When is a grant needed, and when is it not?
A grant of probate, where there is a will, or letters of administration, where there is not, proves the personal representative's authority. Banks, share registrars and HM Land Registry all require it above modest values, and a property held in the deceased's sole name almost always needs one before it can be sold or transferred.
It is not always needed. Where the whole estate passed by survivorship to a joint owner, or the assets are small enough for each institution to release them on indemnity, an estate can sometimes be wound up without a grant. Each bank sets its own threshold. Whether the home passes automatically depends on how it was owned; joint tenants or tenants in common explains the difference, and when is probate needed covers the rest of the estate.
The two grants differ in who applies and who inherits, not in what they let you do. The personal representatives apply for the grant; we do not make probate applications.
| Grant of probate | Letters of administration | |
|---|---|---|
| When | There is a valid will | No will, or no executor willing and able to act |
| Who applies | The executors named in the will, up to four together (Senior Courts Act 1981 s114(1)) | The nearest relatives, in the order set by the intestacy rules |
| Who inherits | Whoever the will says | Spouse or civil partner first, then children and wider family in a fixed order; unmarried partners take nothing |
| Authority once issued | The same | The same |
What happens to the property in an estate?
Selling from the estate and assenting to a beneficiary are different routes with different consequences. A sale is handled by the personal representatives and the proceeds form part of the estate for distribution. An assent, on form AS1, puts the property into the beneficiary's own name; any later sale is theirs, and any capital gain from that point is theirs too.
A buyer can be found before the grant. Executors take their authority from the will, so they can agree a sale and exchange before the grant, but they cannot prove title to the buyer or register the transfer without it, so completion waits for it. Administrators take their authority only from the letters of administration, and until then the property vests in the Public Trustee, so they should not exchange until the grant has issued (Administration of Estates Act 1925 ss1, 2 and 9; Land Registration Rules 2003 r162, checked 26 September 2026). Either way the timescale runs from the grant, not the offer. Selling a house as an executor sets out the sequence. Where the deceased was one of two joint owners, form DJP removes them from the register and no grant is needed for the property itself.
Inheritance tax is generally due six months after the end of the month in which the death occurred, under section 226(1) of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984, often before the grant that releases the money to pay it. Many banks and building societies will pay tax directly to HMRC from the deceased's accounts under the Direct Payment Scheme, on form IHT423, and tax on a property can be paid by ten yearly instalments under section 227. Interest runs on the unpaid balance, and section 227(4) makes the unpaid tax fall due at once if the property is sold, which matters when the house is being sold. Checked 20 September 2026. We do not prepare inheritance tax accounts or give tax advice; IHT400 explained sets out what the full account covers.