Scottish Rights of Succession
When an individual dies, the disbursement of their estate and the execution of their remaining affairs (such as funeral arrangements and guardianship of children) are carried out in the fashion outlined by their Will. This avoids conflict, and ensures that the deceased individual has the peace of mind that their affairs will be dealt with in the way that they intended.
Intestacy
However, a surprisingly large number of people do not leave a Will, either because they die unexpectedly or because they just don't get round to writing one. Furthermore, if the individual has not left sufficient information as to the whereabouts of the document, it is not uncommon for a Will to never be found, even if there was one. In these cases, estates are dealt with according to laws of intestacy.In the first instance, liabilities such as outstanding debts and taxes must be accounted for before any other assets can be disbursed. After this, however, a surviving spouse has what is known as 'prior rights'. If they were living with the deceased individual at the time of their death, the surviving spouse is entitled to the house in which they were dwelling. Furthermore, they have a legal right to furniture and other contents deemed to be 'furnishings', up to the value of £22,000. There are certain circumstances in which these rules differ slightly; for example, if the house is part of commercial premises such as a shop, then the prior rights are not to the house itself but to its value up to a total of £130,000. This is also the case if the value of the property exceeds £130,000. In either of these cases, the surviving spouse is entitled to the first £35,000 of the estate or, if the deceased left no children, to the first £58,000.
Legal rights
After these prior rights have been accounted for, the surviving spouse and children, if any, are entitled to a proportion of the deceased's moveable estate; that is, assets such as money or shares. If the deceased individual left children, they are entitled to a total of one third of the moveable estate if there is a surviving spouse, or one half if there is no such spouse. Conversely, if there are no children but a surviving spouse then the spouse is entitled to one half of the estate, or one third if children have been left. In cases in which more than one child inherits a proportion of the moveable estate, each has an equal claim.After both prior rights and the above 'legal rights' have been fulfilled, the remainder of the estate is passed down in a highly specific fashion, starting with the right of children to inherit the whole estate. After this there is a joint claim between parents and brothers and sisters, followed by brothers and sisters solely, followed by parents solely, followed by surviving spouse, followed by uncle or aunt on either parent's side, followed by grandparents on either parent's side, followed by great-aunts or great-uncles on either parent's side, followed by any other remaining ancestors. Finally, if none of these tiers can be fulfilled, the entire remainder of the estate will fall to the Crown.
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