Careful will writing needed in case of rare double death

摘要

The death of a couple at the same time, for example in an accident, is thankfully very rare but can lead to complicated arguments over inheritance.From a legal perspective, it is important to know who died first, but it is not always straightforward to determine this.Where this is the case, the commorientes rule, as it is known, states that if two or more people die in circumstances where it is not possible to tell who died first, then it is taken that the elder died first. This then affects who will inherit property left in a will or according to the intestacy rules, and it can mean that assets do not necessarily pass in the way a person would have wished.