Who Is The Next Of Kin

[Dazzybee]

Scenario, no children or spouse, parents split as a toddler, father left, mother put child into care when he was 14 and they have not had anything to do with each other since, their are 3 siblings.

[agchristie]

NOK confers no special status,it can be any nominated person?

[kvalidir]

Do you mean in the event of a death intestate? If so the parents then the siblings.

[boxtops]

Anyone can your next of kin, it doesn't have to be a blood relative these days. Why are you asking - it might help to know the situation.

[Maydup]

A sibling?

[Buenchico]

'Next of kin' has no legal definition. In some circumstances you're free to nominate anyone as 'next of kin', e.g.when going into hospital. (The person you nominate doesn't have to be related to you).

However if the question really means 'Who will inherit my estate upon my death?", then the rules if intestacy apply. See here:
http://www.tmjlegal.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Intestacy_Chart_web.png
(In the circumstances you describe, both parents inherit equally. The siblings get nothing). That, of course, assumes that you've not written a will, in which case you can choose who to leave your estate to. (It doesn't have to be to family members. None of my family are beneficiaries under my will).

[NB: I've assumed that you're in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. The intestacy rules are different in Scotland]

[Dazzybee]

If there is no will and a sibling and the estranged mother both want to be next of kin and administrate the estate. Who is nok in law?

[Buenchico]

The mother has the right to seek and obtain Letters of Administration (as, indeed, does the father) entitling her to distribute the estate but she MUST do so in accordance with the rules of intestacy. So she MUST give half of the estate to the father and take half herself. (She is, of course, then free to do whatever she likes with her half, including giving some of it to one or more of the siblings if she so chooses).

As far as the law is concerned, the siblings simply don't 'come into the equation' (either with regard to the right to seek Letters of Administration or with regard to any right to inherit) unless both parents are dead. The only way that they could try to get part of the estate would be by applying for a court order to vary the intestacy rules on the grounds that those rules failed to make 'reasonable provision' for them. For such an application to succeed, the court would need to be convinced that the applicant was in some way dependent upon the deceased sibling immediately prior to his/her death. e.g. if one of siblings suffered from some form of handicap and had been living with the deceased person in a dependent manner.

[Dazzybee]

it seems weird that the parents have nothing to do with the child, put him in care then because he never married or have kids be legally entitled to his estate