Do you need probate to sell or transfer a property?

Two questions decide it: whose name is on the title, and how was it held?

You need probate to sell or transfer a property if it was registered in the deceased's sole name, or if they held their share as tenants in common. You do not need probate for a property held as joint tenants, because it passes automatically to the surviving owner the moment the other owner dies. Everything else in this guide flows from that distinction, so the first practical step after a death is to check the title at HM Land Registry (£7 for an official copy) and establish which kind of ownership you are dealing with.

This article covers England and Wales, where the document you need is the grant of probate (where there is a will) or letters of administration (where there is not). Scotland runs a separate system called confirmation. What follows is general information to help you plan the sale or transfer, not legal or financial advice for your specific estate.

When you do not need probate: the joint tenants exception

Where a couple, or any co-owners, held the property as joint tenants, the survivorship rule applies. GOV.UK's probate guidance confirms that land or property owned as joint tenants "automatically passes to the surviving owners". No grant is needed for that asset. The surviving owner completes Land Registry form DJP, sends it with an official copy of the death certificate, and the deceased's name comes off the register. There is no Land Registry fee for this. The survivor is then sole legal owner and can sell, remortgage or transfer the property exactly as any other owner could.

Tenants in common are different. Each owner holds a distinct share, often 50/50 but sometimes unequal, and that share does not pass by survivorship. It passes under the deceased's will or the intestacy rules, which means a grant is normally needed before the share can be transferred or the whole property sold with clean title. If you are not sure which arrangement applied, the title register will show a "Form A restriction" where the property was held as tenants in common. Our companion guide to probate for jointly owned assets works through bank accounts and other joint holdings on the same logic, and if the death was a spouse's, see whether you need probate when a spouse dies.

What each scenario looks like in practice

How the property was held	Probate needed?	What actually happens
Sole name, being sold	Yes	Market it now if you wish, but exchange and completion wait for the grant
Sole name, transferred to a beneficiary	Yes	Assent by forms AS1 and AP1 after the grant, with the grant lodged at the Land Registry
Joint tenants, survivor keeps or sells it	No (for this asset)	Form DJP plus death certificate removes the deceased's name; survivor sells as sole owner
Tenants in common	Usually yes	The deceased's share passes under the will or intestacy; a grant is needed to deal with it
Property held in a trust	Depends on the trust	The trustees, not the estate, control it; take advice on the trust deed

One caution on the joint tenants row: "no probate for the house" is not the same as "no probate for the estate". If the deceased also had sole-name bank accounts or investments above the institutions' thresholds, a grant may still be needed for those, even though the house itself passes by survivorship. Our probate pillar guide covers the whole-estate question.

What executors can start on day one

A point that surprises many executors: you do not have to sit on your hands while the probate application is processed. An executor's authority comes from the will itself, from the date of death, and the grant is the court's confirmation of it. That means you can legitimately, and usually should:

• Instruct an estate agent and put the property on the market, making clear the sale is subject to probate.
• Commission an EPC, gather title documents and prepare the conveyancing paperwork.
• Accept an offer subject to contract. Nothing binding happens at this stage, so no grant is required.
• Insure the property. Standard home insurance often lapses or restricts cover once a property is empty, so unoccupied-property cover is an early priority.
• Clear, secure and maintain the house, keeping receipts, as these are estate expenses.

The hard block sits at exchange of contracts. Exchange creates a binding obligation to complete, and personal representatives cannot give the buyer legal title without the grant, so a buyer's conveyancer will not exchange until it exists (some will agree to exchange with completion conditional on the grant, but many prefer to wait). Completion and registration of the transfer at HM Land Registry both require the grant. Starting the marketing early therefore costs nothing and can save months: if the grant and the buyer's mortgage offer arrive at a similar time, the sale can proceed almost immediately.

How long the wait actually is

Once the application is submitted, GOV.UK states that you will usually receive the grant within 12 weeks, longer if the registry needs more information or a form was incomplete. Add the time needed before applying, valuing the estate and, where inheritance tax is due, submitting the IHT400 and paying at least part of the tax, and a realistic path from death to completed sale is often six to nine months. The application fee is £526 for estates over £5,000 (nothing below that), and extra sealed copies of the grant cost £2 each when ordered with the application. You can model your own dates with our probate timeline estimator, and our guide to how long probate takes breaks down each stage.

Worked example: a sole-name house, an IHT bill, and no cash to pay it

Priya and her brother Sanjay are executors of their father's estate in Leicester. He owned his house in his sole name, worth £425,000, plus £135,000 in savings: an estate of £560,000, left equally to the two of them. With the £325,000 nil-rate band and £175,000 residence nil-rate band available (the house passes to direct descendants), £60,000 is taxable at 40%, an inheritance tax bill of £24,000.

Here is the squeeze: HMRC normally requires a payment towards the inheritance tax before the grant is issued, and the tax is due by the end of the sixth month after death, yet the asset that holds most of the value cannot be sold until the grant arrives. Priya and Sanjay use two tools:

1. The Direct Payment Scheme. Their father's bank pays HMRC directly from his accounts before the grant, covering the tax attributable to the savings. Our guide to paying inheritance tax before probate explains the scheme step by step.
2. The instalment option on the house. Tax attributable to land and buildings can be paid in up to 10 equal annual instalments, with interest usually charged on the outstanding balance. That lets them pay only the first instalment of the house's share before the grant.

They market the house in month two, the grant arrives in month five, and they complete the sale in month eight at £430,000. At that point the instalment concession ends: GOV.UK is explicit that you must pay the remaining tax in full once the asset is sold. The proceeds clear the balance with plenty to spare, and the estate winds up without either executor fronting money personally. On costs more generally, see how much probate costs.

Transferring to a beneficiary instead of selling

If the will leaves the house to a beneficiary who wants to keep it, the grant is still required. After it arrives, the personal representatives execute an assent, Land Registry form AS1, lodged with form AP1, the grant and identity verification, plus the Land Registry fee. The beneficiary becomes the registered owner. Two follow-on points are worth noting. First, if the beneficiary later sells, their capital gains tax base cost is the inheritance tax value at death, so only growth after death is taxed; getting the probate valuation right therefore matters twice, once for IHT and once for CGT, and our guide to capital gains tax on inherited property covers the sale-side sums. Second, if the estate sells rather than assents, the conveyancing runs slightly differently for a probate sale, which we walk through in probate and selling the deceased's property.

Getting the sequence right

Most delays in probate property sales come from doing things in series that could run in parallel: waiting for the grant before instructing an agent, or waiting for a buyer before tackling the IHT payment question. The efficient order is to confirm how the title was held in week one, start the valuation and marketing immediately if a sale is planned, apply for probate as soon as the figures allow, and line up the tax payment route (Direct Payment Scheme, instalments, or a loan) before the six-month deadline bites. Where the estate involves a mortgage on the property, a trust, a part-share, or co-owners who disagree about selling, the title questions get technical quickly, and a probate specialist can usually spot the complication before it becomes a collapsed sale. If you would like help with a property-heavy estate, we can put you in touch with one who handles probate sales and transfers day in, day out.