Probate and Selling Land: What Executors and Families Need to Know

Land does not pass straight to the family when someone dies. It is first dealt with by the personal representatives, the people with legal authority to collect in the estate, pay debts and tax, and pass on what is left. Who they are depends on whether there was a will.

Executors

Executors are the people named in the will. Their authority comes from the will itself, from the date of death. To prove that authority to anyone else, including HM Land Registry and a buyer, they apply for a grant of probate.

Administrators

If there is no valid will, or no executor able to act, the estate is handled by administrators, usually close family in an order set by the intestacy rules. Their authority comes only from the grant, called letters of administration. Before it is issued, they have no power to deal with the land at all.

Check How the Land Was Owned

Before anything else, check the title. Land owned by the deceased alone goes through the estate. Land owned with someone else as "joint tenants" passes automatically to the survivor, who usually only needs to send a death certificate to HM Land Registry. Land owned as "tenants in common" is different again: the deceased's share goes through the estate, and the surviving co-owner stays on the title. Farming families often find a mix of all three across different fields.

The grant is a court document confirming who can deal with the estate. For an estate that includes land, it is almost always needed. Before applying, the personal representatives have to deal with the inheritance tax forms, and if tax is due they normally have to pay some of it before the grant is issued.

For an estate with farmland or development land, the inheritance tax paperwork is usually the slow part. The land needs valuing, reliefs need claiming, and HMRC may ask questions. Allow months, not weeks, and do not promise anyone a completion date until the grant is in hand.

This is one of the questions we are asked most by families who have inherited land.

• Administrators: no. They have no authority to bind the estate until letters of administration are issued.
• Executors: in principle, yes, but in practice rarely. Because their authority comes from the will, executors can enter into a contract before the grant. But they cannot complete a sale, and a buyer cannot register its interest at HM Land Registry, without the grant as evidence. Most buyers and their solicitors will want to see it first.

What families can usefully do before the grant is the groundwork. You can talk to buyers and promoters, get a desktop review of the land, agree heads of terms in principle and have your solicitor review a draft option. That way, the agreement can be signed soon after the grant arrives. Our guide to option agreements explains what those terms should cover.

Some sales use a conditional contract, exchanged before the grant with completion only once it is issued and a long-stop date if it never is. That is uncommon for options, and it needs careful drafting. Take legal advice before trying it.

It is common for two or three children to be executors of a parent's estate, and for the same people to be the beneficiaries. That can work well. It can also stall a sale for years.

Executors Must Act Together

For land, every executor who took out the grant must sign the contract and the transfer. One executor cannot sell or option the land on their own, even with a majority behind them. An executor who does not want to act can step back, either by renouncing before the grant or by having "power reserved", which leaves the others to act.

Beneficiaries Do Not Own the Land Yet

While the estate is being administered, the beneficiaries of the residue do not own any particular asset. They have a right to have the estate properly administered. Executors should consult them, and sensible executors do, but a beneficiary cannot usually stop a sale simply by objecting. What they can do is challenge executors who act unreasonably or sell at an undervalue.

When It Breaks Down

Where executors cannot agree, or one is obstructing the others, the court can replace or remove a personal representative, under section 50 of the Administration of Justice Act 1985. Before the grant, someone who disputes the will can enter a caveat, which stops a grant being issued while it is in force. Both are slow and expensive. Mediation, or a frank conversation with a solicitor present, is usually worth trying first.

Whenever land is owned by more than one person, or held for someone else, the law treats it as held on a "trust of land". That covers executors holding land during the administration, a will trust that keeps the land for a surviving spouse and then the children, and brothers and sisters who inherit a field together. The rules are in the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996, known as TOLATA.

• The legal owners are the trustees. No more than four people can hold the legal title. They have wide powers, including the power to sell.
• Consultation. Trustees should, so far as practicable, consult adult beneficiaries entitled to the land and give effect to the majority view where that fits the general interest of the trust. A will can switch this off.
• Two signatures on a sale. Sale money has to be paid to at least two trustees, or a trust corporation, so a sole surviving trustee usually needs to appoint another before completing.
• Court orders. Anyone with an interest can apply to court under section 14 for an order, including an order for sale. The court looks at the purposes of the trust, the intentions of whoever set it up, the welfare of any minor living there, and the interests of beneficiaries and creditors.

