What does estate administration involve once the grant is issued?
The grant of probate, or letters of administration where there is no will, is one step in the middle of estate administration. Before it come the valuations and the inheritance tax reporting, which what executors do covers. After it comes the work this guide is about: collecting in what the person owned, paying what they owed, protecting against claims nobody has made yet, and handing over the rest with a set of accounts.
Executors and administrators are both personal representatives, and the duties below apply to both. The duties are personal. A personal representative who distributes too early, misses a creditor or pays debts in the wrong order can have to make up the shortfall from their own pocket. The law gives them protections, but each one has to be used, so the order of the work matters more than the paperwork. The table sets out the usual order after the grant. In practice the stages overlap.
| Stage | What the personal representatives do | What it protects against |
|---|---|---|
| Collect the assets | Close accounts and encash investments into an account for the estate, using sealed copies of the grant | Money left where nobody can account for it |
| Pay debts and tax | Check the estate is solvent, then pay funeral costs, expenses, debts and tax in the right order | Personal liability to an unpaid creditor |
| Advertise for creditors | Place section 27 notices and let the notice period run | A debt nobody knew about |
| Deal with the house | Sell it as personal representatives, or pass it to a beneficiary by an assent | A sale at an undervalue, or a title left in a dead person's name |
| Prepare estate accounts | Record everything received and paid, and each beneficiary's share | Beneficiaries disputing the figures |
| Distribute | Pay interim amounts with a reserve held back, then the final balance | A late claim after the money has gone |
How do executors collect the estate's assets after the grant?
Each bank and building society closes the deceased's accounts against a sealed copy of the grant and its own closure form, and pays the balance into an account in the personal representatives' names for the estate. Passing everything through that one account makes the estate accounts at the end far easier to prepare. Shares are sold or transferred through the registrar or the investment platform. Order enough sealed copies of the grant to send several out at once.
Some things never pass through the estate. A pension with a nominated beneficiary and a life policy written in trust are paid by their trustees on their own forms. A property the deceased owned as a joint tenant passes to the surviving owner by survivorship, and the register is updated with form DJP and the death certificate rather than by the personal representatives. Knowing what sits outside the estate stops it being counted in the accounts by mistake.
In what order are the debts paid?
Debts come before gifts. Funeral costs, the costs of administering the estate and the deceased's debts are paid before any beneficiary receives anything, and nothing should be paid out until the personal representatives are satisfied the estate is solvent.
Where the estate is or may be insolvent, the Administration of Insolvent Estates of Deceased Persons Order 1986 applies the bankruptcy rules to it: reasonable funeral, testamentary and administration expenses first, then preferential debts, then ordinary unsecured creditors, then interest, and the beneficiaries receive nothing. A secured creditor stands outside that order altogether and realises its security, proving for any shortfall as an ordinary creditor (checked 20 September 2026). A personal representative who pays a lower-ranking creditor first is personally liable to the higher-ranking one, so solvency is checked before anyone is paid.
What tax is payable during the administration of an estate?
Inheritance tax is normally reported, and paid or arranged, before the grant. It does not always end there. If a value turns out to be wrong, or an asset or debt comes to light later, the personal representatives send HMRC a corrective account, and the final inheritance tax position is agreed with HMRC before the estate is closed.
Separately from inheritance tax, income the estate receives after the date of death, such as rent, interest and dividends, is taxed in the hands of the personal representatives, and a gain on the sale of the property between the date-of-death value and the sale price can attract capital gains tax, subject to the estate's own annual exempt amount. Personal representatives pay capital gains tax at a flat 24 per cent under section 1H(6) of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 (checked 26 September 2026). They share one annual exempt amount of £3,000 under section 1K, available for the year of death and the two tax years after it (checked 20 September 2026). Where the estate's only income is savings interest and the tax due is small, HMRC's informal procedures can avoid a return altogether, and the thresholds for that sit in HMRC's Trusts, Settlements and Estates Manual rather than in statute, so they are worth checking at the time. A UK property return is due within 60 days of completion where tax is payable, under Schedule 2 to the Finance Act 2019 as amended by section 23 of the Finance Act 2022 for completions on or after 27 October 2021 (checked 20 September 2026).
