How to Apply for Probate Without a Solicitor (England and Wales)

You can apply for probate yourself in England and Wales, and most people with a straightforward estate do. If there is a will, the executors named in it apply. If there is not, the closest living relative applies. You can apply online or by post. The court fee is £526 for an estate over £5,000, and you will usually get the grant within 12 weeks of applying.

GOV.UK puts it plainly on its own guidance page: "You can apply for probate yourself online or by post. This can be cheaper than paying a probate practitioner (such as a solicitor) to apply for you." The forms are free. Nobody is required to use a professional.

This guide walks the whole process end to end: working out whether you need probate at all, valuing the estate, choosing the right form, sending it, and what happens afterwards. It also sets out, honestly, the situations where doing it yourself is the wrong call.

This guide covers England and Wales. Scotland has a different process called confirmation, and Northern Ireland has its own rules and forms.

Everything below is the general shape of it, in full. What this particular estate needs — whether a grant is required at all, and which tax forms go with it — depends on its own figures. The four answers an estate can have, and what each costs sets those out.

What probate actually is

Probate is the legal right to deal with someone's property, money and possessions when they die. Those things together are called the estate.

The word gets used loosely, so it is worth separating two things that confuse almost everyone:

• The application is what you send to the court. That is form PA1P or PA1A, or the equivalent online.
• The grant is what the court sends back. It is the document that proves you have authority. With a will it is called a grant of probate; without one it is letters of administration. Either way, people call the umbrella thing a grant of representation.

The grant is what you show a bank to get the account released. Until you have it, GOV.UK advises that you should not make financial plans or put a property on the market.

Do you actually need probate?

Start here, because a significant number of estates do not need a grant at all, and finding that out first can save you months and several hundred pounds.

GOV.UK says you may not need probate if the person who died:

• only had savings
• owned shares or money jointly with others, which automatically passes to the surviving owners unless they agreed otherwise
• owned land or property as joint tenants with others, which also passes automatically to the surviving owners

The decisive advice from GOV.UK is this: contact the financial organisations the person used, such as their bank and mortgage company, and ask whether they need a grant. Every organisation sets its own rules and its own threshold. One bank may release £30,000 on a small-estates form; another may want a grant for £15,000.

Situation	Grant usually needed?
Home owned as joint tenants with a surviving spouse	Usually not, it passes automatically
Home owned as tenants in common, or in the sole name	Usually yes
Joint bank account with a survivor	Usually not
Sole-name account, balance under the bank's threshold	Often not, ask the bank
Sole-name account, balance over the bank's threshold	Usually yes
Shares held solely	Usually yes

The practical step: write to every organisation with a copy of the death certificate, state the approximate balance, and ask directly, "do you require a grant of representation to release this asset?" Get the answer in writing. If every answer is no, you may be finished before you started.

Can you apply?

Only certain people can apply, and it depends on whether there is a will.

If there is a will, the executors named in it apply. An executor is simply the person the deceased chose to carry this out. If several executors are named, up to four can apply together; others can have "power reserved", meaning they step back but could act later.

If there is no will, the closest living relative applies, in the order the intestacy rules set out: spouse or civil partner first, then children, then parents, then siblings, and onwards. GOV.UK has a tool for checking who is entitled, and our guide to who can apply when there is no will sets out the full order of priority and the statutory shares.

There is a third case worth knowing: if there is a will but none of the named executors is able or willing to apply, a beneficiary named in the will may be able to apply instead, for letters of administration with the will annexed. HMCTS's own guidance for PA1P confirms this route.

Before the steps themselves, one thing decides their shape: whether HM Revenue and Customs needs full details of the estate. That is settled by the numbers, not by preference, and it changes what you send and in what order. Which of the four situations this estate is in explains how that is decided.

The nine steps, in order

Step 1: Register the death

You must register the death within 5 days of the medical examiner's office confirming that you can (8 days in Scotland), including weekends and bank holidays. If you need longer, tell the register office immediately.

