those rules give nothing to an unmarried partner however long you lived together. And there is no statutory legacy, the protected cash sum a widow or widower would receive — that is for spouses and civil partners only.

What you do have is one route, and it is a claim, not an entitlement. Under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 you may be able to ask the court to make reasonable financial provision for you out of his estate, if you lived together as a couple for at least two years before he died, or if he was maintaining you. It is time-limited and it is not guaranteed. If you also put money into the house, a separate property claim may run alongside it.

So the honest summary is this: you are not next of kin in the eyes of the law, the house does not come to you by default, and your position depends on making a claim quickly rather than on any status you held by living together. The rest of this page sets out exactly what that means and what to do now.

The short answer: the law does not treat you as next of kin

The starting point is uncomfortable. When someone dies without a will, the intestacy rules decide who inherits, and those rules are a fixed list of relatives by marriage or blood: a spouse or civil partner first, then children, then parents, then siblings, and outward from there. A partner who was not married to the deceased and not in a civil partnership with them does not appear on that list at any point.

That is true no matter how long you were together, whether you owned a home as a couple in everyday terms, whether you have children together, or whether everyone in both families always regarded you as married in all but name. None of it creates a legal right to inherit. The estate passes down the statutory list, and you are not on it.

This same wall is what stops an unmarried partner benefiting from the inheritance tax advantages a spouse enjoys, which is a related but distinct problem covered in why unmarried partners get no inheritance tax exemption. The intestacy rules and the tax rules both draw the line at marriage or civil partnership.

Why there is no "common law marriage"

A great deal of the shock here comes from a belief that is simply not true: that living together for long enough makes you "common law" husband and wife, with the rights that go with it. There is no such status in the law of England and Wales. It does not exist at two years, at ten years, or at thirty. Length of relationship, shared children and a shared home change nothing about your standing under intestacy.

This myth is dangerous precisely because it is so widely believed. Couples who would have made wills, or married, or protected each other in some other way, do not do so because they assume the law already treats them as a unit. It does not, and the moment that becomes clear — the day after a death, when the house turns out to belong to his estate and not to you — is the worst possible moment to learn it. The wider financial fallout for a surviving cohabitee is set out in what a surviving unmarried partner can and cannot claim.

Where the house actually goes

Because the house was in his sole name, there is no co-ownership to fall back on. The whole of it forms part of his estate.

If he left a will, the house passes to whoever the will names. If he left no will, it passes under the intestacy rules to his closest relatives in the statutory order. In practice that usually means his children, if he had any, sharing the estate — including children from a previous relationship. If he had no children, it goes to his parents, and if they have died, to his brothers and sisters. You can therefore find that the home you shared now belongs, in law, to his children or his siblings, some of whom you may barely know, while you have no ownership of it at all.

This is the sole-name version of a problem that also arises when a couple's home is held in one partner's name despite both treating it as shared. The practical consequences, and the steps to take first, are drawn together in what happens to a partner who is not on the deeds when the owner dies.

The Inheritance Act 1975 claim — the one route you have

The law does provide a route for people the intestacy rules leave out, and for a surviving cohabitant it is the main one. Under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, certain people can ask the court to decide that an estate has failed to make reasonable financial provision for them, and to order provision out of it.

A surviving partner can usually bring a claim in one of two ways. The first is as a cohabitant: someone who, for at least two years immediately before the death, was living in the same household as the deceased and as if they were a married couple or civil partners. The second is as a dependant: someone who was being maintained, wholly or in part, by the deceased immediately before the death. Many surviving partners qualify under one or both.

What the court can award is "reasonable financial provision" for your maintenance — enough to meet your needs, judged against the size of the estate, your resources, your age and health, the length of the relationship, and the claims of others such as the deceased's children. It is not a fixed share and it is not automatic; the court weighs everything and decides. A strong claim by a long-term partner with real financial need is very different from a weak one, and taking legal advice early is what tells the two apart. The Act itself is on the statute book at legislation.gov.uk.

