In short
PA1P is the paper form for a grant of probate where there is a will; you can also apply online. Either way the order is fixed: value the estate for inheritance tax first (and, unless it is an ‘excepted estate’, report it to HMRC and wait for their code), then apply, then pay the fee — £526 if the estate is worth more than £5,000, nothing if it is £5,000 or less. The original will goes in the post with a certified death certificate, the registry keeps it, and the grant usually arrives within 12 weeks.
The form is called PA1P, and the fee to send it in is £526 — that has been the figure since 13 July 2026, for any estate worth more than £5,000. Below five thousand pounds you pay nothing. Above it, the fee is the same whether the estate is a mid-terrace in Mansfield or half of a Surrey close: £526, flat, indifferent to your grief.
You did not plan to be doing this at the kitchen table on a Tuesday night. But there is a will, and it names you the executor, and that word — executor — turns out to be less a title than a to-do list nobody handed you.
Start with what PA1P actually is. It is the paper route to a grant of probate when the person who died left a will. (If there were no will, you would be reaching for its sibling, PA1A, and a different set of rules about who may apply.) The will exists. Your job is to prove it, and to be recognised as the person entitled to gather in the accounts, sell the house, pay what is owed, and hand on what is left. The grant is the key. PA1P is how you ask for the key.
Here is the part that catches people, and it catches them hard. You cannot apply for probate until you have first valued the estate for inheritance tax — and, unless it is an ‘excepted estate’, told HM Revenue & Customs what it is worth. The tax question comes before the grant question — always, in that order. Report the value, settle whatever inheritance tax is due (or establish that none is), and only then does the probate application become something the system will accept. Get the sequence wrong and your paperwork comes back to you, unglamorously, at the start of the queue. The form does not explain this urgency on its face. It assumes you already knew.
Then there is the will itself. Not a copy. The original — the one with the real signatures, the one you found in the drawer under the good scissors. You have to put it in the post. The single most irreplaceable piece of paper in the whole business, and the process asks you to let go of it, into a sorting office, toward a PO box, on trust. People photograph it first. People stand at the counter and hesitate. That hesitation is not weakness. It is the correct emotional response to being asked to gamble the one document you cannot get again.
And a death certificate, certified, not the photocopy the funeral director slipped into the folder. And your own details, spelled exactly as they appear on the will, because a middle initial in one place and not the other is the kind of small discrepancy that turns twelve weeks into twenty.
Because the wait, once you have sent it all, is the quiet antagonist here. It is measured in weeks, sometimes in months, and there is very little you can do to hurry it. You will want sealed copies of the grant when it finally comes — order the extra copies with your application, because every bank, every registrar, every share registry wants its own original, and they will not share one between them. Plan for that now and you save yourself a second wait later.
None of this is difficult in the way that quantum mechanics is difficult. It is difficult in the way that assembling flat-pack furniture at midnight is difficult: no single step is beyond you, but the instructions assume a calm you do not have, in an order they never quite spell out, while the clock runs and the phone keeps ringing with people who mean well.
This is where Chris comes in — late, deliberately, because the form is the thing, not the tool. You tell Chris what you are holding: a will, your name in it, an estate you are still adding up. Chris walks the PA1P with you in the right order — the HMRC step first, so nothing bounces; the details cross-checked against the will, so a stray initial does not cost you a month; the copies you will need, ordered up front. Not advice on whether to apply. The structure of the application itself, built with you, section by section, until the thing on the screen is the thing you can post.
What you end at is a completed PA1P — filled, consistent, in sequence, ready to go in the envelope with the original will you photographed first. The key, asked for properly.
The order of the steps, from the official guidance
The essay above is about how it feels. This is the sequence GOV.UK sets out in Applying for probate: before you apply, in the order the system will accept it:
- Check probate is needed and that you can apply. With a will, you can apply if you are named as an executor in the will or in a codicil.
- Value the estate for inheritance tax. You need the figure even if no tax is due — it goes into the application. GOV.UK’s guide is How to value an estate for Inheritance Tax and report its value.
- Work out whether HMRC needs full details. If no tax is due and full details are not required it is an excepted estate, and you can apply straight away. If tax is due, start paying it; HMRC then sends a unique code, and you cannot apply without it.
- Apply — online, or by post on form PA1P. GOV.UK’s page is Apply for probate; our own walkthrough of the paper form is the PA1P guide.
- Send the original will. Not a photocopy. GOV.UK is explicit that the probate registry keeps it and it becomes a public record. A death certificate you send is returned.
- Wait. GOV.UK says the grant usually arrives within 12 weeks, longer if more information is needed — see After you’ve applied.
What it costs
Statutory fees, from Applying for probate: fees on GOV.UK:
- Application fee: £526 if the estate is worth more than £5,000; nothing if it is £5,000 or less.
- Extra copies of the grant: £2 each when ordered with the application, £16 each if ordered later — which is why the essay says order them up front.
- Help with Fees: if you have a low income or are on certain benefits you may not have to pay the probate fee. Apply online before you apply for probate. If you apply for probate online you pay the full fee first and are refunded if the help is granted.
Common questions
Do I have to use the paper PA1P form, or can I apply for probate online?
Both routes exist. GOV.UK says you can apply for probate yourself online or by post; PA1P is the paper form used when the person who died left a will. If you apply online you do not need to submit a paper application, but you must still send the original will.
What must I do before I apply for probate?
GOV.UK sets the order: check that probate is needed and that you can apply; estimate the estate's value for inheritance tax, because you need the value even if no tax is due; find out whether you must report full details to HMRC. If you do not have to send full details or pay inheritance tax it is an 'excepted estate' and you can apply straight away. If inheritance tax is due, you start making payments and HMRC sends you a unique code, which you need before applying.
How much does it cost to apply for probate?
GOV.UK states that if the value of the estate is over £5,000 the application fee is £526, and there is no fee if the estate is £5,000 or less. Extra copies of the probate document cost £2 each when ordered with the application, or £16 each if ordered afterwards.
Can I get help with the probate fee?
Yes. GOV.UK says you may be able to get help paying the probate fee if you have a low income or are on certain benefits, and that you should apply for help with fees online before applying for probate. If you apply for probate online you pay the full fee first and are refunded later if your help-with-fees application succeeds.
Do I really have to send the original will?
Yes. GOV.UK states that you must send the original will with your probate application and cannot use a photocopy. The probate registry keeps the will and it becomes a public record. A death certificate you send in is returned to you.
How long does probate take?
GOV.UK says you will usually get the grant of probate within 12 weeks of submitting the application, and that it can take longer if you need to provide additional information. If you applied by post and have heard nothing within 12 weeks you can contact the Courts and Tribunals Service Centre.
Come back when the grant lands and there’s the next form to face — there usually is, and you won’t have to meet it cold.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.