Probate explained: what an executor has to do, step by step

What probate is and when you need it

Probate is the legal right to deal with someone's property, money and possessions after they die. It is given by a document called a grant of representation, issued by the Probate Service. If there is a will and the executor it names applies, the grant is a grant of probate. If the will does not name an executor, or the named executor cannot apply, the grant is letters of administration with the will annexed. If there is no will, the grant is letters of administration and the person applying is called an administrator.

Whether a grant is needed depends on what the person owned and how they owned it. Each bank, building society and investment provider has its own rules on what it will release without one, so ask each of them. You may not need a grant if the person only had savings that the banks agree to release, or if everything was owned jointly and passes automatically to the surviving owner, such as a home owned as joint tenants. A house or flat in the person's sole name cannot be sold or transferred without a grant, because HM Land Registry needs to see it.

Do not put property on the market or make financial commitments based on the estate until the grant has been issued.

The first steps after a death

Find the original will and any codicils. The person may have kept the will at home, left it with a solicitor, or deposited it with the Probate Service at the Newcastle District Probate Registry. You will need the original to apply, because a photocopy will not be accepted. If there is more than one will, the most recent valid one applies, but do not destroy the earlier ones until the grant has been issued.

If several executors are named, agree who will apply. Up to four can be named on the application. An executor who does not want to act can keep the right to apply later, known as holding power reserved, or give up the role permanently using form PA15. Where there is no will, the closest relative is entitled to apply, starting with the husband, wife or civil partner, including one who was separated from the person, and then children aged 18 or over. An unmarried partner cannot apply.

Secure the estate: make sure any property is locked and insured, tell the person's bank and other organisations about the death, ask for standing orders and direct debits to be stopped, and ask any mortgage lender whether payments need to continue while you apply for the grant. Keep a record of everything you do and every payment you make, because you will need it for the estate accounts.

Valuing the estate and working out inheritance tax

Before you can apply for the grant, you need to value the estate as it was on the date of death, to find out whether inheritance tax is due. List the assets, such as property, bank and savings accounts, investments, pensions, vehicles, personal possessions, business interests and money owed to the person, and the debts, including mortgages, loans, credit cards, household bills and funeral costs. Write to each organisation for the value at the date of death. For items such as cars and jewellery, use a realistic selling price, and consider a professional valuation for property and valuable items.

Jointly owned assets have their own rules. A property owned by a married couple as joint tenants is valued at half. If the person owned property as joint tenants with others, such as siblings, divide the value by the number of owners and then take 10% off the person's share. For a joint bank account, divide the balance by the number of account holders, unless the account was only in joint names for convenience.

You also need to include gifts made in the seven years before death that were above the £3,000 annual exemption, and any gift the person carried on benefiting from, such as a house they gave away but went on living in rent-free. Gifts to a spouse, civil partner or charity, small gifts of up to £250, and wedding gifts within the limits are exempt.

Inheritance tax is charged at 40% on the value above the £325,000 nil-rate band. The threshold can rise when the person's home passes to their children or grandchildren, through the residence nil-rate band of up to £175,000, and the estate of a surviving spouse or civil partner can use any bands left unused on the first death. These thresholds are fixed until 5 April 2031. Business and agricultural property can qualify for relief, and our guide to inheritance tax for business owners explains the £2.5 million limit on 100% relief that has applied since 6 April 2026.

Most estates are excepted estates, which means no inheritance tax is due and you do not have to send HMRC full details. An estate usually counts as excepted if its value is below the £325,000 threshold, if it is worth £650,000 or less and the unused threshold of a spouse or civil partner who died first is being transferred, or if everything goes to a spouse or civil partner living in the UK, or to charity, and the estate is worth less than £3 million. Full details are still needed in some cases, for example where the person gave away more than £250,000 in the seven years before death or held foreign assets worth more than £100,000.

Inheritance tax forms, deadlines and interest

If inheritance tax is due, or the estate is not excepted, you must send HMRC form IHT400 and its supporting schedules within 12 months of the end of the month in which the person died, and you must do this before you apply for the grant. The tax itself is due sooner, by the end of the sixth month after the death. If the person died in January, for example, the tax is due by 31 July. HMRC charges interest on tax paid after that date at the Bank of England base rate plus 4 percentage points.

