The Civil Code of Quebec contains provisions governing the distribution of the property of a person who dies without a will, first favoring the deceased's closest relatives and then progressively including more distant relatives. These provisions are known as legal devolution.
The law provides for the case of a person who dies without leaving a married or civil union spouse or de facto spouse in a parental union, or a descendant (child), or privileged ascendants, or even privileged collaterals.
In this case, we need to find out whether the deceased left any ordinary ascendants (grandparents) or ordinary collaterals (grandnephews, etc.).
In this case, each group will receive half of the inheritance.
If, on the other hand, there are no survivors in one of the groups, the other group will receive the entire inheritance.
Distribution within the group of ordinary ascendants is based on the number of heir(s) in that group.
Distribution within the group of collateral heirs is made by stock and not by head, depending on the situation.
However, if the deceased had no surviving ordinary collaterals, or even surviving ordinary ascendants, it is the surviving descendants of this ordinary ascendant (the uncles/aunts of the deceased) who will take their place in their respective line and, in the absence of a representative in this group, their own descendants (the cousins of the deceased) and so on up to the 8th degree of kinship in each of the maternal and paternal lines.
If no survivor is found in a descending or ascending line within the 8th degree limit, the share of that line will be given to the ascendants or ordinary collaterals of the other line.
These tables help you determine the heirs in the event of death without a will
