Intestate Succession
The statutory order that decides who inherits Texas property when a decedent leaves no valid will covering it.
Intestate succession is the default distribution scheme in the Texas Estates Code. It applies when a person dies without a valid will, and it also applies to any property a will fails to dispose of. The statute, not the family, sets the shares.
Texas splits the analysis by property character. Separate property and community property follow different rules, and the community-property outcome turns on whether every child of the decedent is also a child of the surviving spouse. Where all children are shared, the surviving spouse takes the decedent's community half. Where the decedent leaves a child who is not the surviving spouse's child, that community half passes to the decedent's descendants instead.
Estate property generally vests in the heirs immediately at death, subject to the debts of the estate and to administration. Vesting is not the same as clear authority to sign a deed. A buyer's title company will normally require probate, an affidavit of heirship, or a judicial determination of heirship before it insures a sale out of an intestate estate.
On the exam
Worked example
A married Texas resident dies without a will and leaves one child from an earlier marriage. The decedent's half of the community estate passes to that child, not to the surviving spouse.
Exam trap
Tested in
Special Topics (Texas) (4% of the exam)
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- Community Property
Property a married couple acquires during marriage, which Texas presumes belongs equally to both spouses.
- Separate Property
Property a spouse owns individually: owned before marriage, or received during marriage by gift, devise, or inheritance.
- Escheat
The government power by which property passes to the state when an owner dies with no will and no heirs.
- Deed
The written instrument that transfers title to real property from the grantor to the grantee.
- Chain of Title
The recorded history of ownership of a property, tracing each transfer from owner to owner over time.
Sources
This definition is Texas real estate exam-prep education, not legal, tax, or professional advice. Verify current rules against the official source before relying on them for a real transaction. Back to the full glossary.