Which probate form do you need: PA1P or PA1A?

One question decides it

Did the person who died leave a valid will? That single fact chooses your form. If there is a will, you apply on form PA1P and the probate registry issues a grant of probate. If there is no valid will, the estate is intestate and you apply on form PA1A for letters of administration. Both routes end in a sealed document that banks, HM Land Registry and investment platforms will accept as proof of your authority; the difference is who is entitled to apply and which rules govern who inherits.

This guide covers England and Wales (Scotland uses a separate process called confirmation, and Northern Ireland has its own forms). It walks through who applies on each form, the awkward middle cases, what the forms ask for, and the current fee. It is general information rather than legal or financial advice, so treat it as a map, not a route card for your specific estate. Once you know which form you need, our probate timeline estimator will give you a realistic sense of how long the whole process is likely to take.

PA1P and PA1A side by side

	PA1P	PA1A
When to use it	The person who died left a valid will	No valid will exists (intestacy)
Who applies first	The executors named in the will	Spouse or civil partner, then children aged 18 or over
Grant issued	Grant of probate (or letters of administration with will annexed)	Letters of administration
Who inherits	Whoever the will says	The intestacy rules decide
Application fee	£526 (estate over £5,000)	£526 (estate over £5,000)

Note the second row carefully. The form tracks the existence of the will, not the type of applicant. A beneficiary applying because no executor can act still uses PA1P. A separated spouse applying under intestacy still uses PA1A. Get the will question right and the rest follows.

PA1P: when there is a will

GOV.UK describes PA1P as the form to "apply for the legal right to manage the estate of someone who has died and left a will". The executors named in the will apply, and up to four can be listed on one grant. Executors who do not want to act can renounce entirely or have power reserved, which keeps their right to step in later; our guide to renouncing versus reserving power explains the difference and why reserving is usually the safer default.

The edge case that confuses people most: a will exists but no executor can take it forward. Perhaps the will named a spouse who died first, or the sole executor has lost capacity, or everyone named has renounced. The instinct is to reach for PA1A because "there is no executor", but that is wrong. The will is still valid, so the application still goes in on PA1P, made by a beneficiary of the will. The registry then issues letters of administration with will annexed instead of a grant of probate. The label on the grant changes; the estate is still distributed exactly as the will directs.

PA1A is only correct where the will itself fails: it was never validly executed, it was revoked (for example by a later marriage), or no will can be found at all after a proper search. If a foreign will exists that does not deal with assets in England and Wales, the position depends on what the will covers, and that is a situation worth putting in front of a specialist before choosing a form.

PA1A: when there is no will

Form PA1A is for applying for "letters of administration to manage the estate of the person who has died if they have not left a will". Because there is no will naming anyone, the law supplies the order of applicants. GOV.UK's guidance on applying where there is no will sets it out:

1. Husband, wife or civil partner, and this includes a spouse or civil partner who was separated from the person who died but not divorced.
2. Children aged 18 or over, including legally adopted children but not step-children.
3. Other relatives in a fixed order of kinship if none of the above exist.

One exclusion catches many families off guard: a cohabiting partner cannot apply on PA1A, however long the relationship lasted, because GOV.UK is explicit that "you cannot apply if you're the partner of the person but were not their husband, wife or civil partner when they died". The same exclusion applies to inheriting. Our guides to who inherits when there is no will and the position of unmarried partners under the intestacy rules cover what this means for the estate itself, which matters just as much as who fills in the form.

A short example shows the two routes diverging. Marcus dies at 71, a widower with a daughter, Elena, and a son, Theo. If Marcus left a will naming Elena as executor, she applies on PA1P and distributes the estate as the will says. If Marcus never made a will, his children are first in line (his wife predeceased him), so Elena and Theo, both over 18, apply on PA1A and the intestacy rules split the estate equally between them. Same family, same assets, different form, and a different legal basis for everything that follows.

What both forms ask for

The two forms gather broadly the same information: details of the person who died, the original will and any codicils (PA1P only), details of the applicants and their entitlement, and the estate's gross and net values for probate and for inheritance tax.

That last part changed for deaths on or after 1 January 2022. The old short-form tax return, IHT205, was abolished for those deaths. For an excepted estate (broadly, one with no inheritance tax to pay that meets the qualifying conditions), GOV.UK confirms you now report the estate's estimated values as part of the probate application itself, on PA1P or PA1A, with no separate HMRC form. If the estate is not excepted, you must send full details to HMRC on form IHT400 before the probate application can proceed. Our IHT400 versus excepted estates walkthrough covers which side of that line an estate falls on, and the wider valuation duty is explained in the GOV.UK probate guidance.

Fees, copies and the online alternative

Whichever form applies, the fee is the same. Per the current GOV.UK fees page, the application fee in England and Wales is £526 where the estate is worth more than £5,000, and nothing where it is £5,000 or less. Extra sealed copies of the grant cost £2 each when ordered with the application, but £16 each afterwards, an eight-fold difference, so count the asset holders who will each want a sealed copy before you submit. Our guide on how many copies of the grant you need has a practical tally. Help with fees may be available for applicants on a low income or certain benefits.

You may not need paper at all. GOV.UK lets most personal applicants apply online whether or not there is a will, and states plainly that "if you are applying online, you do not need to submit a paper application". The paper forms remain the route for cases the online service cannot handle. Either way, the original will (where there is one) and the death certificate details are still required, and postal applications generally take longer to process, which is worth factoring into the timeline alongside everything in our guide to how long probate takes.

Choosing the form is the easy part

PA1P for a will, PA1A for no will: the choice itself takes seconds once you know whether a valid will exists. The work sits behind it, confirming the will really is the last valid one, establishing who is entitled to apply, valuing the estate correctly and dealing with HMRC where tax is due. The broader process is mapped in our probate pillar guide, and the probate timeline estimator will show you where the weeks actually go.

If your situation has a wrinkle (a missing will, a renouncing executor, a separated spouse, assets abroad), that is precisely the point where a probate specialist earns their place. Getting the entitlement and the form right first time avoids a rejected application and the weeks of delay that come with it, and we can put you in touch with someone who handles these applications for a living.