Probate is required when someone dies owning assets that cannot be released or transferred without legal authority. In practice that usually means property held in their sole name, or money held with a bank or provider above the limit that provider sets. If everything was jointly owned, or the estate is small enough that every provider will pay out on a death certificate alone, you may not need it at all.
There is no single legal threshold, and that is the part most guides get wrong. Whether probate is needed is decided asset by asset, by the organisations holding the money, not by a rule in a statute. This guide explains how to work out where your situation falls. It applies to England and Wales.
The quick check
Work through these five questions. A yes to any of them means you will almost certainly need probate.
1. Did the deceased own property or land in their sole name, or as tenants in common with someone else?
2. Does any single bank, building society or investment provider hold more than its own release limit in their sole name?
3. Did they hold shares above the registrar’s small-estate limit?
4. Does the will create a trust?
5. Are there business assets, or assets held abroad?
If the answer to all five is no, probate may not be needed. Confirm it with every organisation holding an asset before you assume, because each one decides for itself.
Why probate is required at all
When someone dies, their assets are frozen. Nobody has automatic authority to deal with them, not even an executor named in the will and not a spouse. The grant of probate, or letters of administration where there is no will, is the court document that proves who does have that authority.
Executors use it to close and release bank accounts, sell or transfer property, cash in investments, pay debts and inheritance tax, and distribute what is left to the beneficiaries. Without it most banks, investment providers and HM Land Registry will simply refuse to act.
A common misconception is that a valid will removes the need for probate. It does not. The will says who inherits; the grant proves the executor has the power to carry it out. A power of attorney does not help either, because it dies with the person who granted it.
When probate is usually required
Property in a sole name, or held as tenants in common
This is the most common trigger. If the deceased owned a house, flat or land in their sole name, a grant is needed before it can be sold or transferred. HM Land Registry will not register a new owner without one.
Where property was co-owned, everything turns on how it was held. Beneficial joint tenants own the whole together, and the deceased’s interest passes automatically to the survivor, so no grant is needed for that property. Tenants in common each own a distinct share, which does not pass automatically. It passes under the will or the intestacy rules, and a grant is needed to transfer it.
Money above a provider’s release limit
There is no statutory probate limit. Each bank, building society and investment provider sets its own figure, can change it without notice, and can insist on a grant at any value if it wants to. That means the answer differs from one account to the next.
Published limits, where the provider states one, look like this:
| Provider | Published limit |
|---|---|
| Santander | £50,000 across all sole-name accounts |
| Nationwide | £50,000 |
| Co-operative Bank and smile | £50,000 combined |
| Yorkshire Building Society | £50,000 |
| National Savings and Investments | £5,000 |
| HSBC | No published figure, assessed case by case |
Barclays, Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, NatWest and TSB do not publish a figure at all. Plenty of websites state £50,000 for all of them, and that may well be right, but none of those banks says so in its own bereavement material. Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland say only that it depends on the products held. Ring the bereavement team and ask rather than relying on a number you read somewhere, including here.
The practical range across the market is roughly £5,000 to £50,000, and the sector has been drifting upwards towards £50,000 in recent years. Note that the limits apply per provider, not to the estate as a whole, so an estate of £120,000 spread across three banks may need no grant at all while an estate of £60,000 in one account does.
Shares above the registrar’s limit
Shares are handled by registrars rather than the companies themselves, and each registrar operates a small-estate procedure with its own ceiling, applied per company holding rather than to the whole estate. All of them also require that no inheritance tax is payable.
| Registrar | Small-estate limit per holding |
|---|---|
| Equiniti | £50,000 |
| MUFG Corporate Markets (formerly Link Group) | £30,000 |
| Computershare | £20,000 |
Because the limit is per holding, several modest shareholdings can each qualify separately. The process is a small estates declaration and indemnity form rather than a grant, and registrars charge a fee for it.
A trust in the will
If the will creates a trust, probate is almost always required. The will has to be proved before the executor can move assets into the trust or begin administering it. This applies to bare trusts, life interest trusts, discretionary trusts and property protection trusts alike.
Business assets or assets abroad
A share in a business, or an asset held in another country, will normally need a grant. Foreign assets may also need the grant to be resealed or a separate local process to be followed, which is worth taking advice on early.