For a family that disagrees about selling, TOLATA is what sits behind the conversation. A sibling who wants to keep farming cannot usually block a sale forever, and a sibling who wants to sell cannot usually force one without the court's help.

Land in an estate is valued at its open market value at the date of death. For land near a town or village, market value includes hope value, the extra a buyer would pay for the chance of planning permission, even if no application has been made. That figure does two jobs.

• Inheritance tax. Agricultural Property Relief only covers the land's agricultural value. Hope value on top is not covered by APR. Business Property Relief may cover it where the land was used in a qualifying farming business, for example farmed in hand, but not where it was let. From 6 April 2026, 100% relief under APR and BPR combined is capped at £2.5 million per person, with 50% relief above that.
• Capital Gains Tax later. Whoever ends up selling the land uses the date of death value as their base cost. A low probate value means a bigger gain, and more tax, when the land is sold with planning.

Where the reliefs cover the whole value, no inheritance tax is charged and HMRC does not usually check the valuation at the time. It has not been "ascertained" for inheritance tax. HMRC can then look at it afresh when the land is sold, sometimes many years later. A proper valuation at death, by a surveyor who understands development land, is the best protection.

The detail of how Capital Gains Tax and the reliefs work is in our guide to tax when selling land for development.

Personal representatives can sell the land themselves, or transfer it to the beneficiaries, called an assent, and let them sell. The tax result can be different.

Passing the land on first can suit a family with several beneficiaries who each have unused basic rate band. It can also mean more people have to sign later. If beneficiaries want to change who inherits what, a deed of variation made within two years of the death can redirect it, and it can be effective for inheritance tax and Capital Gains Tax. Ask your solicitor and accountant together.

Inheritance tax is due by the end of the sixth month after the month of death, with interest after that. On land, the personal representatives can usually choose to pay the tax on that land in ten yearly instalments, which avoids a forced sale. If the land is sold, the rest of the tax on it becomes due.

That matters if an option is exercised part way through the instalment period. The completion money has to cover the outstanding tax, as well as any Capital Gains Tax.

A surprising amount of family farmland is still unregistered, held on old paper deeds rather than recorded at HM Land Registry. A sale, gift or assent of unregistered freehold land triggers compulsory first registration, and the application must be made within two months of completion.

Registering the land before you sell or grant an option is often sensible. It flushes out boundary questions, missing deeds, old rights of way and forgotten covenants while there is time to deal with them, rather than in the middle of a sale. It also makes it straightforward for a buyer to protect an option with a notice on the register. HM Land Registry accepts voluntary applications, and there is a separate procedure if the deeds have been lost.

Boundaries and access are the questions buyers of development land ask first. Our guide to access and ransom strips explains why.

1. Find the will and the deeds. Check who the executors are and how each parcel of land was owned.
2. Check who is on the land. List any tenants, graziers and occupiers. See our guide to tenancies and vacant possession.
3. Get a proper valuation at the date of death. Use a surveyor who will consider hope value, not just agricultural value.
4. Deal with inheritance tax. Claim APR and BPR where they apply, and decide whether to pay tax on land by instalments.
5. Apply for the grant. Probate if there is a will, letters of administration if not.
6. Talk as a family. Agree whether to sell, keep or option the land, and whether the estate or the beneficiaries should be the seller.
7. Take tax advice before signing. Ask who should sell, and when.
8. Consider first registration. If the land is unregistered, start early.
9. Sign the option or contract. All proving executors, or all legal owners, sign.

Inherited land is one of the most common kinds of land we look at, and we are used to working at the pace of an estate. We can review the land and agree heads of terms while you wait for the grant, then sign once it arrives. We contribute to the family's own legal and professional fees, so the executors have independent advice on the terms and the tax.

Where family members disagree, we will not push. An option signed by reluctant executors tends to cause problems later. You can read more on our inherited land page.

If you are an executor or have inherited land and want to know what it might be worth, ask for a free review. We can do the groundwork while you wait for the grant.