Order several certified copies of the death certificate while you are there. Organisations generally want to see an original or a certified copy, not a photocopy, and buying them later costs more and takes longer. Five to ten is a sensible number for an estate with a few accounts and a property.

Step 2: Use Tell Us Once

When you register, the registrar will offer Tell Us Once, which reports the death to most government departments in one go: HMRC, DWP, the Passport Office, DVLA, the local council, and several public sector pension schemes.

Use it. It saves a genuinely miserable amount of repetitive phoning. You must use it within 28 days of getting your unique reference number.

Note what it does not cover: banks, mortgage providers, insurers, utility companies, landlords, and private or workplace pensions. Those you contact yourself.

Step 3: Find the will, and check it is the last one

Look for the original, not a copy. Check with the person's solicitor, bank, and any will storage service, and search the house properly. HMCTS also stores wills deposited with it.

Check for codicils, which are signed amendments to a will. They form part of it and must go to the court with it.

Do not remove staples, unfold and refold it repeatedly, or attach anything to it. Marks, pinholes and staple holes on a will can prompt the registry to write and ask what was attached and why, which adds weeks. This sounds fussy; it is one of the most common causes of delay.

Step 4: Value the estate

This is the longest and most consequential part of the job, and it is the part a solicitor would charge you most for.

You need, as at the date of death:

• every bank and building society balance, confirmed in writing by the institution
• the value of any property, which for anything substantial means a written valuation from an estate agent or a RICS surveyor
• investments, shares, premium bonds, and National Savings
• pensions and life insurance, noting which pay into the estate and which pay directly to a named beneficiary and so fall outside it
• personal possessions of real value, such as a car or jewellery
• money owed to the person
• against all that: the mortgage, loans, credit cards, outstanding bills, and the funeral costs

GOV.UK is clear that valuing an estate "can take several months", longer for a large or complicated one. Do not treat this as a formality. The figures you certify go on a legal document you sign.

Two practical points that catch people out:

1. Date-of-death values, not today's values. A share portfolio that has moved since is valued at the date of death.
2. Ask each institution for a written date-of-death balance. They are used to this request and it gives you evidence for every figure.

Step 5: Work out the Inheritance Tax position

You must establish the Inheritance Tax position before you can apply for probate. There is no way round this: GOV.UK states that if the estate owes Inheritance Tax you must report its value within one year using form IHT400, and that you cannot apply for probate until you have done so.

For most estates there is no tax. Inheritance Tax is normally not due if the estate is below the £325,000 threshold, or if everything above that passes to a spouse, civil partner, or charity. Above the threshold the standard rate is 40%, charged only on the excess. Where a home passes to children or grandchildren the threshold can rise to £500,000.

The question that determines your route is whether the estate is an excepted estate. If it is, you self-certify the values on the probate application itself and send nothing to HMRC first. If it is not, you must complete an IHT400, start paying any tax due, and wait for HMRC to send you a code before you can apply.

Two hard deadlines apply if tax is due:

• Inheritance Tax must be paid by the end of the sixth month after the death, or HMRC charges interest.
• The IHT400 must be submitted within 12 months.

Note the trap in the first one: tax is generally payable before the grant is issued, and the grant is what unlocks the money to pay it. That circularity is real, and it is one of the strongest reasons to take advice when tax is payable.

Step 6: Choose your form

	There is a will	There is no will
Form	PA1P	PA1A
You receive	Grant of probate	Letters of administration
Who applies	Executors named in the will	Closest living relative

That is genuinely the whole decision. Everything else follows from it.

Step 7: Apply, online or by post

Online is the route GOV.UK recommends, and HMCTS is explicit that paper applications take longer to process. The online service asks the questions conversationally and will not let you skip a required answer.

By post, you download the PA1P or PA1A "citizen applicants only" form, fill in every section that applies, complete the checklist, print it, and sign and date it.

Where to send a postal application, per HMCTS's current guidance:

HMCTS Probate, PO Box 12625, Harlow, CM20 9QE

(That address is for citizen applicants. Probate practitioners use the Newcastle registry.)

