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When someone dies owning a home in their sole name and left no will, you will almost certainly need to apply for a grant — specifically letters of administration — before the property can be sold or put into anyone else's name. The property forms part of the estate, and the intestacy rules decide who is entitled to deal with it and who inherits. This is one of the clearest "yes, you need a grant" situations there is. This guide covers England and Wales. Northern Ireland works the same way but applies its own intestacy figures; in Scotland the equivalent document is confirmation, obtained from the sheriff court, and the person appointed is an executor-dative.
Losing someone without a will can feel like being handed a process with no instructions. The good news is that the path here is well-trodden and predictable. This guide walks through what happens, in plain terms.
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This is general guidance, not legal advice. Thresholds vary by institution — always confirm with each organisation directly.
A property held in one person's name alone is part of their estate. No one else has the legal authority to sell it or transfer ownership until the court appoints someone to administer the estate. In practice, the Land Registry will not change the registered owner, and a buyer's conveyancer will not complete a sale, without sight of the grant. There is no threshold or exception for this — with a sole-name property, a grant is needed whatever the house is worth.
People often use "probate" as a catch-all, but the exact document depends on whether there is a will. A grant of probate is issued when there is a will and it names executors. When there is no valid will, the estate is "intestate", and instead the court issues letters of administration. The person who receives them is called an administrator rather than an executor, but the job is much the same: gather in the estate, settle debts and tax, and pass on what is left to the people entitled to it.
With no will, the law sets a strict order of who may apply to be the administrator. It broadly follows who inherits under the intestacy rules:
Only someone with a beneficial interest under the intestacy rules can usually apply. If more than one person shares the same rank — several adult children, for example — they can agree who applies, and up to four people can be named on the application.
The intestacy rules — not the family's wishes — decide who inherits. In England and Wales, if there is a surviving spouse or civil partner and children, the estate is split between them under a set formula; if there is a spouse and no children, the spouse usually takes everything. Where there is no spouse, the estate passes down a fixed line: children first, then parents, then siblings, and so on. You can check the full order on the GOV.UK intestacy checker.
One point that catches many families out, and it is worth saying gently but plainly: an unmarried partner has no automatic right to inherit under intestacy, no matter how long the couple lived together. Living in the sole-name house does not change that. A partner in this position may be able to bring a claim for financial provision, but it is not automatic. The route is a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. A partner who lived with the deceased as husband, wife or civil partner for the whole of the two years before the death can apply on that basis alone; someone who was being maintained by the deceased can apply on that basis instead. These are alternative routes, not conditions that must all be met. The application must normally be made within six months of the grant being issued, so the deadline can pass quickly.
If you would like to see what each route to getting a grant is likely to cost, our probate cost calculator gives a quick estimate, and the do-I-need-probate checker confirms whether a grant is likely to be needed at all.
This is general guidance, not legal advice. Intestacy and property matters can be complex — if anything is unclear, or an unmarried partner or dependant may be affected, consider taking advice from a solicitor.