A will is about more than a house

Many renters assume a will is for homeowners. But without a will, the law decides who inherits, in a fixed order that may not match your wishes. A partner you aren’t married to, stepchildren and close friends can miss out entirely.

Your family may also wait months for a court to appoint someone to sort things out, while bank accounts are frozen and the rent keeps falling due.

What a will covers when you rent

Your savings, your car, your belongings and the things that matter for other reasons: a ring, a collection, the family photographs. You can leave them to people or to a charity, in shares or as specific gifts.

A will also names who looks after your children if you can’t, and who deals with your affairs. That person is your executor. When you rent, your executor is also the person who gives notice on the lease, hands back the keys and settles the bond, so choose someone organised whom you trust.

Money that doesn’t follow your will

Some money, such as retirement savings and life cover, goes to whoever you nominated with the fund, not through your will. If you never made a nomination, or made one years ago, the fund may decide who receives it.

Check those nominations when you make your will, so the two say the same thing. It’s one of the most common gaps we see, and one of the easiest to fix.

When to update it

A will is not a one-off. Review it when your life changes: you marry or separate, have a child, buy a home, move overseas, or someone you named dies. In some places marriage or divorce cancels part or all of an existing will, so a will that was right five years ago can quietly stop working.

A short review every few years costs little and keeps the document doing what you meant it to do.

Ten days, a fixed fee

A simple will takes one meeting. We ask about your family, what you own and what you want to happen, then draft it in plain English.

You sign it with two witnesses, and we store the original safely. It usually takes about ten days from the first meeting, for a fixed fee agreed before we start.

If you also want someone to make decisions for you if you become unwell, we can prepare those documents at the same meeting.

This note is general information, not legal advice for your situation.