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When a will is found invalid, it is treated as having no effect. The estate then passes under the last earlier will that was never revoked, or under the intestacy rules if there is no such will. That may or may not benefit the person who brought the challenge. Any grant of probate made under the failed will can be revoked and a new grant made. The law protects people who paid money to the executor in good faith, and buyers of estate property, while the old grant stood. A successful Inheritance Act claim does not overturn the will. It leads to a court order for provision from the estate.
This guide is for anyone whose challenge to a will has succeeded, or who is weighing up what success would actually mean. It covers where the estate goes, what happens to the grant of probate and to things already done under it, tax and costs. It also explains why a successful Inheritance Act claim works differently.
This describes the law of England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own succession and probate rules. For the grounds on which a will can be challenged, see our guide to contesting a will.
A challenge to a will's validity is a "probate claim". Under Civil Procedure Rule 57.1 that includes a claim for a decree pronouncing for or against the validity of an alleged will, and a claim to revoke a grant already made. If the claim succeeds, the court pronounces against the will. The document is treated as not being the valid will of the person who died, whichever ground succeeded: lack of capacity, lack of knowledge and approval, undue influence, forgery or fraud, faulty execution, or revocation.
That does not mean the estate goes to the person who brought the claim. It means the estate is administered as if the failed will had never been made.
Section 20 of the Wills Act 1837 allows a will to be revoked by another will or codicil only if that will or codicil is itself validly executed. So a revocation clause in a will that has failed does not revoke the earlier one. The last earlier will can then take effect, as long as it was not revoked some other way. It may have been revoked by:
A will that has been revoked stays revoked. Under section 22 of the Wills Act 1837 it can only be revived by being re-executed, or by a properly executed codicil showing an intention to revive it.
The executors named in the earlier will are the people entitled to deal with the estate under it.
The estate passes under the intestacy rules, as if the person had died without a will. Those rules follow a fixed order of relatives. See who inherits if there is no will. Where a valid will deals with only part of the estate, the rest passes under the intestacy rules. See partial intestacy.
Because the estate goes to whoever the earlier will or the intestacy rules name, a successful challenge can benefit someone other than the person who brought it. So the position under the earlier will, or on intestacy, decides who actually gains from a successful challenge. Where the intestacy rules would leave someone with nothing, an Inheritance Act 1975 claim may be the relevant route instead of, or as well as, a validity challenge.
A will and any codicils are separate testamentary documents, and a challenge can be aimed at one of them rather than all. If a later codicil fails, the will it was meant to amend can still stand.
Some rules cut down a single gift rather than the whole will. For example, under section 15 of the Wills Act 1837 a gift to a witness, or to a witness's spouse or civil partner, is void, but the rest of the will stands. See a will witnessed by a beneficiary. Whether a court can go further and admit part of a will while excluding the rest depends on the ground and the facts, and this page does not state a general rule.
If a grant was made under the failed will, it can be revoked. Section 121 of the Senior Courts Act 1981 lets the High Court call in and revoke a grant that ought not to have been made. Where a probate claim asks for a grant to be revoked, CPR 57.6 requires everyone entitled to administer under that grant to be a party, and the grant itself to be lodged with the court.
Once the old grant is revoked, the estate needs a new one. That is a grant of probate to the executors of the earlier will, or letters of administration to whoever is entitled under the intestacy rules. See our guide to applying for probate.
Estates are often partly administered before a challenge is decided. The Administration of Estates Act 1925 protects some of what was done in the meantime:
These protections cover people who dealt with the executor, and payments the new personal representative would have made anyway. They do not say that gifts paid out to beneficiaries under the failed will are safe. Whether and how money or property already handed to those beneficiaries can be recovered depends on the facts, including what happened to it. The law on that is complex and is not summarised here.
This is also why challenges are often preceded by a caveat, which stops a grant being issued at all. See how to enter a caveat.
Who inherits can affect how inheritance tax on the estate is worked out. Where the tax already paid on an estate turns out to be too much or too little, HMRC's form C4 (corrective account) is used to correct the inheritance tax account.
A claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 does not say the will is invalid. If it succeeds:
The provision comes out of the estate, so it reduces what the other beneficiaries receive. See Inheritance Act 1975 claims.
A validity challenge does not pause the six-month time limit for an Inheritance Act claim, which runs from the date representation is "first taken out" (section 4). Section 23 lists the kinds of grant that are left out of account when working out that date, and a grant later revoked is not among them. So it cannot be assumed that the six months start again when a new grant is made. The court can allow a later claim, but only with its permission. See time limits for contesting a will.
Costs are in the court's discretion. Under CPR 44.2, if the court makes an order, the general rule is that the unsuccessful party pays the successful party's costs, but it can make a different order. Probate claims have two recognised exceptions, restated in Burgess v Whittle [2025] EWHC 2829 (Ch):
So even a successful challenger does not automatically have all their costs paid by the other side. No official body publishes how much of a winning party's costs are typically recovered, and this page gives no figure. See costs in contentious probate.
Once the question of which will applies is settled, disputes sometimes move on to how the estate is being run. See mediation in estate disputes, removing an executor through the court, asking an executor for estate accounts and disputes over executor accounts.
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