You must pay by cheque payable to "HM Courts and Tribunals Service" sent with your documents.

Step 8: Send the right documents

With a postal application you send:

• the signed form
• the original will and any codicils, not a photocopy
• the official death certificate, not a photocopy
• the cheque for the fee

HMCTS states plainly that photocopies of the will and death certificate will not be accepted.

One thing to know before you post it: the original will is not returned to you. By law it becomes a public document when the grant is issued, and HMCTS keeps it in the public records. If you want a keepsake of the signature, photograph or scan it before it goes.

Because the original will cannot be replaced, send everything by a tracked or signed-for service. It is the cheapest insurance in this entire process.

Step 9: Wait, then administer the estate

You will usually get probate within 12 weeks of submitting the application. HMCTS's own postal guidance asks you not to contact them until 12 weeks have passed.

If the registry writes to you with a query, it usually means something routine: a mark on the will, a date that does not match, a name spelled two ways. It is not an accusation and it does not mean your application has failed.

When the grant arrives, you can:

1. Send a sealed copy to each organisation holding assets. This is why you order extra copies: sending them in parallel rather than one at a time can save weeks.
2. Gather everything in. Close accounts, sell or transfer investments, deal with the property.
3. Pay the debts, including any remaining tax.
4. Distribute the estate to the beneficiaries under the will, or under the intestacy rules.

Keep a simple record of everything in and out. Beneficiaries are entitled to see the estate accounts, and a spreadsheet kept as you go is far less painful than one reconstructed at the end.

What it costs

Item	Cost
The forms	Free
Application fee, estate over £5,000	£526
Application fee, estate £5,000 or less	No fee
Extra sealed copies, ordered with the application	£2 each
Extra sealed copies, ordered later	£16 each
Second application after a grant has issued	£22
Certified death certificate copies	Set locally by the register office
Property valuation	Free from an estate agent, or a few hundred pounds for a RICS valuation

Two things worth noticing in that table.

Order the copies with the application. At £2 each with the application against £16 each afterwards, ordering eight copies up front costs £16; ordering them later costs £128. Count the organisations holding assets and order one per organisation, plus a spare.

Help with Fees exists. If you are on a low income or certain benefits you may get the fee reduced or covered entirely. You can apply online or on form EX160. If you apply online for probate you pay the full fee and get a refund later if the application succeeds. There is no shame in using it; it exists for exactly this situation.

This is the decision the whole guide has been building to, and it is worth making with the specifics in front of you rather than in the abstract, because the honest answer differs enormously between a straightforward estate and a complicated one. Which of the four situations this estate is in is what separates them, and it also says plainly when the right answer is a solicitor rather than us.

When to use a solicitor instead

Doing it yourself is right for many estates. It is the wrong answer for some, and the honest version of this guide has to say so.

Get professional help if:

• Inheritance Tax is payable. The interaction between paying tax before the grant and needing the grant to release the money is genuinely difficult, and the penalties for getting it wrong are real.
• There is a trust, whether in the will or one the person benefited from.
• There is business or agricultural property, where Business Relief and Agricultural Relief involve judgement calls, not arithmetic.
• There are assets abroad, or the person was not UK-domiciled or long-term UK resident.
• There were significant gifts in the seven years before death, especially anything the person carried on benefiting from, such as giving away a house they continued to live in.
• Anyone is disputing the will, or threatening a claim. Stop and take advice before you do anything else.
• The will is damaged, unsigned, ambiguous, or you cannot find the original.
• You simply do not want to carry it. You have just been bereaved. Deciding you do not have the capacity for this right now is a legitimate, sensible choice, not a failure.

That last point deserves emphasis. As personal representative you are legally responsible for the estate from the date of death until it is distributed. That responsibility is real, and choosing to pay someone to carry it is a reasonable use of the estate's money.

