Partners who are not married or civil partners
If you are not married or in a civil partnership you can of course still leave your property to your partner in your Will, but you will not have the same inheritance tax exemption that you would have if you were married or civil partners. However, the standard inheritance tax threshold (or nil rate band) will still apply.
It is particularly important to leave a Will if you want your partner to benefit from your estate, because without a Will they do not automatically inherit anything from you.
Your estate would be governed by the rules of intestacy, and relationships that have not been formalised by marriage or civil partnership are not recognised by the law for that purpose.
How can partners inherit?
The only ways in which your partner would be able to inherit would be:
Through your Will. This is by far the most sensible way of ensuring that your property passes in the way you wish. If the house you live in belongs to you but you want your partner to continue living in the house after you die, you could leave it to them outright or leave them a life interest in the property, to pass after their death to other people you have named.
If you co-own property as joint tenants. Your partner automatically becomes entitled to your share if you die.
If they need reasonable financial provision. If you have been living together for two years or more, then your partner may claim against your estate for reasonable financial provision, either because there was no Will and they would otherwise receive nothing, or because there was a Will but they were not mentioned, or because the provision made for them was inadequate.
The effect of different kinds of ownership
If you are planning to leave your property to your unmarried partner, it is important to consider the ownership of any property you may own.
Joint tenants – you jointly own the whole of your property. Therefore, there is no need to pass ownership through your Will, your partner automatically has ownership of the whole property. This means there is no inheritance tax to pay.
Tenants in common – this means that you each own a share of your property. You can pass your share to anyone in your Will, including your partner. If it passes to someone else, there could be complications about how to divide the property. Only your share of the property is subject to inheritance tax.
You own the property in full – the full property will need to be passed via your Will, and will be subject to inheritance tax in its entirety.
For more information on the different kinds of ownership, search for joint property in our articles.