The six-month deadline and staying in the home meanwhile

Time is the single most important practical point on this page. A claim under the 1975 Act must normally be started within six months of the date on which the grant of representation is issued. That window is short, and once it closes you need the court's permission even to begin, which is not always given. If there is any prospect of a claim, the clock is a reason to get advice now rather than after the estate is settled.

Whether you can stay in the house while this is resolved depends on who now owns it and whether they will agree to your remaining. You have no automatic right to occupy a property you do not own, but a sale or eviction cannot sensibly go ahead while a genuine 1975 Act claim is live, and the court can be asked to preserve the position in the meantime. Do not move out, sign anything, or agree to a sale before you have taken advice, because each of those can weaken your hand. Free, confidential help is available from Citizens Advice, and the earlier you use it the more options you keep. Meanwhile the practical business of funeral costs and frozen accounts still has to be handled, and a bank will usually settle the funeral director's invoice from a frozen account even before any of the inheritance questions are resolved.

If you put money into the property

There is a second, quite separate route that does not depend on the 1975 Act at all, and it is easy to overlook. If you contributed financially to the house — to the deposit, to the purchase price, to mortgage payments, or to substantial improvements — you may already own a share of it in equity, even though your name is not on the title.

This is the law of trusts, not inheritance. The argument is that a constructive trust arose, or that there was a common intention that you should have a beneficial interest, and it is pursued under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 or the principle of proprietary estoppel. If it succeeds, that share is yours already and does not form part of what he left; it never entered the estate to be inherited by anyone else. This can run at the same time as a 1975 Act claim, and for a partner who paid into the home for years it is often the stronger of the two. It is technical and fact-heavy, so it is exactly the kind of thing to put in front of a solicitor early.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

The rules above are for England and Wales. If your partner lived in Scotland or Northern Ireland, the framework is different — in one respect, more helpful.

In Scotland, a surviving cohabitant has a statutory right to apply to the court for a payment from a partner's estate under section 29 of the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006, where the partner died without a will. It is a distinct scheme from the English 1975 Act, and it is strictly time-limited — the application must be made within six months of the death — so speed matters even more. It does not give a cohabitant the same standing as a spouse, but it is a genuine, direct route where the deceased died intestate.

Northern Ireland has its own legislation modelled on, but separate from, the England and Wales Act — the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) (Northern Ireland) Order 1979 — and its own intestacy and probate rules. Wherever the estate is, the common thread is the same: an unmarried partner is not an automatic heir, and any claim is time-limited, so take local advice quickly. Our guide to probate, the estate and inheritance tax points to where the devolved rules differ.

None of this is the position anyone wants to discover after a death. The way an unmarried couple normally protects the survivor is to make wills and to put life cover in place written in trust for the partner, so it pays them directly, quickly, and outside the estate the intestacy rules would otherwise control. If you are reading this to make sure it never happens to someone you love, you can get life insurance quotes and ask an FCA-authorised broker to arrange cover in trust for your partner. What it costs, and whether cover is offered, depend on underwriting.

Frequently asked questions

What happens to a house in his sole name if we were not married?

It passes under his will, or under the intestacy rules where there is none, and those rules give nothing to an unmarried partner. Ownership does not come to you automatically, and there is no statutory legacy, however long you lived together or contributed to the household. The house forms part of his estate and goes to his relatives in the statutory order.

Can a cohabiting partner make a claim?

Possibly, under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, if you lived together as a couple for at least two years before the death or were being maintained by him. Claims are normally brought within six months of the grant of representation. In Scotland a separate scheme under the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 applies instead.

Can I stay in the house while this is sorted out?

It depends on who now owns it and whether they agree. Get advice quickly, because delay weakens your position and the six-month window is short. If you contributed to the purchase price or the mortgage, a separate property law claim to a beneficial share may also be open to you, and it can run alongside an Inheritance Act claim.