NS&I has identified £367m in savings owed to bereaved families. Could you be affected? Find out →
Farra is a death administration assistant for UK families. Get step-by-step guidance for registering a death, applying for probate, notifying banks, and managing bereavement admin. From essential documents to practical checklists, Farra simplifies estate paperwork and funeral-related tasks so you can focus on what matters.
Getting a probate house ready for viewings is mostly about small, inexpensive jobs done well, not renovation. This guide walks through what genuinely helps the sale, what buyers already expect from a probate property, and the practical wrinkles of showing an empty house, especially when you live a long way from it.
The honest starting point is this: buyers viewing a probate property expect dated decor, and they discount their offers for it. A 1980s kitchen or tired carpets will not shock anyone who has seen the listing photos. Because of that, spending thousands of pounds of estate money on a new kitchen or a full redecoration rarely pays for itself. You would be taking risk with money that belongs to the beneficiaries, for a return that is far from guaranteed.
What does pay back is light preparation. These jobs cost little, often just your time, and they change how the house feels the moment someone walks through the door:
Coordinate clearing with the contents plan
Before anything leaves the house, check what the will gifts to specific people and what you intend to include in the sale on the TA10 fittings and contents form. Our guides to clearing a house after a death and the TA10 form for executors explain how to sequence this so nothing is thrown away that should have been kept, valued or sold with the house.
An Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is a legal requirement before a property can be marketed for sale. An EPC rates the home's energy efficiency and lasts 10 years, so before paying for a new one, search the public register on GOV.UK. If the deceased bought, sold or let the property in the last decade, a valid certificate may already exist.
If there is no valid EPC, commissioning one typically costs around £60 to £120. Your estate agent can usually arrange it, or you can book an accredited assessor directly. Do this early: it is a five-minute job to organise, and it removes the one legal blocker between you and a live listing.
An empty house still needs to perform on viewing day. Keep the electricity supply connected and switched on, so that lights work and the heating can be demonstrated. A buyer who cannot check that the boiler fires will either assume the worst or ask for a discount to cover it.
Heating and water need a little more thought. Insurers of unoccupied homes impose conditions on their cover, and those conditions shape what you can and cannot do. Common requirements include regular inspection visits, either a drained-down water system or minimum background heating through winter, and specific security measures. Breach the conditions and a claim can be refused.
Check the policy before touching the heating
Before you leave the heating running for viewings, or drain the system down for winter, read the unoccupied property policy or call the insurer. Some policies require one approach or the other. Our guide to empty property insurance after a death covers the conditions in detail.
If the water system has been drained, tell the agent so they can explain it to viewers. A house with no running water sounds alarming to a buyer unless someone says, plainly, that it was done deliberately to protect the pipes.
Many executors live nowhere near the property, and driving three hours to open a door for a fifteen-minute viewing is not sustainable. This is one of the strongest arguments for a full-service local estate agent rather than a cheaper online-only listing. A good local agent will hold a set of keys, accompany every viewing, and give you feedback afterwards without you leaving home.
Before handing keys over, ask the agent:
For how to choose and instruct an agent in the first place, including fees and the questions that matter for a probate sale, see our guide to instructing an estate agent as an executor.
Selling the home they left behind?
From the first valuation to handing over the keys, in 2 minutes Farra maps every step of the sale in the right order.
There is a balance to strike between presenting the house well and being straight with buyers. Two principles help.
Protect the family's privacy. Before the marketing photographs are taken and viewings begin, remove personal photographs and personal effects. This is partly presentation, since buyers find it easier to imagine themselves in a more neutral space, but mostly it is about privacy. Family photos do not belong on Rightmove, and grieving relatives should not have to see them there.
Be upfront that it is a probate sale. There is no advantage in hiding it, and buyers usually work it out anyway. Better, a probate sale is chain-free upwards: nobody above you needs to find a house to buy, which many buyers actively want. Let the agent present that as the selling point it is. Honesty here also sets the right expectations about timing if the grant of probate has not yet arrived.
For the wider sale process from valuation through to completion, our pillar guide to selling an inherited house covers every stage.
Once a property is listed, strangers know it is likely to be empty, and the listing photos show them what is inside. A few precautions remove most of the risk:
Usually not. Buyers expect a probate property to be dated and discount their offers for it, so deep renovation rarely pays back for the estate. Cheap improvements do help: clear clutter, clean thoroughly, air the house, tidy the garden, fix trivial defects and make sure every lightbulb works.
Yes. An Energy Performance Certificate is legally required before a property can be marketed. Check the public EPC register on GOV.UK first, because certificates last 10 years and one may already exist. A new EPC typically costs around £60 to £120.
Check the unoccupied property insurance policy first. Insurers of empty homes impose conditions, commonly either minimum background heating in winter or a fully drained water system, plus regular inspection visits and security measures. Breaching the conditions can invalidate a claim, so confirm what your policy requires before deciding.
Use a full-service local estate agent who holds the keys and accompanies every viewing. Before handing keys over, ask how keys are stored, who has access, how alarm codes are handled, and whether the agent will lock up and report problems after each viewing.
Yes. Be upfront in the listing and in conversations. Buyers usually work it out anyway, and a probate sale is chain-free upwards, which many buyers and their lenders actively prefer. Honesty also sets realistic expectations about timing if the grant of probate has not yet been issued.
Remove valuables, cash and important documents before photography and viewings, arrange Royal Mail redirection for the deceased's post so the letterbox does not overflow, consider timer lights for the evenings, and keep up the regular inspection visits your insurer requires.
Once the house is presentable, insured and secure, the next steps are offers and the legal work. See our guides to instructing an estate agent as an executor and selling an inherited house for the road ahead.
Selling a home you never lived in raises questions nobody prepares you for.
Answer a few questions in under 2 minutes and Farra maps the sale from where you are now: what has to happen before you can put it on the market, the seller forms only you can complete, and how to look after the empty home while you wait.
Free to check · 2 minutes · No account needed · £179 for your full Farra plan