Probate is a sequence, and the difficulty for a first-time executor is that GOV.UK describes it across three separate guides. This page puts them in one order. Each step has its own deadline or fee, and the order matters, because two of the steps cannot start until the one before is finished. Our probate deadline planner turns a date of death into the dates.
Step 1: check probate is needed
Probate is needed when an organisation holding an asset will not release it without the grant, and GOV.UK’s method is to ask each organisation, because every one has its own rules (GOV.UK, Applying for probate: what is probate, checked 1 November 2026). Money owned jointly passes to the surviving owners unless they had agreed otherwise, and property held as joint tenants passes the same way.
Our do I need probate page covers the cases in full. If probate is not needed, the estate step still is: debts, taxes and distribution happen with or without a grant.
Step 2: check you can apply
If there is a will, the executors named in it, or in a codicil, apply. GOV.UK says the person will normally have told you if you are an executor, and that being an executor does not make you a beneficiary unless the will also names you as one.
If there is no will, the closest living relative applies to become administrator (GOV.UK, Applying for probate: if there’s a will, checked 11 September 2026).
The original will has to go in with the application; a photocopy will not do, and the probate registry keeps it as a public record. Our letters of administration page covers who applies when there is no will.
Step 3: value the estate and settle Inheritance Tax
Before applying, you must estimate the value of the estate, even where no tax is due, because the estimate is part of the probate application. GOV.UK breaks it into three tasks: identify the assets and debts, estimate the value, and report it if and how the rules require (GOV.UK, What you need to do, checked 1 November 2026).
It says valuing an estate can take several months, longer for a large or complicated one.
Two deadlines run from the death. Inheritance Tax must be paid by the end of the sixth month after the death to avoid interest. And if tax is due, the estate must be reported on form IHT400 within 12 months and before applying for probate. You cannot apply until that is done, and you will normally have to start paying before the grant. If no full report is needed, the estate is an excepted estate and you can apply straight away.
Gifts made in the seven years before death are part of the valuation, and nothing in the bank statements flags them. Our gifts and the 7-year rule page sets out what counts.
Step 4: apply
You can apply online or by post, and GOV.UK says doing it yourself can be cheaper than paying a probate practitioner such as a solicitor. The fee is £526 if the estate is over £5,000 and nothing if it is £5,000 or less; extra copies of the grant are £2 each with the application.
If you do instruct a solicitor and it goes wrong, our solicitor problems page sets out your rights in order. Which estates report to HMRC, and on which form, is on our Inheritance Tax forms page; what happens to the house afterwards is on the selling or transferring the home page; and if the paperwork cannot be found, start with finding the assets.
Help with fees is available on a low income (GOV.UK, Applying for probate: fees, checked 1 November 2026).
GOV.UK says you will usually get probate within 12 weeks of submitting, longer if more information is needed. Our how long does probate take page carries the HMCTS quarterly figures behind that. Online applicants can track progress by signing in; postal applicants should hear within 12 weeks.
Step 5: the administration period
From the date of death until everything has been passed on, the personal representative is legally responsible for the estate’s assets. GOV.UK calls this the administration period, and lists what may fall in it: paying debts, selling assets, paying Income Tax on income the estate earns, paying Capital Gains Tax on profits from sales.
And reporting the estate’s value, income and tax to HMRC (GOV.UK, Dealing with the estate of someone who's died, checked 1 November 2026).
Debts and taxes come first. GOV.UK says to place a notice in The Gazette giving creditors two months to claim, and not to distribute before the two months are up. If a debt then appears and the estate cannot pay it, you may have to pay it yourself. Tell any employer or pension provider about the death so HMRC can work out the final Income Tax; after Tell Us Once it can take at least 30 days for HMRC to make contact (GOV.UK, Settling debts and taxes, checked 1 November 2026).
Income the estate earns after the death is taxed with no allowances. If it is £500 or less in a tax year, from 6 April 2024, the estate need not be reported; above £500, all of it must be (GOV.UK, Reporting an estate’s income to HMRC, checked 1 November 2026). Selling property or shares that have risen since the death can mean Capital Gains Tax, and residential property gains usually have to be reported within 60 days.
If there is more than one personal representative, GOV.UK says to agree between you where the money is held, which can be an executorship account, and the rules for withdrawals.
Step 6: distribute and close
Once debts and taxes are paid, or the estate clearly has enough to pay them, the estate is distributed under the will or, if there is none, under the law (GOV.UK, Distributing the estate, checked 1 November 2026). Anyone who received income from the estate gets a statement of income form, and property passed on must be registered at HM Land Registry.
The last act is the final estate accounts, which GOV.UK says should be approved and signed by the personal representative and the main beneficiaries. That signature is the beneficiary’s protection as much as the executor’s, and it is the document to ask for when an estate has gone quiet.
When it stalls
By law a personal representative is not bound to distribute the estate within a year of the death, and the two-month creditors’ notice and a months-long valuation sit inside that year. Beyond it, beneficiaries have formal steps available, from asking for the accounts to a court application. Our when an executor delays page sets them out.
Other things that arrive mid-administration have their own pages: which bills the estate pays first, council tax and DWP demands, pension money and death benefits, what happens if the executor dies, tenants in an estate property, assets or executors abroad, and an inheritance for somebody on benefits.
Four more questions come up once the valuation starts: valuing the estate, renouncing the role or disclaiming a gift, siblings disagreeing over an inherited house, and whether relatives are liable for a parent’s debts.