I read an article about how people’s money can end up going to the Crown when they die if there’s no-one to claim it. Can in-laws qualify to receive the money if they are the only living relations of the deceased?
In practice the Treasury Solicitor will sometimes pay some of the money to a person who seems morally entitled to a share. So anyone who can show a close relationship with the deceased, or better still, dependency, should see a solicitor with a view to staking a claim. However in-laws are not “relations” as far as the intestacy rules are concerned. A distant cousin will have a much better claim on the money, even if he or she never met the deceased.