23 No Spouse But Intestate Leaving Descendants Or Relatives

In This Volume

23 (1) This section applies if a person dies without a will and without leaving a surviving spouse.

(2) Subject to subsection (3) and section 24, if a person dies without leaving a surviving spouse, the intestate estate must be distributed

(a) to the intestate’s descendants,
(b) if there is no surviving descendant, to the intestate’s parents in equal shares or to the intestate’s surviving parent,
(c) if there is no surviving descendant or parent, to the descendants of the intestate’s parents or either parent,
(d)
if there is no surviving descendant, parent or descendant of a parent, but the intestate is survived by one or more grandparents or descendants of grandparents,
- (i) an equal part to the surviving parents or parent of each of the intestate’s parents, in equal shares of the part, but if a parent of the intestate has no surviving parents, that part to the descendants of those deceased grandparents, and
- (ii)
  for the purpose of subparagraph (i), a part is determined by dividing the estate by the number of parents of the intestate
  - (A) who have a surviving parent, or
  - (B) who do not have a surviving parent but whose deceased parents have a surviving descendant,
(e)
if there is no surviving descendant, parent, descendant of a parent, grandparent or descendant of a grandparent, but the intestate is survived by one or more great-grandparents or descendants of great-grandparents,
- (i) an equal part to the surviving grandparents or grandparent of each of the intestate’s parents, in equal shares of the part, but if a grandparent of the intestate has no surviving parents, that part to the descendants of those deceased great-grandparents, and
- (ii)
  for the purpose of subparagraph (i), a part is determined by dividing the estate by the number of parents of the intestate
  - (A) who have a surviving grandparent, or
  - (B) who do not have a surviving grandparent but whose deceased grandparents have a surviving descendant, or
(f) if there is no person who is entitled under paragraphs (a) to (e), the whole intestate estate passes to the government and is subject to the Escheat Act.

(3) For the purposes of this section, persons of the 5th or greater degree of relationship to the intestate are conclusively deemed to have predeceased the intestate, and any part of the intestate estate to which those persons would otherwise be entitled must be distributed to other descendants entitled to the estate.
(4) Subsection (3) does not affect

(a) the right of an intestate’s descendants to inherit the intestate estate even though they are of a greater degree of relationship than the limit imposed by that subsection, or
(b) the right of a person to apply under the Escheat Act on the basis of a legal or moral claim against the former owner of an estate that has escheated to the government as property to which no person is entitled to succeed as the owner.

(5) For the purpose of subsection (3),

(a) degrees of relationship are to be computed by counting upward from the intestate to the nearest common ancestor of the intestate and the intestate’s relative, and then downward to the relative, and
(b) relatives of the half kinship inherit equally with those of the whole kinship in the same degree.

2009-13-23, effective March 31, 2014 (B.C. Reg. 148/2013); 2011-6-12; 2011-25-468, effective June 18, 2012 (B.C. Reg. 131/2012); 2014-9-53; 2023-10-1179.