Probate

Am I liable for my parent's debts?

A parent's debts are paid from their estate, not from their children's own money. Relatives are not usually responsible unless they were a guarantor or held the debt jointly. Where the estate cannot pay, the remaining debts are usually written off. Executors can become personally liable only by paying out the estate before the debts are dealt with.

Assets or executors abroad

Foreign assets still count in the estate valuation. A grant from a Commonwealth court can be resealed here under the Colonial Probates Act, while a grant made anywhere else in the UK needs no resealing at all. A will made abroad can be valid here, and since April 2025 Inheritance Tax on foreign assets turns on long-term residence rather than domicile.

Corrective account (C4)

Form C4 tells HMRC about a mistake in an Inheritance Tax account already sent: a wrong value, an asset found later, or a relief that turns out not to be due. The law gives six months to correct it, though HMRC usually lets smaller amendments be saved up and sent together.

Council tax and DWP demands

An empty house in an estate pays no council tax until probate is granted, and for six months after it. Then the full bill restarts, paid out of the estate. The DWP can recover a benefit overpayment from the estate, and can pursue the personal representative personally if the money has already been shared out.

Disputes over an inherited house

Where a house is left to several people and they cannot agree, the law of trusts of land decides. Beneficiaries may have a right to occupy, the trustees can restrict it and require compensation, and any of them can ask the court to order a sale. The court weighs the purpose of the trust and the beneficiaries' interests. Mediation comes first.

Do I need probate?

Probate is not always needed: joint accounts and jointly owned homes pass automatically, and small balances are released without it. Where it is needed, the fee is £526 for estates over £5,000 and nothing below.

Finding the assets

The law makes the executor collect and get in the estate, and nothing in data protection law stops a bank telling you about a dead person's own account. Where wills are kept and how to find one, what banks can and cannot do before the grant, the free tracing services for pensions, property and savings, the HMRC line, and the notice that protects you from debts you did not know about.

How long probate takes

GOV.UK says 12 weeks. The latest published figures say a median of one week for a grant of probate, and 22 weeks for letters of administration with a will annexed.

How probate works

Six steps in GOV.UK's order: check probate is needed, check you can apply, value the estate and settle Inheritance Tax, apply, pay the debts and taxes during the administration period, then distribute. The deadlines and the fee at each step.

Inheritance and benefits

An inheritance counts as capital, not income. For Universal Credit, savings below £6,000 are ignored, £6,000 to £16,000 reduce the award, and above £16,000 the claim stops. Pension Credit has no upper limit but counts £1 a week for every £500 above £10,000. Spending or giving money away to keep a benefit is treated as deprivation of capital.

Inheritance Tax forms

Most estates are excepted and send nothing to HMRC: the values go on the probate application. Above the thresholds, or where gifts, trusts or foreign assets break the exception, form IHT400 goes in within 12 months, HMRC sends a code within about 20 working days, and the tax is due by the end of the sixth month after the death, with instalments on property. What comes off the value, and what does not.

Letters of administration

Who can apply to administer an estate when someone dies without a will, in what order, and the two exclusions that catch families out.

Pension money after a death

A pension pot usually sits outside the will, and the scheme decides who receives it, guided but not bound by the nomination form. Tax turns on whether the person died before or after 75. Defined benefit schemes pay dependants only. From 6 April 2027 most unused pension funds count towards Inheritance Tax, with death in service benefits excluded.

Renouncing or disclaiming

An executor who does not want the job can renounce on form PA15, but not after intermeddling in the estate. Stepping back for now while keeping the right to act later is power reserved. A beneficiary can disclaim a gift or redirect it by deed of variation within two years, which for Inheritance Tax is treated as if the person who died had left it that way.

Selling or transferring the home

A surviving joint owner removes the name with form DJP and a death certificate, for no fee and without probate. A sole owner's home needs the grant before the Land Registry will register a transfer to a beneficiary on form AS1, or a sale. The estate pays Capital Gains Tax only on any rise since death, at 24% above a £3,000 allowance, reported within 60 days, and Inheritance Tax instalments fall due in full on a sale.

Solicitor problems

A solicitor must publish probate prices, answer a complaint within eight weeks, and hand the file over if you move. The Legal Ombudsman covers delay and cost and can cut a bill without limit. A bill can be sent to the court for assessment within a month. What the regulator's research says probate costs, and what to do when the solicitor is also the executor.

Tenants in an estate property

A tenancy does not end when the landlord dies. It continues, the rent keeps falling due, and the executors inherit the landlord's obligations along with the house. Since 1 May 2026 there is no section 21 notice, so an estate that needs the house empty must use a ground under section 8, and the sale ground needs four months' notice.

Valuing the estate

Everything in an estate is valued at what it would fetch on the open market on the date of death, not what it would cost to replace. HMRC can refer the house to the Valuation Office Agency, discounts a share of a jointly owned house but not joint contents, and allows the lower sale price where land sells for less within three years.

When an executor delays

An executor is not bound to distribute within a year of the death, and creditors get two months from a Gazette notice. After that, a beneficiary can ask for the estate accounts, check whether probate has been granted, cite an executor who has not applied, and apply to the court to replace one.

When an executor dies

If the executor had already taken out the grant, their own executor inherits the job under the chain of representation and no new grant is needed. If they died before applying, the chain never starts and somebody applies afresh. Where the chain breaks, the answer is a grant de bonis non. A beneficiary who outlived the person leaves their share to their own estate.

Which bills the estate pays first

The law fixes the order in which an estate's assets are used and its bills are paid. The funeral and the costs of administration come first, a mortgage is charged against the house rather than spread across the estate, and specific gifts are the last thing touched. Where the estate cannot pay everyone, bankruptcy priority takes over and paying the wrong person can cost you personally.