Use our questionnaire to find out if you need probate to deal with the property, money and possessions of someone who has died.
When a person dies, you’ll sometimes need probate to handle their bank accounts, sell or transfer their property, and settle debts.
Whether probate is needed depends on what 'assets' were owned by the person who died. Examples of assets include bank accounts, property and shares.
Probate might be needed for one asset, or multiple assets.
This page explains the most common reasons probate is required. If you’re not sure, you can use our questionnaire to find out which assets require probate.
Probate is usually needed if the person was the sole owner of property. It is sometimes needed if the property was owned jointly as tenants in common. This is because property owned in these ways usually can't be sold or transferred without probate.
Probate is not needed to deal with property owned jointly as joint tenants. In this case, the property will pass on to the other owner. However, you should still check to see if you need probate for any other assets.
Probate is usually needed if the person had:
We recommend checking if you need probate to handle any other assets.
Probate might also be needed if the person who died had:
Use our questionnaire to find out what assets you'll need probate for. You can contact us for help with probate, from free initial advice to a fixed fee quote for our probate service.
The need for probate doesn't depend on whether there's a will, it depends on the financial situation of the person who died. The process is very similar regardless of whether there's a will or not, but some of the terminology is different.
Every bank and financial institution has their own limit and their own approach to probate. Some have a threshold for probate of £5,000, while others have raised it to £50,000.
To make matters more complicated, some banks and financial institutions will say that if the overall value of the deceased person’s estate is (for example) £15,000, probate is required. Others will say that probate is only needed if there is £15,000 in the individual account.
So you’ll need to confirm with the organisations holding the deceased person’s assets as to what their threshold for probate is. This will determine whether or not probate is needed.
For more information, see bank limits for probate.
If the person who died owned joint assets, such as a joint bank account or a property as joint tenants, this will pass to the surviving co-owner under the right of survivorship. The co-owner will need to produce the death certificate to formally transfer the asset into their sole name, but usually won’t need probate to do this.
Whether or not probate will be needed to deal with a property will depend on how it's owned. Probate will always be needed to sell a property owned in the deceased's sole name, but it's not always needed to transfer a property to a surviving joint owner.
Learn more about selling a property after someone has died.
Again, it depends how the assets were owned. Many couples own their home as joint tenants and have joint bank accounts, meaning probate wouldn't be required. But probate could be needed for any large assets owned in the deceased's sole name, or a property owned as tenants in common.
Premium Bonds are governed by National Savings and Investments (NS&I). If the Premium Bonds holding is more than £5,000, probate will be required.
After a Premium Bond holder dies, NS&I can keep the holding in the prize draw for up to 12 months. A claim form will need to be completed that asks NS&I to either keep the bonds in the prize draw or encash them.
Find out more about probate and Premium Bonds.
Whether any of the estate assets form part of a will trust has no bearing on the need for probate. If a will includes a will trust which needs to be dealt with as part of the probate process, probate may take longer. The need for probate depends on the assets in the estate though, not whether there is a trust.
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