What happens to joint accounts and our home when my partner dies?

Money held jointly passes automatically to the surviving owner. Citizens Advice explains that all the money in a joint account goes to the surviving partner without probate, although the bank will ask to see a death certificate.

In practice the bank changes the account into your sole name. You can usually keep using it throughout, so wages and bills can carry on as normal. Ask for statements going back a few months. They show which direct debits came out and help you find pensions and insurance your partner was paying for.

Savings accounts and investments held jointly work the same way. An ISA can only ever be in one name, so it stays in your partner's estate, though you can inherit extra ISA allowance on top of your own.

These form part of their estate. The bank freezes the account once it knows about the death, and only the executor or administrator can deal with it.

Every bank sets its own limit for releasing money without probate. If the balance is under that limit, the bank may pay it to the executor once it has a death certificate and a signed form. Above it, the bank will want a grant of probate or letters of administration. Ask each bank what it needs rather than assuming.

Many banks will still pay the funeral bill, and sometimes Inheritance Tax, straight from a frozen account. This saves you paying from your own money and waiting to be repaid.

It depends how you owned it. The title register at HM Land Registry shows which applies, and you can search for it online.

• Joint tenants: your partner's share passes to you automatically, under the right of survivorship. It doesn't go through the will and doesn't need probate. To update the register, send form DJP to HM Land Registry with an official copy of the death certificate.
• Tenants in common: you each owned a distinct share. Your share stays yours, and theirs passes under their will or the intestacy rules. The executor deals with it as part of the estate, and probate is usually needed.

If their share is left to you, the executor transfers it once probate is granted. If it is left to someone else, such as children from an earlier relationship, you will own the home together with them. Some wills leave a life interest, which lets you live there for life while the share passes to others later. This is worth taking legal advice on.

Tell the lender as soon as you can. A joint mortgage becomes your responsibility for the full amount, in the same way as other joint debts. If the mortgage was in your partner's sole name, it is a debt of the estate, and the lender will want to know how it will be repaid.

Before worrying about payments, check whether there is a life insurance or mortgage protection policy that pays off the loan when one of you dies. Bank statements and the mortgage paperwork usually show it.

If money is tight while that is sorted out, ask the lender what help it offers. Lenders deal with bereavement regularly and can often agree lower payments for a period. Keep paying what you can, because the mortgage is a priority bill.

Yes. A joint loan, joint credit agreement or joint overdraft can be recovered from you in full after your partner dies. Debts in their sole name are different: they are paid from the estate, and if it runs out, creditors generally cannot recover the rest from family members.

Contact each joint lender, explain what has happened and ask whether any insurance covered the debt. If you can't keep up with joint payments, free debt advice charities such as StepChange and Citizens Advice can help you deal with creditors.

Joint accounts and a home owned as joint tenants still pass to you automatically. Everything else is different. Under the intestacy rules in England and Wales, an unmarried partner inherits nothing, however long you lived together. If there is no will leaving you their share of the home, it passes to their relatives.

You may be able to ask the court for reasonable provision from the estate under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. The claim must normally be made within 6 months of the grant of probate or letters of administration, so speak to a solicitor early. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules.