How Probate Works in Ireland: A Plain-English Guide for Executors

When someone dies, a grant of representation usually has to be taken out before their property can be sold or their money released. If there's a will, the executor applies for a grant of probate; if there isn't, the next of kin applies for letters of administration.

Where to apply

Applications go to the Probate Office in Phoenix House, Smithfield, Dublin 7 (for Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow) or to one of 14 District Probate Registries — for example Cork, Limerick (which also covers Clare), Galway (with Roscommon), Kilkenny (with Carlow and Laois) and Dundalk (with Monaghan). Each town page on Lawvoo shows the right office.

The executor's main jobs

• Find the original will, and list and value everything the person owned and owed at the date of death.
• File the Statement of Affairs (Probate) with Revenue, and apply for the grant — through a solicitor, or yourself as a personal applicant.
• Collect the assets, pay debts, funeral costs and any tax.
• Distribute the estate. Executors aren't obliged to pay out before the first anniversary of the death (the 'executor's year').

Rights a will can't override

A spouse or civil partner is entitled to a 'legal right share' — half the estate if there are no children, a third if there are. Children can apply to court under section 117 of the Succession Act if a parent failed to provide for them properly; this must be brought within six months of the grant.

Inheritance tax (CAT)

Beneficiaries — not the estate — pay Capital Acquisitions Tax at 33% on anything above their lifetime threshold: €400,000 from a parent (Group A), €40,000 from a brother, sister, grandparent or aunt/uncle (Group B), and €20,000 from anyone else (Group C). Spouses and civil partners pay none.