Do you need probate (confirmation) in Scotland?

Ask the fund holders first, not the court

Confirmation is only needed if somebody holding the deceased's money or property insists on seeing it. The Scottish Government's bereavement guidance states the position directly: confirmation need only be obtained if required by a fund holder, for example a bank. The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service says the same in its guide to dealing with a deceased's estate, noting that it is usually a bank, building society or insurance company that asks for it. So the first job is not a form. It is a round of phone calls.

This page covers Scotland only, a separate legal system from the rest of the UK. If the person died domiciled in England or Wales, read our counterpart guide on how to know if you need probate instead: the terminology there (grant of probate, letters of administration, joint tenancy) does not carry across the border. Everything below is general information rather than legal advice. Our do I need probate checker walks the same asset by asset logic, but is built around the England and Wales route, so treat it as a sorting exercise rather than a Scottish answer.

What the £36,000 figure actually does

Most families arrive here having seen £36,000 somewhere and read it as a floor below which nothing is required. It is not. Per the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, "a small estate is an estate where the total value of the deceased's money and property is £36000 or less", and anything above that is a large estate. The line decides how you obtain confirmation, not whether you need it.

On the small estate route:

• The sheriff clerk completes the inventory with you at an appointment, which the court service is expressly prohibited from doing for large estates.
• No bond of caution is required where the sheriff clerk's office prepares the inventory, in place since 4 March 2016. Where a solicitor prepares it instead, a bond is still needed if there was no will.
• There is no statutory court fee for issuing confirmation in a small estate, although copies, duplicates and certificates of confirmation are chargeable.

One detail pushes estates over the line more often than people expect. The £36,000 is a gross figure: the court service is explicit that you do not deduct debts such as funeral expenses, fuel bills or the balance of the mortgage, and that bank balances must include interest to the date of death. Any property in the deceased's sole name goes in at full value, so a modest flat alone usually makes it a large estate.

What each bank or insurer will release on its own authority

Below the point where an organisation asks for confirmation, most pay out against a death certificate and their own indemnity form. Those limits are set institution by institution and applied to that institution's holding alone, so an estate spread across three providers can clear all three while one larger holding trips its own limit. Ring each bereavement team and ask what they release without confirmation, and what they want instead.

Three categories usually never reach the inventory at all: pension death benefits paid at the scheme trustees' discretion, life policies written in trust, and a share of heritable property carrying a survivorship destination.

Survivorship destinations are not English joint tenancy

This is what catches people who have dealt with an estate south of the border. Scotland has no joint tenancy. Two people who buy a house together hold separate shares, and nothing passes automatically to the survivor unless the title says so in terms.

Registers of Scotland gives the wording to look for: some title sheets provide that on the death of a co-proprietor their share transfers automatically to the person still alive, known as a survivorship destination or survivorship clause. It usually follows the names, in the form "equally between them and the survivor of them". Where it is present, Registers of Scotland is clear that the survivorship "operates without you having to do anything further", whatever the will says about that share. Where it is absent, "further conveyancing by the executor of the deceased is required", which means confirmation before the share can move.

Take Fiona and her brother Gregor, who bought a flat in Dundee together in 2011. If their disposition names them "equally between them and the survivor of them", his half passes to her at once. If that phrase is missing, his half passes under his will and Fiona cannot deal with the flat until his executor has confirmation. Same flat, same family, opposite answer, decided by one clause. Order the title sheet through ScotLIS before assuming either way.

Putting the answer together

What the person owned	Does it point towards confirmation?
Share of a home with a survivorship destination in the title	No. It passes to the survivor automatically
Share of a home with no survivorship wording, or a sole name property	Yes. The executor has to convey it
Bank or savings balance	Only if that provider asks. Each sets its own limit
ISA or investment account	Often. These are always sole name, so each is judged on its own value
Pension death benefit paid at trustees' discretion, or a policy in trust	No. It is paid outside the estate

If nothing on your list produces a yes, the estate can be settled without going near the sheriff court. If something does, the whole estate goes into the inventory, not just the item that triggered it, and the next question is procedural: the forms, executor nominate versus executor dative, and the court steps. Those sit in confirmation: the Scottish probate process explained, with the money side in probate costs in England, Wales and Scotland compared.

Two Scottish rules also change who is entitled to what, whether or not confirmation was needed. Legal rights give a spouse, civil partner and children a claim on the moveable estate even where a will leaves them out, covered in legal rights in Scotland, and with no will, prior rights and legal rights apply in a fixed order, set out in the Scottish intestacy rules. Inheritance tax is UK wide and unaffected, per the inheritance tax threshold in Scotland. General principles sit in our probate hub, and mygov.scot is the official starting point for applying.

Two phone calls and one look at the title sheet usually settle it. Where they do not, the reason is normally specific: ambiguous title wording, a share held with someone other than a spouse, a business interest, or assets in more than one jurisdiction. Any of those can flip the answer late. We can put you in touch with a Scottish executry specialist who will read the title and the asset list and tell you which side of the line you are on.