annointed3 said:
No, the kids name was not on the house. The house was in both my father and mother name. When my father died he did not have a will. By law, the kids that he had prior to marrying my mom were entilted to a certain percentage (I can't remember the exact figure) of his inheritance. No, the settlement wasn't cash. She went through a lawyer and paided them off with a cashier's check.
Virginia Intestate Succession Laws
If any part of a Virginia decedent's estate is not effectively disposed of by will, the intestate share will be distributed in the following order and manner:
1. Surviving spouse. A surviving spouse is generally first in line to get any assets from the intestate estate. However, the amount a surviving spouse is entitled to varies as follows:
* If none of decedent's children or their descendants are alive, or if all of the decedent's surviving children are also children of the surviving spouse, the surviving spouse is entitled to the entire intestate estate.
* If one or more of the decedent's surviving children are not also issue of the surviving spouse, the surviving spouse gets one-third of the intestate estate and the surviving children or their descendants get two-thirds.
2. Heirs other than surviving spouse. Any part of the intestate estate not passing to the surviving spouse as indicated above, or the entire intestate estate if there is no surviving spouse, passes in the following order to:
1. Decedent's children and their descendants
2. Decedent's father and mother or the survivor
3. Decedent's brothers and sisters and their descendants
4. If none of the above are available, than decedent's paternal kin (as a group) and maternal kin (as a group) equally split the estate and distribute it as follows:
1. First to the grandfather and grandmother or the survivor.
2. If there are none, then to the uncles and aunts, and their descendants.
3. If there are none, then to the great grandfathers or great grandfather, and great grandmothers or great grandmother.
4. If there are none, then to the brothers and sisters of the grandfathers and grandmothers, and their descendants.
5. And so on, in other cases, without end, passing to the nearest lineal ancestors, and the descendants of such ancestors.
6. If there are no paternal kin, the whole shall go to the maternal kind; and if there are no maternal kin, the whole shall go to the paternal kin. If there are neither maternal nor paternal kin, the whole shall go to the kin of the husband or wife, in the like course as if such husband or wife had died entitled to the estate.
3. Commonwealth of Virginia. If after all this there is no taker under any of the above provisions, the intestate estate passes to the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Virginia Intestate Succession Law Fun Facts
* Relatives of the half blood inherit only half so much as those of the whole blood.
* Relatives of the decedent conceived before his death but born thereafter and children resulting from assisted conception born after decedent's death who are determined to be relatives of the decedent inherit as if they had been born in the lifetime of the decedent.
* When a spouse willfully deserts or abandons the decedent and the desertion or abandonment continues until the decedent's death, the spouse who deserted is barred of all interest in the decedent's intestate estate. The same applies to a parent that deserts his or her minor or incapacitated child. The theory, quite appropriately, is that somebody who abandons his responsibilities to a person should not later get a windfall when that person dies.
* Virginia's intestate succession laws, as well as other related laws, can be found in Title 64.1 of the Code of Virginia.
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