Who can sign, when a sale can complete, and the deadlines that set the pace, before you choose how to sell.
The short answer
To sell an inherited house in England and Wales, the executor or administrator needs a grant of probate or letters of administration before completion. HM Land Registry will not accept a transfer without the grant.3 Beneficiaries sign nothing until the house is transferred to them. Inheritance Tax is due by the end of the sixth month after death.6
An inherited house is sold by the estate, through its personal representative. That is the executor named in the will or, where there is no will, usually the closest living relative, who applies for letters of administration instead.1 Do I need probate to sell a house? In England and Wales, yes, unless the house passed to a surviving joint owner.3
A beneficiary has an interest in the estate from the day of the death. The legal title, meaning ownership on the register, passes to them only once a grant is obtained and the property is transferred.3 So if you inherit under a will but are not an executor, you cannot instruct a sale in your own name.
The joint-owner exception depends on how the house was held. Joint tenants own the whole house together rather than in shares. When one dies, their share passes automatically to the surviving owner and never forms part of the estate.5 The survivor sells as owner, and probate may not be needed for that property at all.1 Tenants in common each own a separate share. That share passes under the will and needs a grant.5
Who signs the sale of an inherited house, England and Wales
Executors then face a choice that affects tax and paperwork. They can sell the house from the estate and share out the money. Or they can transfer it to the beneficiaries, who sell it themselves. Which works out better depends on Capital Gains Tax, so settle it before a buyer is found.
A probate sale is a sale by the estate. The personal representatives instruct the agent and sign the contract, and completion waits for the grant.3 In law it is not a different kind of sale. Once the grant is held, the route, the price and the paperwork are the ordinary ones.
You can prepare a sale before probate, but you cannot complete one. GOV.UK goes further and tells personal representatives not to put property on the market until they have probate.1 The legal barrier itself comes at completion, when HM Land Registry needs to see the grant, or a conveyancer's certificate confirming it.3
| Step | Before the grant | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Insure and secure the house | Yes, straight away | Empty-home conditions in buildings policies start to bite quickly. |
| Record and value contents and property | Yes | The estate's value, and any Inheritance Tax, must be worked out before you can apply.1 |
| Clear the house of belongings | After values are recorded | Contents are part of the estate. Keep a record of what was there and what happened to it.2 |
| Get agent or auctioneer opinions | Yes | Useful for the estate valuation and for planning the route. |
| Put the house on the market | GOV.UK advises waiting | Its guidance says not to market property until probate is granted.1 |
| Exchange contracts | Only with legal advice | A binding completion date you may not be able to meet. |
| Complete the sale | No | HM Land Registry needs the grant.3 |
Removing items of value before probate: take advice first, even once the contents are recorded.
From January to March 2026, the Ministry of Justice reported a mean of 5 weeks from submitting a probate application to the grant. Applications stopped for a query took 14 weeks on average, and letters of administration where there was a will took 20.4 These are averages across all estates, and the Ministry of Justice updates them each quarter.
Weeks from application to grant, January to March 20264
The clock starts only once the application is in. You cannot apply until the Inheritance Tax position has been worked out.1
The House Desk found no fixed period within which an executor must sell. The pace is set instead by the tax dates and exemptions below, and by what an empty house costs. Once you hold the grant, the sale runs like any other, so from grant to completion expect the ordinary time a house sale takes.
Start on the Inheritance Tax figures in the first weeks, because the probate application cannot go in until they are done, and the wait for the grant is counted from that application. While you wait, get agent or auctioneer opinions so the house can go on the market as soon as the grant arrives. The council tax exemption lasts up to six months from the grant, and a sale that starts late eats into it.
Haroon Ali Author, The House Desk. Over 11 years in property and renovation Two taxes can apply when you sell an inherited house, at different moments. Inheritance Tax is charged on the estate as it stood at death. Capital Gains Tax is charged only on any rise in value between the death and the sale. Inheritance Tax sets a deadline before you sell, and Capital Gains Tax one after.
The clocks on an estate sale, counted from the death
Where Inheritance Tax is owed, it is due by the end of the sixth month after the death. After that, HMRC charges interest. You usually have to pay something towards it before the grant is issued, although you can ask to postpone.6
Inheritance Tax on a house can be spread over 10 yearly instalments. But once the house is sold, the rest becomes payable in full.7 Instalments help an estate that is keeping the house, not one that is selling it.