You normally have to pay at least some of the tax before the grant is issued, at a time when the person's accounts are frozen. Banks, building societies and investment providers that are part of the Direct Payment Scheme can pay inheritance tax straight to HMRC from the person's accounts, using form IHT423. You can also pay from your own money and reclaim it from the estate once you have the grant. Before paying by any method you need an inheritance tax payment reference, and HMRC says to apply for it at least three weeks before you pay.

Tax on land and buildings, certain shares and business interests can be paid in ten equal yearly instalments, with the first due at the same time as the rest of the tax. Interest is usually charged on the outstanding balance, but for assets inherited on or after 6 April 2026 that qualify for business or agricultural relief, the instalments are interest-free as long as each one is paid on time. If an asset being paid for by instalments is sold, the rest of the tax on it becomes due straight away.

Once HMRC has received the IHT400 and any tax that has to be paid first, it sends you a unique code, which you need to apply for the grant. If you later find other assets or debts, or a value turns out to be wrong, tell HMRC.

Applying for the grant

You can apply online or by post, and the Probate Service says paper applications take longer to process. If you apply by post, use form PA1P where there is a will and form PA1A where there is not.

The application fee has been £526 since 13 July 2026 for estates worth more than £5,000, up from £300. There is no fee for an estate worth £5,000 or less. Extra official copies of the grant cost £2 each if you order them with the application and £16 each afterwards, so order enough at the start. Help with the application fee is available for people on a low income or certain benefits, but not with the fee for extra copies.

You will need to send the original will, and in some cases a death certificate, for example if the death happened outside England and Wales. The will becomes a public record once the grant is issued. The Probate Service says you will usually receive the grant within 12 weeks of submitting the application, although it can take longer if more information is needed.

Collecting the assets and paying the debts

With the grant, you can collect in the estate. Send copies of the grant to the banks and other organisations holding assets, close accounts, cash in or transfer investments, and sell or transfer property. To transfer a house to a beneficiary, HM Land Registry needs an application with a form of assent and a copy of the grant, and if the house is sold the buyer will need to see the grant too.

Pay the debts before paying the beneficiaries. The person's debts, the funeral, the costs of administering the estate and any tax all come out of the estate first. If there may not be enough to pay everything, take advice before you pay anyone, because the law sets the order in which debts must be paid when an estate is insolvent.

Executors are personally responsible for administering the estate correctly and can have to make good a loss they cause, for example by paying the beneficiaries and then discovering a debt. To protect yourself against creditors you do not know about, you can advertise for claims in The Gazette and in a newspaper circulating where any land in the estate is, giving at least two months for claims to be made. Under section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925, once that period has ended you can distribute the estate taking account only of the claims you know about, and you are not personally liable to a creditor who did not come forward.

The estate may also have its own tax to deal with during the administration. Income received after the death, such as interest, dividends or rent, can be taxable, and so can gains on assets sold for more than their value at the date of death. The person's own tax affairs up to the date of death need to be settled with HMRC as well.

Distributing the estate

Once the debts, tax and expenses have been paid or provided for, you can pay the gifts left in the will and then divide what remains, called the residue, between the residuary beneficiaries. Under section 44 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925, personal representatives are not obliged to distribute the estate before one year from the death.

Think about timing if anyone might make a claim against the estate. A claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 must normally be made within six months of the date the grant is issued. If you distribute after those six months have passed, you are not personally liable if the court later allows a late claim, although the court can still order property to be recovered from the people who received it.

Before the final distribution, prepare estate accounts showing what came in, what was paid out and how the residue is divided, and ask the residuary beneficiaries to approve them. Get a receipt from each beneficiary for what they receive.

Beneficiaries can change who inherits after the death. Within two years of the death, a beneficiary can redirect all or part of their inheritance by a written variation. If the variation includes a statement that it is intended to have that effect, it is treated for inheritance tax as if the person who died had made the gift, and where it increases the tax the personal representatives must join in the statement.

Disputes and claims against the estate

There are two main kinds of challenge. The first questions whether the will is valid at all, for example because it was not signed and witnessed properly, the person lacked the mental capacity to make it, or they were pressured into it. If that kind of challenge succeeds, the estate passes under an earlier valid will or the intestacy rules.

The second accepts the will, or the intestacy rules, but says they do not make reasonable financial provision for the person claiming. Under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, a claim can be made by a spouse or civil partner, a former spouse or civil partner who has not remarried or formed a new civil partnership, someone who lived with the person as a couple for the whole of the two years before the death, a child, someone treated as a child of the family, and anyone who was being maintained by the person immediately before the death. A spouse or civil partner can claim what is reasonable in all the circumstances, while other claimants are limited to what they reasonably need for their maintenance.

