In Western Australia, if you die without a Will, the law decides who will receive your estate.

Who gets what will depend on which surviving relatives you have when you die: a surviving spouse (or a de facto partner, or a spouse AND a de facto partner), children, parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins… The entitlements are set out in the Administration Act 1903 (WA).

If you have none of those relatives, then the whole of your estate property would pass to the Crown by way of escheat.

Many couples who own their home, own their home as “joint tenants”. When one joint tenant dies, the other takes ownership of the whole of the property by survivorship. This rule of survivorship in relation to real property, means many people are under the misapprehension that when they die, if they die without making a will, then after they die, their entire estate (everything they own, not just their jointly owned house) will go to their surviving spouse. This is not necessarily the case, particularly if you have a moderate or large estate. So, if you want your spouse to receive your entire estate upon your death (or decide who else will receive a share of your estate rather than letting the law dictate who gets what), then you ought to write a will.

If you want to appoint a guardian for your children, should you die before they reach adulthood, you need to write a will.

If you want to decide who will have custody of your body and make your funeral arrangements when you die, you need to write a will and name an executor.

It doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated to write a valid Will if your estate is simple and if what you want to do in your Will is simple. If you aren’t sure what to do, how to do it or what you are able to leave in your Will, or if you want to be sure your Will says what you want it to say, you’re welcome to contact us for assistance.

Construing Wills (determining what they mean) can be quite complex. What seemed obvious to a deceased person who wrote their Will, may end up ambiguous or unclear to an executor down the track. Many judges have commented in their decisions how problematic ‘self-drawn’ wills can be.

If you would like to discuss any of these or related issues, you’re welcome to contact us.