Missing will: what to do if you can't find one

Start with one question: where was the will last kept?

Everything about a missing will turns on its last known location. If the will was last held by a solicitor or a storage service and has gone astray, a copy can usually be proved without much difficulty. But if the will was last known to be in the deceased's own possession and cannot be found after their death, the law presumes they destroyed it deliberately to revoke it. Under section 20 of the Wills Act 1837, burning, tearing or otherwise destroying a will with the intention of revoking it is a valid way to cancel it, and the courts fill the evidential gap with that presumption. Unless the family can rebut it, even a perfect photocopy counts for nothing and the estate is distributed as if no will had ever existed.

That is why the search matters so much, and why it needs to be systematic rather than a quick look through a filing cabinet. This guide walks through where to look, how the National Will Register works, the procedure for proving a copy will, and what the intestacy rules would do to the estate if nothing can be found. It is general information about how the process works in England and Wales, not legal advice for any particular estate.

Step one: search the obvious places properly

Before anything formal, cover the physical ground:

• The home. Filing cabinets, desk drawers, home safes, folders of "important documents" kept with deeds, passports and insurance policies. Check lofts, garages and boxes from any recent house move.
• Every solicitor the deceased ever used. Not just a firm the family remembers for the will, but the conveyancer who handled house purchases, the firm that dealt with a divorce or a business sale. Firms store original wills for decades, and firms that have closed or merged pass their will banks to successor practices.
• Banks. Some older wills sit in bank safe custody. Ask any bank the deceased held accounts with whether they hold documents for them.
• Will-writing companies and online will services. If the deceased made a will outside a solicitors' firm, the provider may hold the original or a registered copy.
• HM Courts and Tribunals Service will storage. Wills can be deposited with the Probate Service for safekeeping; ask whether one is held for the deceased.
• The people around them. Executors named in any earlier will, close friends, an accountant or financial adviser. Someone may know a will was made, when, and with whom, even if they do not hold it.

Keep a written note of everywhere searched and everyone asked, with dates. If a copy will later has to be proved, that record becomes part of the evidence that the original is genuinely lost rather than revoked.

Step two: a National Will Register search

The National Will Register, operated by Certainty, is the industry register used by solicitors and will writers across England and Wales, holding millions of will registrations. A Certainty Will Search does two things: it checks whether the will was registered, and it can send targeted enquiries to firms in the geographical areas where the deceased lived and worked, asking whether they hold a will. There is a fee for the search, and results from the outreach element take a few weeks to come back.

A search is worth commissioning even where the family is confident no will exists. Personal representatives who distribute an estate on intestacy, only for a valid will to surface later, face claims from the beneficiaries who should have inherited. A documented professional search is the standard way to show the estate was administered with reasonable care. It pairs naturally with the searches covered in our guide to storing a will and the National Will Register, which explains registration from the will-maker's side.

Step three: if a copy exists, ask whether it can be proved

A photocopy, a solicitor's file copy, a draft, even a reconstruction from memory can be admitted to probate, but never automatically. Under rule 54 of the Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987, a district judge or registrar may order that a copy or reconstruction be admitted to proof, limited until the original turns up. The application is made with supporting evidence covering three things:

1. The will's existence after death, or rebuttal of the presumption of revocation. Evidence that the will survived the deceased, or facts pointing away from deliberate destruction: the deceased referred to the will as still standing shortly before death, the household papers were disturbed by a move, a flood or a clear-out, or the will was last tracked to a third party rather than the deceased's own keeping.
2. Due execution. Evidence that the original was validly signed and witnessed, often from the drafting file or the witnesses themselves.
3. Accuracy of the copy. Confirmation that the copy or reconstruction faithfully reflects the original's contents.

The registrar can require notice to be given to anyone prejudiced by the copy being admitted, typically the people who would inherit more under intestacy. Where those people consent, the application is far smoother. Where someone objects, the question can turn contentious, and at that point the family needs advice from a contentious probate solicitor rather than a guide. Our overview of contesting a will in the UK explains how disputes of that kind are framed.

Step four: if nothing can be found, intestacy applies

If no will, no copy and no reliable evidence of contents can be located, the estate is administered under the intestacy rules. In England and Wales, a surviving spouse or civil partner receives the personal possessions, a statutory legacy of £322,000 for deaths on or after 26 July 2023 (confirmed in HMRC's Inheritance Tax Manual at IHTM12122), and half of whatever remains, with the other half divided between the children. With no surviving spouse, the children share everything; the line then runs to parents, siblings and beyond. GOV.UK's intestacy checker works through the order for any family shape, and our guide to who inherits if there is no will sets out the full hierarchy.

Two groups lose out entirely under intestacy, however clearly a lost will may have provided for them: unmarried partners and stepchildren who were never adopted. That is usually where the real cost of a missing will lands.

What each outcome looks like in practice

Outcome of the search	Probate route	Who inherits
Original will found	Standard application (form PA1P)	The beneficiaries named in the will
Copy only, presumption rebutted	PA1P plus a rule 54 order admitting the copy	The beneficiaries named in the will, unless the original later surfaces
No will found or proved	Application on intestacy (form PA1A)	Family in the statutory order; spouse takes the first £322,000 plus half the rest

Whichever route applies, the application fee is the same: £526 for estates over £5,000 from 13 July 2026, with no fee below that and sealed copies of the grant at £2 each when ordered with the application, per GOV.UK's probate fees page. Whether the estate needs a grant at all depends on what it contains; our do I need probate checker gives a quick answer before anyone commits to the paperwork, and the probate pillar guide covers the process end to end.

A worked example: the copy on the conveyancing file

Tomasz, a widower, dies at 78 leaving a house and savings worth £430,000. His two sons, Alex and Ben, cannot find a will at the house, but they know one existed: their father raised his stepdaughter Chloe from the age of six and always said the estate would be split three ways. A Certainty Will Search turns up nothing registered, but a letter to the firm that handled his last house purchase finds a file copy of a 2019 will dividing the estate equally between all three, made and kept, unfortunately, by a will-writing company that has since closed.

The original was last known to be in Tomasz's possession, so the presumption of revocation applies. The family's evidence: Tomasz downsized in 2023 and paid a clearance firm to empty his old loft, and he emailed Alex in 2025 saying the will "still stands as it always has". Alex and Ben, who would each take £215,000 under intestacy, consent to the copy being admitted. On that evidence a district judge admits the copy under rule 54, and each of the three inherits roughly £143,000. Without the rebuttal evidence and the brothers' consent, Chloe, a stepdaughter never formally adopted, would have received nothing.

Where to get help

A straightforward search and an intestacy application are manageable without professional help. The moment a copy will has to be proved, or someone stands to lose from it being admitted, the evidence needs to be assembled properly the first time, because a refused application narrows the options for everyone. A probate specialist can assess how strong the rebuttal evidence is, prepare the rule 54 application and deal with anyone who needs to be given notice. If a missing will is holding up an estate you are responsible for, speaking to a specialist early is the fastest way to find out which of the three outcomes above you are actually dealing with.