When probate is not required
Probate is often unnecessary in three situations.
Everything was held jointly. Where the home was held as beneficial joint tenants and the accounts were joint accounts, everything passes to the survivor automatically and there is nothing that needs a grant to move.
The estate is small. If every provider holding money will release it below its own limit, and there is no property in a sole name, a death certificate and the provider’s own claim form may be all that is needed.
The assets pass outside the estate anyway. Most workplace and personal pensions are paid at the discretion of the scheme trustees and never form part of the estate. A life policy written in trust pays the trustees directly. Death in service benefits usually work the same way. None of these require probate, although from April 2027 most unused pension funds will start to count towards inheritance tax even though they still do not need a grant.
Even where you are confident, confirm it with each organisation in writing before distributing anything. Policies differ and they change.
Does a surviving spouse need probate?
Not automatically, and this is where the biggest misunderstanding sits. Being married to the person who died gives you no authority over their assets. What decides the question is how those assets were owned, not who you were to them.
The home
If you owned the house as beneficial joint tenants, it passes to you by survivorship and no grant is needed. You remove your late spouse’s name from the title using HM Land Registry form DJP, supported by evidence of the death. There is no Land Registry fee for this.
If you owned it as tenants in common, their share does not pass to you automatically. It passes under their will or the intestacy rules, and a grant is needed to deal with it, even where the will leaves that share to you.
One thing to check on the title before assuming survivorship applies. A joint tenancy can be severed, which converts it into a tenancy in common, and couples sometimes do this deliberately for tax or care-fee planning and then forget. The tell-tale is a Form A restriction on the register. If it is there, the property is almost certainly held as tenants in common.
The bank accounts
Joint accounts normally continue in the survivor’s name, and the bank will usually simply remove the deceased’s name once it has seen the death certificate. Accounts in your late spouse’s sole name are a different matter and are governed by that provider’s release limit.
There is a trap here worth knowing about. Survivorship decides who gets the money at the bank. It does not decide who owned it for inheritance tax. HMRC’s position is that each account holder is beneficially entitled to the proportion they contributed, and where the deceased provided all of the money, the whole account belongs in their estate for tax. The classic case is an elderly parent who added an adult child to their account for convenience. The money passes to the child at the counter, and is still fully taxable in the parent’s estate.
Inheritance tax is a separate question from probate
Anything passing to a surviving spouse or civil partner is exempt from inheritance tax, however large. That exemption does not remove the need for probate, and needing probate does not mean tax is due. The two questions are decided by different rules and you have to answer both.
The allowance you can still claim later
If no probate is taken out on the first death, the transferable nil rate band can still be claimed when the second spouse dies. The unused proportion of the first estate’s nil rate band transfers across, potentially doubling the allowance available to £650,000.
Keep the paperwork. The executors of the second estate will need the first spouse’s death certificate, the marriage or civil partnership certificate, a copy of the will or evidence that the intestacy rules applied, and enough information to show how much of the allowance went unused. Gathering that thirty years later is considerably harder than filing it now.
Do you need probate if everything is in joint names?
Usually not, but check three things before concluding it.
First, whether the property really is held as beneficial joint tenants rather than tenants in common. The Land Registry title will tell you.
Second, whether anything at all sat in the deceased’s sole name. A single forgotten account, a share certificate, a premium bond holding or an old pension can be enough to need a grant on its own.
Third, whether inheritance tax has to be reported even though no grant is needed. Jointly held assets still count towards the estate for tax, and the beneficial ownership of a joint account may not match the names on it.
Premium bonds are a common loose end. National Savings and Investments will ask for a grant at £5,000 or more, and reserves the right to ask at any value. Bonds stay in the monthly prize draw for twelve months after the death, cannot be transferred to anyone else, and must eventually be repaid.
Probate and inheritance tax: two different questions
You can need a grant with no tax to pay. You can owe tax on an estate that needs no grant. Working out which applies to you means answering both separately.
For deaths on or after 1 January 2022, most estates are excepted estates, which means no IHT400 is needed and the figures are reported through the probate application itself. An estate is a low value excepted estate where the gross value does not exceed the nil rate band, and an exempt excepted estate where the gross value does not exceed £3 million and the net chargeable value, after the spouse and charity exemptions, does not exceed the nil rate band. Both categories also cap trust property, foreign assets and lifetime gifts.
