Who gets the estate if someone dies without a will and has no family in Ontario?

The estate goes to the Crown only if no relative of any qualifying degree can be found. When someone dies in Ontario without a will, the Succession Law Reform Act decides who inherits, and the search for heirs reaches well beyond close family before the government steps in.

With no spouse or children, it goes to the parents, then brothers and sisters, then nieces and nephews without representation, then next of kin of equal degree. Half-blood relatives inherit equally with whole-blood relatives of the same degree. If none of these people exist, the property becomes the Crown's under the Escheats Act, 2015, and the Public Guardian and Trustee may take possession of it.

Escheat is not always final. A person who proves a legal claim to the satisfaction of the Public Guardian and Trustee is entitled to receive the property, including a lawful heir located later. A person with a moral claim may be granted escheated property by government order, not by the Public Guardian and Trustee. An unmarried partner has no intestate share, though one who cohabited continuously for at least three years, or who has a relationship of some permanence and is a parent of a child, may make a dependant support claim.