If someone dies without a valid will in Western Australia, 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 Western Australia 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 Western Australia 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 spouse's entitlement — and only the balance is shared.
In Western Australia that sum is $472,000, set by section 14. It is set by ministerial order rather than automatic indexation.
In Western Australia the spouse's entitlement applies where you leave a spouse 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 Western Australia, 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 $472,000 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 the Administration Act 1903 (WA), 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.
Western Australia charges a flat filing fee of $408.00 for an application for a grant of probate or administration, effective from 1 July 2025, regardless of the size of the estate. That is one of the lowest probate filing fees in the country — roughly a quarter of what the Northern Territory charges.
Western Australia charges a flat filing fee, which cuts both ways. A large estate pays the same as a small one — good news for substantial estates, and notably better than the tiered states where the fee climbs with value. But a small WA estate pays that same fee in full, with no nil threshold to fall under. In New South Wales an estate below $100,000 pays no filing fee at all; in Victoria the threshold is $250,000; in the ACT, $50,000. A modest WA estate has no such relief.
Figures are as at fees effective 1 July 2025, and most jurisdictions re-index on 1 July, so check the current WA 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 Western Australia 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 Western Australia, such a claim must be brought within 6 months of the grant of probate, under section 7 of the Family Provision Act 1972 (WA).
Western Australia's six month window runs from the grant of probate or administration rather than from the date of death.
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 Administration Act 1903 (WA) does not recognise.
Before you make one, check the witnessing requirements in WA — because a will that fails on execution puts your family straight back into this page.
No. In Western Australia, 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 $472,000 under section 14, plus personal effects, before the balance is divided. That is set by ministerial order rather than automatic indexation. It only applies where you leave a spouse and children, and the estate is worth more than this figure.
6 months from the grant of probate, under section 7 of the Family Provision Act 1972 (WA). The court can extend that period at its discretion, but an extension is far harder to obtain once the estate has been distributed.
Western Australia charges a flat filing fee regardless of the size of the estate, so a small estate gets no discount and a large one no penalty. Western Australia charges a flat filing fee of $408.00 for an application for a grant of probate or administration, effective from 1 July 2025, regardless of the size of the estate. That is one of the lowest probate filing fees in the country — roughly a quarter of what the Northern Territory charges.
Then the estate is generally dealt with as an intestacy, unless the Supreme Court of Western Australia exercises its dispensing power under section 32 of the Wills Act 1970 (WA) to admit the document anyway. That is a court application with costs and delay, not a formality.
Western Australia runs its own race on succession law, and in two respects it is more forgiving than the eastern states. A gift to someone who witnessed your will still stands here, where in New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory it would be void. Its flat probate fee of $408 is a quarter of the Northern Territory's $1,585, and there is no sliding scale to worry about. But WA has not modernised signing: unlike New South Wales and Victoria, a will still has to be witnessed with everyone physically present.
Not freely. The administrator is legally obliged to distribute according to the Administration Act 1903 (WA). Departing from it generally requires formal steps and can carry tax consequences. The general position across Australia is covered in the national guide.