A sale below the probate value can reduce the tax. If the house sells for less than its value for Inheritance Tax, and the sale is within 4 years of the death, the person liable for the tax can claim relief on form IHT38.8 That only matters where Inheritance Tax was payable. Where it was, a probate value set too high is not locked in once the market proves it wrong.
Inheriting a house does not create a Capital Gains Tax bill.12 For tax, the estate is treated as acquiring it at its market value at the date of death. Where a value was agreed for Inheritance Tax, that value must be used.9 Tax falls only on a sale price above that base, less allowable costs.
Who sells changes the arithmetic. When the personal representatives sell, the estate gets the annual exempt amount, a tax-free slice of gain, in the tax year of death and each of the next two tax years.9 Above that, the rate for personal representatives in 2026 to 2027 is 24 per cent. Each 1,000 pounds of taxable gain costs the estate 240 pounds.
Passing the house to the beneficiaries first works differently. That transfer is not a disposal, so it is not taxed as a sale, and each beneficiary takes the value at death as their base.9 Each then has their own 3,000 pound allowance and their own rate of 18 or 24 per cent.910 A beneficiary who moves in and ends up owning two homes has 2 years to tell HMRC which is their main home.12
Capital Gains Tax: sell from the estate or transfer first
Any gain on UK residential property has to be reported and paid within 60 days of completion. That is completion, when the money is paid and ownership passes, not exchange, when the contract becomes binding. Personal representatives report for the estate, and HMRC tells them how to pay. UK residents whose gains fall within the allowance do not need to report online.11
Enter the date of death and where the grant has got to, and the dates above are worked out for you.
Inheritance Tax due by
Enter the date of death to see the dates that set the pace.
England and Wales only. These dates follow the rules as the page states them; ask a solicitor or whoever handles the estate's tax to confirm them for this estate.
Not sure which route suits you? Answer three questions.
| What | The rule | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Inheritance Tax, where it is owed | Due by the end of the sixth month after the death. HMRC charges interest after that. You usually pay something towards it before the grant, though you can ask to postpone.6 | |
| Loss on sale relief | If the house sells for less than its value for Inheritance Tax within 4 years of the death, the person liable for the tax can claim on form IHT38.8 | |
| Estate's Capital Gains Tax allowance | When the personal representatives sell, the estate gets the annual exempt amount in the tax year of death and each of the next two.9 Tax years run from 6 April to 5 April. | |
| Council tax exemption | Exempt while only the executor or administrator has an interest, then for up to six months from the grant.13 Welsh councils apply their own amended version, so check with yours. | |
| Capital Gains Tax on any gain | Reported and paid within 60 days of completion, not exchange. UK residents whose gains fall within the allowance do not need to report online.11 |
| Applications | Average | If yours followed it |
|---|---|---|
| All applications, mean4 | 5 weeks | Add the application date |
| Applications with no query4 | 2 weeks | Add the application date |
| Applications stopped for a query4 | 14 weeks | Add the application date |
| Letters of administration, with a will4 | 20 weeks | Add the application date |
| Letters of administration, no will4 | 11 weeks | Add the application date |
Ministry of Justice averages across all estates, not a promise for yours. The clock starts only once the application is in, and you cannot apply until the Inheritance Tax position has been worked out.1
Before the grant
With the grant in hand
The sale runs like any other, so from grant to completion expect the ordinary time a house sale takes. Tax on a house spread over 10 yearly instalments becomes payable in full once the house is sold.7
Ask a solicitor or tax adviser
If the house was owned as joint tenants with someone still alive, it passed to them automatically and probate may not be needed for it.5 Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own process: see Scotland and Northern Ireland.
While an inherited house stands empty, tell the insurer about the death and that the house is unoccupied, as soon as you can. Council tax is often not payable until up to six months after the grant. Aviva's home policy wording is one example of an empty-home condition. Once a home has been unoccupied for longer than the period on the schedule, the policy stops covering theft, vandalism, and escaping water or heating oil. Failing to tell the insurer about unoccupancy can mean a claim is refused.14 Other insurers set their own periods, so read the schedule rather than assume.
In England and Wales, a house left unoccupied since the death of the person liable is exempt from council tax while the only person with an interest in it is the executor or administrator. Once probate or letters of administration are granted, the exemption lasts for up to six months from the grant.13 Then the council charges again, which is a practical reason to have the sale moving by the time the grant arrives. Welsh councils apply their own amended version, so check with yours.
