Probate is the legal process of handling the estate of someone who has passed away. If you believe you are entitled to manage the estate of a deceased individual, you may need to apply for probate. This process is required if the deceased owned property, had assets, or left a will.
How to check probate is needed:
Contact the financial organisations the person who died used (for example, their bank and mortgage company) to find out if you’ll need probate to get access to their assets. Every organisation has its own rules.
You may not need probate if the person who died:
Only had savings
Owned shares or money with others - this automatically passes to the surviving owners unless they have agreed otherwise
Owned land or property as ‘joint tenants’ with others - this automatically passes to the surviving owners.
Can I apply for probate?
Only certain people can apply for probate.
Who can apply depends on whether or not there’s a will. If there’s a will, executors named in it can apply. In the instance there’s not a will, the closest living relative can apply.
Value the estate and work out the Inheritance Tax:
Before applying for probate, you must find out if you need to pay Inheritance Tax.
To do this, you need to:
Estimate the value of the estate (the money, property and possessions of the person who’s died).
If the estate owes Inheritance Tax, you must report its value within one year using form IHT400.
You cannot apply for probate until you have done this.
Start paying Inheritance Tax before probate is granted.
Even if there’s no tax to pay, you’ll need the estimated value of the estate as part of your probate application.
How we can help:
You can use this free service if you struggle to access and complete online court and tribunal forms.
Eligibility criteria include:
Not having regular access to a device or the internet.
Please be aware this service does not provide legal advice or technical support for issues encountered when filling in an online form (such as error messages and frozen pages).
