When a client dies, their bank, the Land Registry and other third parties will not release or transfer anything until someone proves they have authority to deal with the estate. A grant of representation is that proof. As a solicitor handling probate, your first job is working out who is entitled to administer the estate, which type of grant they need, and how to obtain it — so the estate can be collected in, debts paid and beneficiaries paid out.
This lesson builds that picture step by step:
- Nature, Purpose and Personal Representatives — what a grant is, what personal representatives must do, and how executors and administrators differ.
- Types of Grant and Assets Passing Without One — the three principal grants and the assets that pass on death without any grant at all.
- Renunciation, Power Reserved and the Chain of Representation — how an unwilling executor steps back, and how authority can pass on through later deaths.
- Priority to Apply and Number of Personal Representatives — who ranks first to apply, how to clear off others, and when two PRs are required.
- Special and Limited Grants — the grants used for minors, incapacity, unfinished administration and urgent or disputed estates.
- Procedure, Caveats, Citations and Revocation — tax obligations, lost wills, and the tools for blocking, compelling or undoing a grant.