The nil rate band is £325,000 and the residence nil rate band is £175,000. Both are frozen until 5 April 2031, confirmed at Budget 2025. Some pages on GOV.UK still show the earlier 2030 date and have not yet been updated.
What probate costs and how long it takes
The application fee is £526 where the estate is worth more than £5,000, and there is no fee at all for an estate of £5,000 or less. That fee rose from £300 on 13 July 2026, so any guide quoting £300 is out of date.
Order extra copies of the grant at the same time as you apply. They cost £2 each when ordered with the application and £16 each afterwards, and you will want one for each bank, provider and registrar you have to deal with. A second application where probate has already been granted costs £22.
Straightforward applications that pass without queries are typically taking a few weeks once the inheritance tax position is settled, but a tax account, a query from the Probate Registry or a missing document will add months.
How to check whether you need probate
Take it in order.
Step 1: list every asset and how it was owned. Sole name, joint, or in trust. Get the Land Registry title for any property rather than relying on memory.
Step 2: write to every bank, provider and registrar with a copy of the death certificate and ask directly whether they will release the asset without a grant, and what their limit is. Get the answer in writing.
Step 3: work out the inheritance tax position separately, and whether the estate is excepted.
Step 4: if any single organisation says it needs a grant, you need one. There is no partial grant, so one asset can require it for the whole estate.
Related questions
Some situations have their own answer, and we cover them separately:
Do you need probate if there is a will?
Do I need probate if I have power of attorney?
Do you need probate if there is a trust?
Do you need probate to transfer an ISA to a spouse?
I am the executor and sole beneficiary, do I need probate?
Do I need probate to sell a house?
Get help deciding
If you are not sure whether probate applies, it is worth a conversation before you start filling in forms. The Probate Network can put you in touch with an SRA-regulated probate solicitor for free initial advice, and can get you three written quotes from different regulated firms if you decide you want professional help with the administration. Both are free and neither commits you to anything.
Frequently asked questions
Is probate always needed when someone dies?
No. Probate is needed when an asset cannot be released or transferred without legal authority, which usually means property in a sole name or money above a provider’s release limit. Where everything was held jointly and passes to the survivor, or the estate is small enough that every provider will pay out on the death certificate alone, no grant is needed.
What is the probate threshold in the UK?
There is no legal threshold. Each bank, building society and provider sets its own limit, and these currently range from about £5,000 to £50,000. Santander, Nationwide, the Co-operative Bank and Yorkshire Building Society publish a £50,000 limit; National Savings and Investments uses £5,000. Several major banks publish no figure at all, so ask each one directly.
Does a surviving spouse need probate?
Only if something needs it. A home held as beneficial joint tenants and joint bank accounts pass to the survivor automatically with no grant required. A property held as tenants in common, or any account in the deceased’s sole name above the provider’s limit, will need one, regardless of the fact that you were married.
Do you need probate if everything is in joint names?
Usually not, because jointly held assets pass to the surviving owner by survivorship. Check that the property was genuinely held as beneficial joint tenants rather than tenants in common, and that nothing was left in the deceased’s sole name. Inheritance tax may still have to be reported even where no grant is needed.
Do I need probate if there is a will?
Often yes. A will does not remove the need for probate. It says who inherits, while the grant proves the executor has authority to act. Whether you need a grant depends on the assets and how they were owned, not on whether a will exists.
How much does it cost to apply for probate?
The application fee is £526 for estates worth more than £5,000, and nothing for estates of £5,000 or less. Extra copies of the grant cost £2 each if ordered with the application, or £16 each later. These figures changed on 13 July 2026.
Can I avoid probate?
Not by choice after the death. Either an asset needs a grant to release it or it does not, and that is determined by how the asset was owned and by the policy of the organisation holding it. What can be planned in advance, during someone’s lifetime, is how assets are held, which is a conversation to have with a solicitor rather than a decision to make afterwards.
This article is for general guidance only and does not constitute legal, tax or financial advice. Thresholds, fees and rules change, and every estate is different. Figures were checked in September 2026. For advice on your own circumstances, speak to a qualified professional. You can book a free legal consultation through The Probate Network.
