One of the most common misconceptions we encounter is that Jersey’s intestacy rules will somehow reflect what people would have wanted. The reality is quite different. When you die without a valid will, you are described as dying intestate, and your estate is distributed according to Jersey law rather than your wishes. For many people, especially those in modern family arrangements, this can have serious consequences.
How Jersey divides your estate
Jersey law treats your assets in two distinct categories: movable and immovable property. This distinction matters because different succession rules apply to each.
Movable assets include money, shares, chattels and personal possessions. Immovable assets are land and property: freehold, flying freehold, and leases longer than nine years (known as contract leases). Understanding this split is crucial because the order of inheritance differs significantly between the two.
What happens to immovable property
If you are married or in a civil partnership with no children, your spouse or civil partner inherits your entire immovable estate. That’s straightforward.
With a spouse and children, things change. Your immovable property is divided equally between your spouse and your children. Your spouse may also have the right to lifetime enjoyment of the matrimonial home, provided you were living together at death and there’s no judicial separation in place.
If you have children but no surviving spouse or civil partner, they inherit your immovable estate equally between them. Where there is no surviving spouse or children, your immovable property devolves on your blood relatives in accordance with Jersey customary and statutory succession rules, which in practice often means siblings (or their descendants) may inherit before parents in the case of a single person with no children.
What happens to movable property
With a spouse but no children, your surviving spouse inherits all your movable assets outright.
If you have both a spouse and children, the distribution is more complex. Your spouse receives the household effects, the first £30,000 of your movable estate, and then one half of everything remaining. Your children share the other half equally between them.
Without a spouse, your children divide your movable estate equally. And if you have neither spouse nor children, your movable assets go to your closest living relatives under the same proximity rules.
The real problem: modern family structures aren’t covered
Here’s where the intestacy rules really fall short. Jersey law recognises marriage and civil partnership, but it provides no automatic protection for cohabiting couples, long-term partners, or blended families. If you’re living with someone, whether it’s a partner of 20 years or your adult stepchildren from a previous relationship, they have no legal claim on your estate under intestacy rules, regardless of how much you might have wanted them to inherit.
We have seen this create genuine hardship. A client lost her long-term partner and discovered that, despite 15 years together and shared finances, she had no entitlement to any part of his estate. His modest house and savings went to a distant relative instead. That could have been prevented with a will.
Why intestacy creates additional problems
Beyond the distribution not matching your wishes, dying intestate also triggers practical complications. The court appoints an administrator to deal with your estate, and that person may not be someone you’d have chosen. The process tends to be slower and often more expensive than managing a straightforward estate under a will.
Disputes also become more likely. Without clear written instructions from you, disagreements can emerge between family members about what you would have wanted, or even about the validity of claims.
Making a will gives you real control
A will does something intestacy simply cannot: it lets you decide exactly who inherits your property and in what proportions. More than that, it lets you:
- Protect unmarried partners and blended families by naming them as beneficiaries, something the law will not do for you
- Appoint guardians for your children if they’re minors
- Nominate executors or trustees you trust to administer your estate according to your wishes
- Make specific gifts of particular items or sums to people or charities you care about
- Avoid the delays, costs and potential friction that come with intestacy
We recommend making a will regardless of how modest you think your estate is. The issues are not really about size. They are about certainty and protecting the people who matter to you.