When an inherited property is split between siblings under the will, it is still the executors who sell it or transfer it. The siblings do not all have to agree before the executors act. Disagreement becomes a legal problem later, once the house is transferred into joint names. Co-owners then hold it on a trust of land, the legal form shared ownership takes, in which the owners are trustees and normally act together.16
Siblings and an inherited house: where the problem sits
The usual answer is a buy-out. The sibling who stays pays the others the value of their shares, often with a mortgage, and the executors transfer the house to them. Agree in writing how the house will be valued before anyone commits. Then have a solicitor record the deal, since both the transfer and any money changing hands need to be documented. Whoever eventually sells is still subject to the Capital Gains Tax rules above.
Once the house is held on a trust of land, any trustee, or anyone with an interest in it, can ask the court to step in. Under section 14 of the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996, the court can make an order about how the trustees use their powers.17 Those powers include selling.16
In deciding, the court must consider the intentions of whoever created the trust, the purpose the house is held for, the welfare of any child living there, any secured creditor such as a mortgage lender, and the wishes of the adult beneficiaries according to the size of their shares.18
Going to court is slow and expensive. Treat it as the backstop that frames the negotiation rather than as the plan. We do not mediate disputes.
An executor refusing to sell the house, or not moving the estate forward at all, is a different problem from siblings disagreeing as co-owners. Until the transfer, the house still belongs to the estate, and the beneficiaries cannot instruct a sale in their own names. A beneficiary in that position should take legal advice on their options rather than act on the house themselves.
In Scotland the equivalent of probate is confirmation, the court document that gives the executor authority to deal with the estate. Where the will names no executor, the court appoints an executor dative.19 Scottish property law has its own co-ownership rules, so the section on siblings above does not apply as written.
In Northern Ireland, grants of probate and letters of administration are issued by the Probate Office of the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service. A grant is almost always needed where the person who died held property in their own name.20 The tax rules above apply across the UK.
The estate does. A beneficiary has an interest from the day of the death, but the house becomes legally theirs only once a grant is obtained and the property is transferred to them. Until then the executor or administrator deals with it. The exception is a house held as joint tenants, which passed to the surviving owner on the death.
No. The executors can transfer the house to the beneficiaries instead, and for Capital Gains Tax that transfer is not treated as a sale. One beneficiary can buy the others out. Where Inheritance Tax is owed on the house, it can be spread over 10 yearly instalments while the house is kept, though the balance falls due in full once it is sold.
It can be cleared before the grant, once the contents have been recorded and valued, because household goods and personal items are part of the estate. Keep a note of what was there and what happened to each item. Take advice before removing anything of value, even after the record is made.
Straight away. HM Land Registry needs the grant before it accepts a transfer from the executors, so once the grant is issued a sale can complete. From then on, the sale follows the same steps and timetable as any other.
We found no set deadline for an executor to sell. Other dates set the pace instead. Inheritance Tax is due by the end of the sixth month after the death. The council tax exemption ends up to six months after the grant, and the estate’s Capital Gains Tax allowance runs out at the end of the second tax year after the year of death.
On every route, the grant sets the earliest completion date. So the choice turns on what happens after it. Executors need a price they can justify to the beneficiaries, weighed against the running costs of an empty house and the tax dates above.
Whichever route you choose, you fill in the property information form, the seller's written answers about the house. It asks what your role is, and executors and administrators answer it as sellers. You answer from the information you hold, and buyers can rely on it. If you do not know something, say so rather than guess.15 Where a survey finds cracking or movement in an older house, selling a house with subsidence covers what to disclose and which routes still work.
For a first look at the value, see sold prices near you, and what the estate would keep after costs with the cost of selling calculator. The conveyancing bill is covered in solicitor fees when selling.
Weighed for executors: what each route gives the estate once the grant is in hand.
Not sure which fits? Answer three questions and we will suggest one.
Widest market and the clearest evidence of value for beneficiaries. Slowest, and the house may stand empty while it sells.
A fixed timetable and a public price once the grant is in hand. Suits houses needing work that mortgage buyers avoid.
Quick and certain once the grant is in, though the price is lower. Check who the company is before agreeing anything.
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Your best fit
What you give up:
Why this route
Close second: Property auction.
Selling in Scotland works differently, with a Home Report and offers over a closing date. The guides note where Scottish rules differ.
Leave your details and tell us how you would like to sell.
While you wait, the guide covers what to check before you agree to anything.
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