If someone dies without a valid will in the Australian Capital Territory, a fixed statutory formula decides who inherits.
Australia does not have one set of intestacy rules — it has eight, and they produce genuinely different outcomes for identical families. This page covers what the Australian Capital Territory does. For the parts that are the same everywhere — why stepchildren miss out, how de facto status is proven, what happens with no living relatives — see what happens if you die without a will in Australia.
Where a the Australian Capital Territory estate has to be divided between a surviving partner and children, the partner does not simply take half. They first receive a fixed sum — the partner's entitlement — and only the balance is shared.
In the Australian Capital Territory that sum is $200,000, set by Schedule 6. It is a flat figure with no indexation, and one of the lowest in the country.
In the Australian Capital Territory the partner's entitlement applies whenever you leave a partner and children, and the estate is worth more than this figure.
That condition matters more than the dollar amount, and it is where the states diverge most sharply. The trigger is not a variation on a theme — it is a different rule:
This is why "my spouse will get everything" is true in some states and false in others, for the same family. In the Australian Capital Territory, the estate is shared once there are children, so the partner does not take everything.
Because the legacy is a fixed sum rather than a percentage, its real effect depends entirely on the size of the estate relative to that figure. On a $200,000 threshold, an estate below it passes substantially or wholly to the partner. An estate well above it is meaningfully divided.
For most Australian families the largest asset is the home, and this is where it bites: if the children's statutory share cannot be paid out of cash, the house may have to be sold to fund it — sometimes the house the surviving partner is living in. A will avoids that entirely, because you decide.
Under Schedule 6 of the Administration and Probate Act 1929 (ACT), the estate passes to the first category with a living member:
The exact fractions are technical and depend on the family's shape. The national intestacy guide explains the traps that catch every state — stepchildren, separated spouses, competing partners, proving a de facto relationship.
The ACT charges on a sliding scale based on the value of the estate. Estates under $50,000 pay no filing fee, rising to several thousand dollars for estates over $1 million. The ACT also has no separate simplified process for small estates, so even a modest estate goes through the standard application.
the Australian Capital Territory uses a tiered scale, so the filing fee rises with the value of the estate. Smaller estates fall into a low or nil band, which is a genuine advantage over the flat-fee jurisdictions — Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory charge the same fee regardless of size, so a small estate there pays the full amount. The trade-off is at the other end: a large estate in a tiered jurisdiction can pay many thousands of dollars where a flat-fee state would charge a few hundred.
An important point about a nil band: it waives the fee, not the requirement. The family still has to apply for a grant, still has to prepare the paperwork, and still waits. Free is not the same as unnecessary.
Figures are as at FY2026-27, and most jurisdictions re-index on 1 July, so check the current ACT schedule before relying on one. These are court fees only — they exclude solicitor costs, and they exclude trustee company commissions, which are charged as a percentage of the estate and dwarf the filing fee on any substantial intestacy.
There is a second cost that never appears on a fee schedule: with no will there is no executor. A relative must apply to the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory for letters of administration, which is slower than a grant of probate and usually needs the consent of others with an equal or better right to apply. Until that grant issues, banks and land registries will release nothing. The mortgage, meanwhile, keeps falling due.
Intestacy produces exactly the conditions that lead to a family provision claim: someone the statutory formula ignores entirely, such as a stepchild or a long-term partner whose relationship is disputed, and no document recording what the deceased actually wanted.
In the Australian Capital Territory, such a claim must be brought within 6 months of the grant of administration, under section 9 of the Family Provision Act 1969 (ACT).
Section 9(1) requires an application within 6 months after the date administration was granted. Importantly, section 9(4) blocks any extension application once the estate has been lawfully and fully distributed — so once the money is out the door, the door is shut.
Note carefully when the clock starts, because it is not the same across Australia and it is the detail that catches administrators out. New South Wales and Queensland run the period from the date of death. The other six jurisdictions run it from the grant of probate or administration. That distinction is worth months: an intestate estate can take a long time to reach a grant, and in a grant-based jurisdiction none of that delay eats into the claim period. In a death-based jurisdiction, it all does.
For an administrator this is the single most dangerous date in the process. Distribute the estate before the window closes and you may be personally exposed if a claim succeeds afterwards.
Everything above is a default that applies because nobody left instructions. A valid will overrides the statutory formula, names an executor so no one has to apply for administration, and lets you provide for the people Schedule 6 of the Administration and Probate Act 1929 (ACT) does not recognise.
Before you make one, check the witnessing requirements in ACT — because a will that fails on execution puts your family straight back into this page.
No. In the Australian Capital Territory, where there is both a partner and children, the estate is generally shared rather than passing wholly to the partner. This surprises most people, and it is the opposite of the position in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.
The first $200,000 under Schedule 6, plus personal effects, before the balance is divided. That is a flat figure with no indexation, and one of the lowest in the country. It only applies whenever you leave a partner and children, and the estate is worth more than this figure.
6 months from the grant of administration, under section 9 of the Family Provision Act 1969 (ACT). The court can extend that period at its discretion, but an extension is far harder to obtain once the estate has been distributed.
the Australian Capital Territory uses a tiered scale, so the fee rises with the value of the estate and smaller estates fall into a low or nil band. The ACT charges on a sliding scale based on the value of the estate. Estates under $50,000 pay no filing fee, rising to several thousand dollars for estates over $1 million. The ACT also has no separate simplified process for small estates, so even a modest estate goes through the standard application.
Then the estate is generally dealt with as an intestacy, unless the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory exercises its dispensing power under section 11A of the Wills Act 1968 (ACT) to admit the document anyway. That is a court application with costs and delay, not a formality.
The ACT is unusual in two ways. Its partner's entitlement of $200,000 is a flat figure that is never indexed, so unlike New South Wales, which re-indexes quarterly to $611,387.84, the ACT figure quietly erodes every year. And the ACT is the one jurisdiction where the remote witnessing position actually reversed: it was lawful under the COVID-19 Emergency Response Act 2020 but expired on 31 December 2022, so a will signed by video in 2021 may stand while the identical signing today would not. Like Victoria and South Australia, the ACT has abolished the rule voiding a gift to a witness.
Not freely. The administrator is legally obliged to distribute according to Schedule 6 of the Administration and Probate Act 1929 (ACT). Departing from it generally requires formal steps and can carry tax consequences. The general position across Australia is covered in the national guide.