Practical guidance · Plain English
Clear, practical guidance for executors navigating estate valuations, HMRC requirements and professional reports.
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Researched explainers to help you make confident, well-documented decisions.
The £526 probate fee, what solicitors and probate firms charge (from a regulator survey and 63 published price lists), the other costs executors pay, and a calculator for your estate.
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Your options when you and your brothers or sisters inherit a house: selling, one sibling buying the others out, or keeping it together. How to agree the value, the tax on each route, and what happens if you cannot agree.
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The Probate Registry now issues grants about 5 weeks after an application on average, but the whole process usually runs close to a year. Each stage, how long it takes, and what slows it down.
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Who pays council tax on a deceased person's home, how the Class F exemption works before and after probate, the 12-month premium exception, the rules in Wales and Scotland, and looking after the empty house.
Read guideHow to fill in IHT405 for each house, flat or plot of land in an estate: what each section asks, how to value the property, and what HMRC checks.
Read guideHow to fill in IHT407 for jewellery, vehicles, art and household contents: how each category is reported, what £1,500 means, and a worked example.
Read guideWhat executors can and cannot do with a property before the grant of probate, how a sale interacts with the probate valuation, and the tax consequences of selling early.
Read guideDo you pay capital gains tax on inherited property? Not on the death: the probate value becomes the base cost. Who pays CGT on a later sale, and why a low valuation can cost more than it saves.
Read guideHow executors sell jewellery, art, antiques, contents and property at auction, what auction houses charge, how reserves and timing work, and how sale prices interact with the probate valuation.
Read guideThe right order for valuing, distributing, selling and clearing the contents of a house after a death, what clearance costs, and the mistakes that cost estates money.
Read guideThe statutory definition of personal chattels in a will and on intestacy, what is included and excluded, who inherits them, and how they are valued for probate and tax.
Read guideA probate valuation establishes an asset's Open Market Value at the date of death. A plain-English guide to estate reporting and professional valuations.
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Open Market Value is the legal standard HMRC requires for probate. A plain-English explanation of section 160 IHTA 1984, whether probate value differs from market value, and how OMV differs from insurance value.
Read guideA property that sells above or below its probate value can trigger Capital Gains Tax, an IHT38 loss on sale claim, or an HMRC review. What executors need to know.
Read guideWhat the £1,500 figure on form IHT407 actually requires, when HMRC recommends a professional valuation, and how executors evidence estate values.
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How sets, pairs and collections are valued for probate, what the £1,500 jewellery figure on IHT407 means, and when specialist evidence helps.
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Inheritance Tax is generally due by the end of the sixth month after death. A guide to the deadline, Direct Payment Scheme, instalments and late-payment interest.
Read guideA probate value can be corrected. How errors happen, how to amend figures before and after the grant using form C4, and what under- or overvaluation costs.
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Which qualifications are relevant to probate valuation? A practical guide to NAJ, IRV, RICS, Gem-A, SOFAA and professional indemnity insurance.
Read guideA step-by-step guide for executors handling probate valuations. From identifying assets to submitting IHT forms.
Read guideProbate and insurance valuations answer different questions and produce different figures. What executors need to know about each, and when you need both.
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