These laws set out the 'Rights of Succession' or the order in which the spouse and descendants would inherit from the estate of someone who dies intestate (without leaving a valid Will).

Prior Rights of surviving spouse or civil partner

The law provides first for the surviving spouse or civil partner.  This is known as 'prior rights'.  The levels of prior rights are changed every 5-7 years, and were most recently set by 'The Prior Rights of Surviving Spouse (Scotland) Order 2005', which came into force on 1st June 2005.

According to this order, the prior rights of the surviving spouse or civil partner are:

1. Home - spouse/civil partner inherits up to the value of £300,000
2. Plenishings (furniture, white goods etc) - spouse/civil partner inherits up to the value of £24,000
3. Moveable assets (money in bank, shares) - if there are no surviving children, spouse/civil partner receives the first £75,000

If there is no surviving spouse or civil partner

The intestacy rules state the order in which relatives would inherit if the person who died intestate left no spouse or civil partner:

• The next in line to inherit would be the children of the deceased, or if they are not living, the children's descendants.
• If there are no surviving children or children's descendants, half the estate goes to the brothers and sisters (or their descendants) and half goes to the parents.
• Then to aunts and uncles (or their descendants).
• Then to grandparents.
• Then to great-aunts and great-uncles (or their descendants).

In this context, 'descendants' means children and grandchildren.