If someone dies without a valid will in Tasmania, 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 Tasmania 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 Tasmania 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 statutory legacy — and only the balance is shared.
In Tasmania that sum is $350,000 plus CPI, set by section 7 of the Intestacy Act 2010. It is a base figure of $350,000 adjusted for inflation from the December 2009 quarter, so the real figure today is considerably higher.
In Tasmania the statutory legacy applies only where you leave a spouse AND children from another relationship.
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 Tasmania, the partner does take everything where all the children are also theirs.
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 $350,000 plus CPI 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 the Intestacy Act 2010 (Tas), 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.
Tasmania charges on a sliding scale based on the value of the estate, with the fee rising as the estate gets larger. Fees are generally reviewed on 1 July each year.
Tasmania 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 TAS 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 Tasmania 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 Tasmania, such a claim must be brought within 3 months of the grant of probate, under section 11 of the Testator's Family Maintenance Act 1912 (Tas).
Three months is by far the shortest window in Australia — a quarter of the time a New South Wales family would have. Section 11 states the Court has no jurisdiction to hear an application unless it is brought not later than three months after the grant of probate. The Court can extend that time, but nobody should count on it.
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 the Intestacy Act 2010 (Tas) does not recognise.
Before you make one, check the witnessing requirements in TAS — because a will that fails on execution puts your family straight back into this page.
Often, yes — in Tasmania a surviving partner generally takes the whole estate where all the children are also that partner's children. Children from an earlier relationship change the result, and that is when the statutory legacy comes into play.
The first $350,000 plus CPI under section 7 of the Intestacy Act 2010, plus personal effects, before the balance is divided. That is a base figure of $350,000 adjusted for inflation from the December 2009 quarter, so the real figure today is considerably higher. It only applies only where you leave a spouse AND children from another relationship.
3 months from the grant of probate, under section 11 of the Testator's Family Maintenance Act 1912 (Tas). The court can extend that period at its discretion, but an extension is far harder to obtain once the estate has been distributed.
Tasmania uses a tiered scale, so the fee rises with the value of the estate and smaller estates fall into a low or nil band. Tasmania charges on a sliding scale based on the value of the estate, with the fee rising as the estate gets larger. Fees are generally reviewed on 1 July each year.
Then the estate is generally dealt with as an intestacy, unless the Supreme Court of Tasmania exercises its dispensing power under section 10 of the Wills Act 2008 (Tas) to admit the document anyway. That is a court application with costs and delay, not a formality.
Tasmania stands out for one reason above all: it has the shortest deadline in Australia to contest a will, at three months from the grant of probate. New South Wales allows twelve. That single difference can decide whether a left out family member has any remedy at all. Tasmania is also strict on witnesses — a gift to someone who witnessed your will is void here, as in New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory, though section 13 does let the Court be asked to validate it. And like most of the country outside New South Wales and Victoria, Tasmania requires everyone to be physically present at the signing.
Not freely. The administrator is legally obliged to distribute according to the Intestacy Act 2010 (Tas). Departing from it generally requires formal steps and can carry tax consequences. The general position across Australia is covered in the national guide.