When someone dies without a will, their family meets a system built on the assumption that somebody was named to take charge. Nobody was. The law fills the gap with a fixed order of priority, and it does not always match who was closest to the person.
What letters of administration actually are
Letters of administration are the legal authority to deal with someone’s money, property and possessions after they die, granted when there is no will. They do the same job as a grant of probate, but go to a relative chosen by law rather than an executor chosen by the person who died. The holder is called the administrator.
Banks, insurers and the Land Registry will generally not release or transfer anything without seeing that authority, which is why the application usually comes before anything else can be settled.
Who can apply, and in what order
The order of priority is set by law, not by who volunteers. It goes first to the husband, wife or civil partner — including where the couple were separated. If there is no surviving spouse, the right passes to children aged 18 or over, then to other close relatives (GOV.UK, 2026).
Being separated does not remove a spouse’s right to apply. Only divorce or dissolution does.
The two exclusions that catch families out
Two groups discover at the worst possible moment that they have no right to apply, because both had been treating themselves as next of kin. Neither exclusion can be argued around at the application stage, and neither depends on how close the relationship actually was.
An unmarried partner cannot apply. If you were not the husband, wife or civil partner of the person when they died, the right is not yours, whether you lived together for two years or forty. It passes instead to their children, or to whichever relative comes next in the order.
A step-child cannot apply as a child. The rule covers children aged 18 or over, including those legally adopted. A step-child who was never formally adopted is not included, even where they were, in every ordinary sense, the person’s family.
If the person entitled does not want to do it
Entitlement is not an obligation. Being first in line does not mean you must take on months of paperwork, and there are two formal ways out rather than one. Which you choose matters, because one keeps your position open and the other closes it permanently.
Form PA12 appoints somebody else to act on your behalf while your entitlement stays with you. It is the route to take when you want the work done by another person — often a sibling with more time, or a solicitor — without giving up your position.
Form PA16 gives up the right permanently, and it then passes to the next person in the order of priority. Use this when you do not want the role at all.
PA16 is not reversible. Once the right has moved on, it cannot be taken back if circumstances change later.
Before you apply
You need an estimate of what the estate is worth before you can apply, because the figure is part of the application and determines whether inheritance tax has to be reported first. That means totting up property, savings, investments and possessions, and setting debts and funeral costs against them.
It is worth being careful rather than quick here. Estate figures that do not match what HMRC holds are among the commonest reasons an application is stopped and sent back, which adds weeks.
Who inherits is a separate question
Two things get muddled constantly, and separating them saves arguments later. Being the administrator means you are the person who deals with the estate — collecting it, paying debts, distributing what remains. It does not decide who inherits, and the two are not always the same person.
Where there is no will, the rules of intestacy decide who inherits and in what shares. Those rules are detailed, and they depend on who survives the person and what the estate is worth. GOV.UK has a checker that works it out from your circumstances: check who can inherit when there is no will.
Rules and forms on this page were checked against GOV.UK on 4 September 2026.