When a person dies without a will, should all his properties go to his next of kin?

[Jonaville]

There has been a common misconception about the issue of next of kin. When someone dies without writing his will, many believe that all of his properties automatically belong to his next of kin. But is this really the case? First of all, let us understand the concept 'next of kin' better.
The term 'next of kin' can refer to the nearest blood relative of a person who can be contacted or notified in case of emergencies. In the hospital setting, a next of kin is someone who can make medical decisions for a person who is unable to do so at that particular time. So can.a next kin inherit the deceased properties?
In my country, there is a regulation guiding the inheritance of properties. The law stated that it is only those entitled by law to inherit a deceased properties that can do so. And a next of kin is not among those persons. If the deceased is legally married, his inheritance will be released to his wife and their kids. Therefore a next of kin can only inherit the properties if he/she is a direct family of the deceased. If he isn't, the inheritance can't go to him.
I hope this is educative? Let me see your points or opinions.

 

[eenya00]

I personally was in that school of thought, that when someone pass on (Dies), the next of kin stated on the bank documents or other relevant documents gets to keep the properties or the owner belongings, but that in entirety is not true, a next of kin is someone that is being called upon at first if any thing should happen to you. And for me I think there should be an alternative form that clearly states who should inherit or claim your belongings in case of unforseen eventuality.

 

[Josemendez]

Well , am quite confused reading this , considering that we are from the same country.
To the best of my knowledge , the next of kin is entitled to take over the property with which he was used as next of kin ,while the wife or children inherit any other things without a next of kin to. This is because ,anyone can claim to be the man's son or daughter ,and thus the person that the bank or property agents know is the next of kin.

Outside this , presently , people normally use their children, wife or trusted relative to make their next of kin. This help to solve this issue of having a next of kin that may not be worthy of inheriting the property of the deceased.

I have seen scenario where a wife has been denied access to late husband's fund because she was not the next of kin .

 

[cmoneyspinner]

How do you legally define “next of kin”? In the state of Texas USA, if a person dies without a will, I would say the property goes to the next of kin. But there is an order to how it is divided. Usually, if there is a spouse and kids, the surviving spouse gets one-third and the remaining two-thirds is equally divided among the children. If the spouse is dead, the property is divided equally among the children. After that, the division starts getting complicated because it all depends on the scenario. Is there a surviving spouse but no kids? Did the deceased leave behind a spouse and living parents? Etc. Etc. Whoever is legally defined as "next of kin" will probably get the property.

 

[Aniwhyte]

Of course all his properties and belongings should go to his next of kin, in my own personal opinion I believe it should be willed to his wife and kid's as it won't be in anyway easy for them to survive without their husband/father. But in my country this always causes a lot of problems as the deceased brothers would be dragging the properties and wished to share it among themselves therefore living the deceased wife and kids with absolutely nothing. And even going to the extend of chasing them out of their late brother's house. This is really so painful and pathetic.

 

[Donkiz]

Normally a next of kin is supposed to be someone to be contacted in case of emergency.

In my country if someone dies without will, the issue of next of kin don't normally come up, rather what is obtainable is that two or more members of the immediate family (usually spouse with child(ren), if the person is not married or doesn't have a child, then brother/sister/mother/father) will go to the nearest high court with some documents to claim the deceased person estate(property).

Their claim will be published in the court's official gazette for three months, if there's no counter claim, the family members will then be made administrators to the deceased person estate and they will be mandated by law to pay 10% of the total worth of the deceased person assets.

After paying the 10%, they will be issued what we call "letter of administration" which they will use to claim the deceased person property.

 

[Olajidey]

If you are a wealthy man or woman don't wait till you start making your wills, an issue like this do breaks family as the family will feel entitled to the will of the brother or the sister when the so call person av kids and wife, I believe the will should be pass across to this wife and the children the person left behind. but in a situation whereby the person did not leave a will before he or she left this kind of issue will be somehow hard to settle, maybe there is a provision for that in law I don't know.

 

[Sammyesx]

It is generally advisable for someone that has something to pass on to write a will in order to make their intentions clear for the distribution of their properties after their demise, in the case of a person not having a will before they pass on. then the best thing to do will be to give the properties to the next of kin, because for the fact that the deceised decided to have such person as the next of kin, then he surely would have given his property to the person.