Two letters land on estates that catch executors out, because both arrive after the person has died and both look like somebody else’s problem. One is a council tax bill for a house nobody lives in. The other says a benefit was overpaid.
Before probate: no bill at all, while the house stays empty
An unoccupied home that belonged to somebody who has died is exempt from council tax for as long as no grant has been issued. GOV.UK puts it plainly: you do not need to pay council tax until after you get probate, as long as the property remains empty (GOV.UK, How Council Tax works: second homes and empty properties, checked 1 November 2026).
The exemption is Class F, and its wording is worth knowing because it sets the two conditions precisely. It covers an unoccupied dwelling where a person is a qualifying person in their capacity as personal representative, if either no grant of probate or of letters of administration has been made, or less than six months have elapsed since the day on which such a grant was made (Council Tax (Exempt Dwellings) Order 1992, checked 1 November 2026).
Tell the council anyway. The exemption is not applied by magic: the council needs to know the person has died, that the property is empty, and who is dealing with the estate.
The clock runs from the grant, not from the death
Six months is the figure everybody remembers and half of them attach it to the wrong date. The exemption continues until six months after the grant is issued, so a slow application extends the exemption rather than eating into it. An estate that takes a year to reach a grant has council tax to pay eighteen months after the death.
GOV.UK says the same from the other end: after probate is granted, you may be able to get an exemption for another six months if the property is both unoccupied and still owned and in the name of the person who died (GOV.UK, How Council Tax works: second homes and empty properties, checked 1 November 2026).
Two things end it early. Somebody moving in ends it, because the dwelling is no longer unoccupied. So does transferring the house to a beneficiary or a buyer, because it is then no longer held in the estate.
Who pays when the exemption ends
The bill is a cost of the estate, not a debt of yours. Once the exempt period runs out, council tax on an empty estate property becomes payable, and it is met from the estate’s money along with the other expenses of administration. Executors are not personally liable for it merely because the demand arrives with their name on it.
Arrears that built up before the death are treated the same way. The Act lets regulations provide that where a sum had become payable by the deceased and was not paid, the executor or administrator is liable to pay it and may deduct the payments made out of the assets and effects of the deceased (Local Government Finance Act 1992, section 18, checked 1 November 2026), and the regulations made under it do exactly that (Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992, regulation 58, checked 1 November 2026). You pay it from the estate.
If the estate has no cash yet, tell the council that. Councils can hold a bill or agree instalments while an estate is illiquid, and a demand that cannot be met yet is better raised than ignored.
The empty home premium, and the year’s grace
A long-empty house can be charged more than the standard bill, which is where a slow sale gets expensive. A property empty for at least a year can attract an empty home premium, reaching up to four times the normal bill where a home has stood empty for at least ten years (GOV.UK, How Council Tax works: second homes and empty properties, checked 1 November 2026).
There is relief aimed squarely at estates. GOV.UK says you may not have to pay the premium for up to twelve months where you recently received a grant of probate or letters of administration for the empty home, or where it is being marketed for sale or to rent. The standard council tax still applies (GOV.UK, How Council Tax works: second homes and empty properties, checked 1 November 2026).
Both reliefs have to be claimed from the council, and evidence of marketing is what councils ask for. Keep the agent’s listing and the date it went on.
If the DWP says a benefit was overpaid
The Department for Work and Pensions can recover benefit overpayments from a person’s estate, and it usually writes once the grant has been issued and asks for financial information about the estate (GOV.UK, Benefit overpayments: repayments when someone has died, checked 1 November 2026). A demand is not proof that the money is owed, so the first job is to find out which benefit it concerns.
For the older benefits, including the State Pension, Pension Credit, Attendance Allowance and Personal Independence Payment, recovery depends on a finding that somebody misrepresented or failed to disclose a material fact (Social Security Administration Act 1992, section 71, checked 1 November 2026). If nothing was misrepresented or withheld, ask the department to say what it says was not disclosed.
Universal Credit is different, and this is the trap. The Secretary of State may recover any amount of Universal Credit, new style Jobseeker’s Allowance or Employment and Support Allowance paid in excess of entitlement (Social Security Administration Act 1992, section 71ZB, checked 1 November 2026). No fault is needed. An official error alone is enough to make it recoverable.
Payments that landed after the death
Money paid for a period after the date of death has to go back, and this is the most common overpayment of all. Benefits are usually paid in advance or in arrears against a period, and a payment covering days after the death is not owed to anybody.
Where the payment arrived before the department was told about the death, GOV.UK says DWP Debt Management will contact the deceased’s next of kin, the bank the benefit was paid into, and whoever is handling the estate (GOV.UK, Benefit overpayments: repayments when someone has died, checked 1 November 2026). Often the bank returns it without anybody being asked for a cheque.
Do not close the account the moment the death is registered. An account that is closed and swept into the estate makes a simple reversal into a recovery exercise.
Why you should not share the estate out yet
This is the sentence that costs executors their own money. GOV.UK tells personal representatives not to distribute the estate until they know what needs to be repaid, and warns that if they do, they may have to pay back the money themselves (GOV.UK, Benefit overpayments: repayments when someone has died, checked 1 November 2026). The liability is personal.
There is a second reason to wait, and a formal protection for doing so. Advertising in the Gazette gives creditors at least two months to claim, and after that the personal representatives may distribute having regard only to the claims they then had notice of, and are not liable to a person whose claim they had no notice of (Trustee Act 1925, section 27, checked 1 November 2026).
One limit is worth understanding. That protection covers you, not the money: a creditor who turns up later can still pursue a beneficiary who has received the funds.
Telling the department in the first place
Tell Us Once reports a death to most government departments, including the DWP, in a single step, and the registrar gives you the reference when the death is registered (GOV.UK, What to do after someone dies: tell Us Once, checked 1 November 2026). It is available in England, Scotland and Wales, but not in Northern Ireland.
Used early, it heads off most of this page. The department stops payments from the right date, the overpayment never builds, and the letter that arrives is a closing statement rather than a demand. Our guide to what probate involves sets out where this sits in the wider job, and which bills the estate pays first covers the order the money comes out in.