The grant arrives and the family finds that the house is a second job. There are forms with numbers, a Land Registry that wants identity checks, an estate agent who wants to know who is selling, and a tax on the sale that turns out to be smaller than feared. The route depends on how the home was owned, so that is the first question.
Who owned it decides the route
GOV.UK says that when a joint owner dies you fill in form DJP to remove their name from the register and send it to HM Land Registry with an official copy of the death certificate (GOV.UK, Update property records when someone dies, checked 1 November 2026). The Land Registry’s practice guide says there is no fee. No grant is needed for this step.
The kind of joint ownership matters for what follows, not for the form. GOV.UK says that as joint tenants the property automatically goes to the other owners when you die, and as tenants in common your share does not and can be left in your will (GOV.UK, Joint property ownership, checked 1 November 2026). The Land Registry’s guidance says it does not matter for the legal estate which the owners were, because a legal estate is indivisible (Land Registry practice guide 6, checked 1 November 2026).
Where the couple were tenants in common, a restriction on the register records it, and the deceased’s share belongs to their estate. A later sale by the survivor alone runs into that restriction, and the personal representatives, who need the grant, join in so that the share of the proceeds goes where the will sends it.
Nothing completes before the grant
GOV.UK says you should not make any financial plans or put property on the market until you have got probate (GOV.UK, Applying for probate: what is probate, checked 1 November 2026). The Land Registry’s guidance explains why: an executor is considered to gain title on the death of the owner, but must prove it by obtaining probate first.
Until then the Land Registry will not register the executor as proprietor or accept a transfer by them (practice guide 6, checked 1 November 2026).
So a buyer’s solicitor will not complete without sight of the grant, whatever has been agreed. Our how long probate takes page carries the current HMCTS timings, and the deadline planner puts the Inheritance Tax date that comes first into the calendar.
Transferring the home to a beneficiary
GOV.UK says that to transfer a property to a beneficiary you fill in form AP1, to change the register, and form AS1, the assent for the whole of a registered title, and provide the grant (GOV.UK, Update property records when someone dies, checked 1 November 2026). An assent is the document by which the executor passes the property to the person the will gives it to.
The fee is assessed on the value of the property, less any mortgage, under the Land Registry’s scale for transfers not for money. For a home worth £200,001 to £500,000 it is £100 by post, or £45 where the whole title is transferred through the portal (Land Registry registration services fees, checked 1 November 2026). Other bands are on the same page.
An executor applying without a conveyancer must have their identity verified. The Land Registry says evidence of identity is required for any party not legally represented, on form ID1. It can be verified by a conveyancer, a chartered legal executive, a licensed probate practitioner or people in certain professions (GOV.UK, Completing forms ID1 and ID2, checked 1 November 2026). That step is the one that stalls a do-it-yourself transfer.
What the beneficiary pays, and does not
Nothing to HMRC on the way in. GOV.UK says that if you get land or property under the terms of a will there is no need to tell HMRC and you will not pay Stamp Duty Land Tax. That holds even with an outstanding mortgage, provided nothing else is given for the property (GOV.UK, Stamp Duty Land Tax: transfer ownership of land or property, checked 1 November 2026).
HMRC’s helpsheet says no Capital Gains Tax applies when the personal representatives pass assets to the legatees, the people the will leaves them to, and that a legatee is treated as acquiring the asset on the date of death at its market value then (HMRC helpsheet HS282, checked 13 September 2026). A child who inherits the house and sells it later pays tax only on the rise since the death, not since it was bought.
Selling the home from the estate
For a sale, GOV.UK says the executor transfers ownership to the buyer and provides the buyer with an official copy of the grant (GOV.UK, Update property records when someone dies, checked 1 November 2026). The buyer’s conveyancer handles registration; the estate’s side is the grant, the identity checks and the tax.
The Land Registry’s guidance names form TR1 for the sale of a whole registered estate (practice guide 6, checked 1 November 2026).
The tax is on the gain since death, not the whole rise in value. HMRC’s helpsheet says the deceased’s assets are treated as passing to the personal representatives at their market value on the date of death, so the probate value is the estate’s starting point (HS282, checked 13 September 2026). Personal representatives have the £3,000 annual exempt amount for the tax year of death and the two following years, and pay 24%, the current rate, on gains above it (GOV.UK, Capital Gains Tax rates and allowances, checked 1 November 2026). A sale of UK residential property must be reported and any tax paid within 60 days of completion.
If it sells for less than the probate value
Inheritance Tax was paid on the probate value, and a lower sale price can bring some back. HMRC’s form IHT38 guidance says that in most cases the sale must be within 3 years of the date of death (HMRC, claim for relief — loss on sale of land (IHT38), checked 1 November 2026), and the claim is made by the person who paid the tax, most commonly the executors.
HMRC adds that some sales within 4 years of the death may also qualify (HMRC, claim for relief — loss on sale of land (IHT38), checked 1 November 2026).
HMRC’s manual says the relief is not available where the difference is less than £1,000 or 5% of the death value, whichever is lower (HMRC Inheritance Tax Manual, checked 1 November 2026).
It cuts the other way as well. Where the estate paid Inheritance Tax on the property in instalments, GOV.UK says you must pay the tax in full when you have sold the deceased’s assets such as their house (GOV.UK, Pay your Inheritance Tax bill, checked 1 November 2026). Our Inheritance Tax forms page covers the instalment option and the dates.
The empty home in the meantime
GOV.UK says that if you are selling a property for an owner who has died, you do not need to pay council tax until after you get probate as long as the property remains empty. After probate, an exemption can run for another 6 months while it is unoccupied and still in the name of the person who died.
Both are on GOV.UK’s empty properties page (GOV.UK, How Council Tax works: second homes and empty properties, checked 13 September 2026), and our council tax hub has the exemption classes.
No government guidance covers insuring an empty home during administration. The deceased’s insurer sets its own terms for an unoccupied property, and an executor who asks early finds out what they are before a claim is needed. Where the person who died left the home to a spouse or civil partner, GOV.UK says there is normally no Inheritance Tax on what passes to them. The transfer follows the assent route above with no tax on the way.