Stamp Duty Land Tax in England, and Land Transaction Tax in Wales, are buyer's taxes, so the estate pays neither on a sale. An assent to a beneficiary for no consideration does not attract them either. The point to watch is the other way round: a beneficiary who inherits a share of a property may pay the higher rates for additional dwellings on a later purchase of their own. The exceptions to that are a question for a tax adviser.
How are personal representatives protected against personal liability?
The first protection is advertising for creditors. Section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925 lets personal representatives advertise for claims they know nothing about, in the London Gazette and, where the estate includes land, in a newspaper circulating in the district where the land is. The notice has to give claimants a period of not less than two months, running from the last notice placed, so two months is the floor and not the period. A personal representative who distributes without advertising and is then met by a debt nobody knew about can be personally liable for it. One who has advertised and waited is protected against claims they had no notice of, though the creditor can still follow the money into the beneficiaries' hands (checked 19 September 2026).
The second protection is time. A claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 must normally be issued within six months of the date on which representation is first taken out, and the claim form can then be served up to four months after issue under CPR 7.5, which is why the customary wait before final distribution is ten months from the grant. Section 20 of the Act protects a personal representative who distributes more than six months after representation was first taken out from being held liable for not having anticipated a late claim. Neither period is a guarantee: section 4 lets the court permit a claim out of time, and the protection covers the personal representative personally without preventing assets already handed out from being recovered (checked 20 September 2026). If a claim is threatened, take specialist legal advice before anything more is paid out.
The table sets out the main risks, the protection the law gives against each, and what the personal representatives do to use it.
| Risk | Protection | What the personal representatives do |
|---|---|---|
| A creditor nobody knew about | Section 27 Trustee Act 1925 notices | Advertise in the London Gazette and, where there is land, a local paper; let the notice period run |
| A claim by someone left out | Waiting until the 1975 Act periods have run | Pay interim amounts only, and hold a reserve until then |
| Under-reporting to HMRC | Professional valuations and a corrective account if values change | Keep the valuations, and report any change to HMRC |
| A missing beneficiary | Tracing enquiries, then missing-beneficiary insurance or directions from the court | Trace first; buy cover from an insurer or through a broker only if tracing fails |
| An insolvent estate | The statutory order of payment | Check solvency before any debt is paid |
| Beneficiaries disputing the figures | Estate accounts approved before distribution | Record every receipt and payment, and ask the residuary beneficiaries to approve the accounts |
What happens to the house: sale or assent?
That depends on the will, or on the intestacy rules where there is none. If the house is left to a named person, the personal representatives pass it to them by an assent. If it is to be sold and the proceeds shared, the personal representatives sell it themselves.
On a sale, the personal representatives sell as such, using the grant as their authority, and the buyer is registered directly from the deceased's title. They owe a duty to get the best price reasonably obtainable, which is why a written valuation and a proper marketing period protect them. The value used for probate is the starting point for capital gains tax, so a sale well above it can leave tax to pay, as set out above. Selling a parent's house after the grant covers the practical steps of the sale itself.
On an assent, the personal representatives sign form AS1 in favour of the beneficiary, and the application to HM Land Registry goes in with the grant as evidence of their authority. The beneficiary is then registered as the owner. There is no sale, no price and, where nothing is paid, no Stamp Duty Land Tax or Land Transaction Tax.
Either way, the register should not be left in the deceased's name. A house left that way causes no trouble until it has to be sold years later, when the people who could have signed may no longer be alive to do it.
What are estate accounts, and who approves them?
Estate accounts are a full statement of everything the estate received, everything it paid out, and each beneficiary's share. They are prepared at the end of the administration and approved by the residuary beneficiaries, who share what is left, before the final distribution. They are the personal representatives' record that the estate was dealt with properly, so keep every statement, invoice and receipt from the start.
When can the beneficiaries be paid?
Specific gifts, such as a sum of money or a named item, can usually be paid once the grant is in and the estate is plainly solvent. Residuary beneficiaries are normally paid an interim amount once the liabilities and tax are known and a sensible reserve has been kept back, with the balance following the approved estate accounts once ten months from the grant have passed. Beneficiaries can also change who receives what by a deed of variation made within two years of the death (section 142 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984, checked 20 September 2026).
How long all of this takes depends mostly on the house. Nine to twelve months is a typical range where a property is sold, and it runs longer where HMRC queries the values or a beneficiary cannot be traced. How long does probate take covers the time up to the grant.