The mistakes that cause the most delay

1. Distributing the estate too early. Beneficiaries may press you. Pay the debts and taxes first, because if you distribute and a creditor appears afterwards, you may have to find the money yourself.
2. Marking or attaching anything to the will. Staples, paperclips, sticky notes: each one can trigger a query about what was removed.
3. Estimating values instead of confirming them. You are signing a legal statement about the figures. Get them in writing.
4. Missing the six-month tax deadline where tax is due. Interest starts and does not stop.
5. Under-ordering sealed copies and paying £16 each instead of £2.
6. Forgetting assets that pass outside the estate. A pension paid at the trustees' discretion or a life policy written in trust usually does not form part of the estate and is not dealt with by the grant.
7. Not keeping records from day one. Reconstructing six months of transactions later is miserable.

Frequently asked questions

Can I apply for probate without a solicitor?

Yes. GOV.UK states that you can apply for probate yourself, online or by post, and that this can be cheaper than paying a probate practitioner to apply for you. If there is a will, the executors named in it can apply. If there is no will, the closest living relative can apply.

How much does it cost to apply for probate yourself?

The application fee is £526 if the estate is worth more than £5,000, and there is no fee if it is £5,000 or less. Extra sealed copies of the grant cost £2 each when ordered with the application, or £16 each afterwards. You may be able to get Help with Fees on a low income.

How long does it take to get probate?

GOV.UK states you will usually get probate within 12 weeks of submitting your application, and longer if you need to provide extra information. HMCTS asks postal applicants not to chase before 12 weeks have passed. Valuing the estate beforehand often takes longer than the court stage.

Which form do I need, PA1P or PA1A?

Use PA1P if the person left a will, and PA1A if they did not. PA1P leads to a grant of probate; PA1A leads to letters of administration. If you apply online, the service asks whether there is a will and builds the right application for you.

Do I need probate at all?

Not always. GOV.UK says you may not need probate if the person only had savings, or owned everything jointly with someone who survived them, because jointly held assets usually pass automatically to the survivor. Every bank sets its own threshold, so contact each organisation and ask.

What do I send with a postal probate application?

You send the completed form, the original will and any codicils, the official death certificate, and a cheque for the fee payable to HM Courts and Tribunals Service. HMCTS will not accept photocopies of the will or the death certificate, and the original will is kept by the court.

When should I use a solicitor instead?

Consider a solicitor if the estate involves trusts, business or agricultural property, assets or a domicile outside the UK, gifts the person kept benefiting from, if Inheritance Tax is payable, if anyone is disputing the will, or if you simply do not want to carry the responsibility yourself.

Am I personally responsible if I get something wrong?

Yes. As personal representative you are legally responsible for the estate's assets from the date of death until everything is passed to the beneficiaries. That responsibility exists whether or not you use a solicitor, which is why being careful with the figures matters more than who typed them.

That is the whole process, and nothing about it is secret. Doing it is the other half of the job: the paper application runs to hundreds of boxes, and one wrong entry means it comes back weeks later. If you would rather have help completing your own forms, here is what this estate needs and what that help will cost.

Where the figures in this guide come from

Every figure above is taken from a primary source and checked on 17 September 2026:

• Fees, Help with Fees, and copy costs: GOV.UK, Applying for probate: Fees
• Who can apply, what probate is, and whether it is needed: GOV.UK, Applying for probate
• The 12-week timescale and online versus postal: GOV.UK, Apply for probate
• Postal address, documents required, original will retained: HMCTS, How to apply for probate by post if there is a will
• Registering a death within 5 days: GOV.UK, What to do after someone dies
• Tell Us Once and the 28-day window: GOV.UK, Tell Us Once
• Inheritance Tax thresholds and rates: GOV.UK, How Inheritance Tax works
• The six-month payment deadline: GOV.UK, Pay your Inheritance Tax bill
• Responsibilities of a personal representative: GOV.UK, Dealing with the estate

Rules and figures change, and the rules that apply are generally those in force at the date of death, not today. Always check GOV.UK for the current position before you act.

Related guides

• IHT205 or IHT400? Which Inheritance Tax form you actually need
• Do you actually need probate?
• PA1P or PA1A: which probate form do you need?
• How much does probate cost in the UK?
• What is an excepted estate?
• How to value an estate for probate