The time limit is six months from the date the grant is first issued. A claim can be made before the grant, and the court has discretion to allow a claim after six months.

If there is a dispute about the will or about who is entitled to apply, a caveat can be entered with the Probate Service to stop a grant being issued while the issue is resolved, for a fee of £4. Disputes between executors and beneficiaries can often be settled by early discussion or mediation, which usually costs less than going to court.

How long it takes and what affects the cost

The grant itself usually arrives within 12 weeks of the application, but the administration as a whole takes longer, because the estate has to be valued before the application and the assets collected and distributed afterwards. An estate with money in a few bank accounts and no inheritance tax can be dealt with relatively quickly. An estate with a property to sell, inheritance tax to pay, a business or shares in a private company, assets abroad, beneficiaries who are hard to trace, or a dispute will take considerably longer.

The same factors drive the cost of professional help: the number and type of assets, whether an IHT400 is needed, whether property has to be sold, how many beneficiaries there are, and whether anyone challenges the will. Some executors ask a solicitor to deal with the whole administration, while others do much of the work themselves and ask for help with particular steps, such as the inheritance tax account, a property sale or a claim against the estate. We agree the scope of the work and the cost with you in writing before we start.

Frequently asked questions

How much does probate cost in 2026?

The Probate Service fee is £526 for an estate worth more than £5,000, the amount that has applied since 13 July 2026, when it rose from £300. There is no fee if the estate is worth £5,000 or less. Extra official copies of the grant cost £2 each when ordered with the application and £16 each afterwards. The cost of professional help with the administration is separate and depends on the work involved.

Do I need probate if the house was jointly owned?

It depends on how the house was owned. If it was owned as joint tenants, the share of the person who died passes automatically to the surviving owner, who can update HM Land Registry using a form and the death certificate, and no grant is needed for the house. If it was owned as tenants in common, that share forms part of the estate and a grant will normally be needed to deal with it. Other assets may still need a grant.

What are the deadlines when someone dies?

Inheritance tax is due by the end of the sixth month after the month of death, and interest runs on anything paid after that. Where full details of the estate must be reported, form IHT400 must reach HMRC within 12 months of the end of the month of death. Claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 must normally be made within six months of the grant, and a variation of the will with inheritance tax effect must be made within two years of the death.

Can inheritance tax be paid before probate is granted?

Yes, and usually some of it has to be, because you normally need to pay at least part of the tax before the grant is issued. Banks, building societies and investment providers in the Direct Payment Scheme can pay the tax from the person's accounts using form IHT423. You can also pay from your own money and reclaim it from the estate, and the tax on some assets, such as property and business interests, can be paid by instalments.

Can an executor refuse to act?

Yes. If you are named as an executor and do not want to act, you can give up the right to apply permanently by completing form PA15, which is called renunciation. If other executors are applying, you can instead hold power reserved, which means you keep the right to apply later, and you must tell the person applying in writing. If you are the only executor, you can also appoint someone to apply on your behalf.

Who can make a claim against an estate?

Under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, a claim can be made by a spouse or civil partner, a former spouse or civil partner who has not remarried or formed a new civil partnership, someone who lived with the person as a couple for the two years before the death, a child, someone treated as a child of the family, or someone who was being maintained by the person. The claim must normally be made within six months of the grant.

When can executors pay out the estate?

Executors can distribute once the debts, tax and expenses have been paid or provided for, but they are not obliged to distribute before one year from the death. Waiting until six months after the grant protects them personally if the court later allows a late claim under the 1975 Act. Advertising for creditors under section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925, allowing at least two months for claims, protects them against debts they did not know about.

Sources & further reading

• GOV.UK — Applying for probate
• GOV.UK — How to value an estate for Inheritance Tax and report its value
• GOV.UK — Pay your Inheritance Tax bill
• legislation.gov.uk — Non-Contentious Probate Fees Order 2004, Schedule 1 (fees)
• GOV.UK — HMRC interest rates for late and early payments
• legislation.gov.uk — Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, section 4
• legislation.gov.uk — Trustee Act 1925, section 27
• legislation.gov.uk — Inheritance Tax Act 1984, section 142

This article is general information, not legal advice. The law changes and depends on your circumstances — always take advice on your specific situation before acting. Last reviewed 17 September 2026. AD Solicitors is a trading name of AD Solicitors Limited, a recognised body regulated by the SRA (no. 8011228).