England & Wales probate records
Find the will. We do the hard part.
Tell us who has passed away and check for free in seconds. Then, if you would rather not deal with government records at a difficult time, we run the whole search, obtain the documents, and explain them, for £29 all-in.
Prefer to do it yourself? Run a free probate search of the England and Wales index, or read what the probate register shows and how to order a copy for £16.
What we do, so you do not have to
One flat price, everything included, and a real person reading the result rather than a search box handing you a blank.
Tell us who has passed away
A name and a year is enough to begin. Add a place or a former name and we search wider automatically.
We run the search properly
Every name variation, the right index years, and the judgement to tell a genuine blank from a missed record.
We obtain the documents
The grant and the will, ordered within one working day, or a standing search lodged if no grant exists yet.
We explain it plainly
What the grant means, what the will does and does not tell you, and what usually makes sense next.
Why a will gets missed
The search is free and public. The reason people pay for it done properly is that three quiet pitfalls turn a real record into a false dead end.
The grant-year trap
Records are indexed by the year the grant was issued, not the year they passed away. Probate takes months, so the record often sits under the following year. Search one year and you can wrongly conclude there is no will.
Name variations
Maiden names, a middle name used as a first name, and small spelling differences all return a blank on an exact-name search. That blank looks exactly like no will exists.
Reading an empty result
Sometimes probate was never needed, for example where assets were jointly owned or below bank thresholds. Knowing which situation you are in is the whole point.
Losing someone is enough to deal with. Finding their will should not become another project you have to learn.
That is the whole reason ProbateCheck exists.
Questions people ask
How do I find out if someone left a will?+
Once probate has been granted in England or Wales, the will becomes a public document. The difficulty is rarely the search itself; it is that records are filed under the year the grant was issued rather than the year they passed away, and exact-name matching misses maiden names, middle names and spelling variants. An empty result is very often a wrong result. We search every variation across the right index years and read the outcome correctly.
What does the £29 include?+
Everything. We run the search across name variations and multiple index years, obtain the grant of probate and the will where one was proved, lodge and monitor an official standing search if no grant exists yet, and send you a plain-English explanation of what the documents mean and sensible next steps. All government fees are included in the price.
Can I not just do this myself?+
You can. Probate records are public and can be ordered directly from the official GOV.UK service. Most people come to us because they are dealing with a bereavement and would rather not learn a records system, chase the grant-year quirk, or guess whether a blank result means there is genuinely no will. We handle all of it and explain the result.
What if probate has not been granted yet?+
If someone passed away recently, a grant may still be weeks or months away, so nothing shows online yet. The correct tool is a standing search lodged with the Probate Registry: if a grant is issued within the next six months, the documents are released automatically. We lodge it and monitor it for you, then obtain and explain the documents the moment they appear.
How long does it take and what do I receive?+
We place the search and any order within one working day of your payment. You receive the grant of probate (or letters of administration) and the will where one was proved, by email, with a plain-English note explaining what they mean. New records typically become available around two weeks after a grant is issued; postal responses arrive within about four weeks.
Does this cover Scotland and Northern Ireland?+
The England and Wales probate records are what we search. Scotland uses a separate system called Confirmation, searchable through ScotlandsPeople, and Northern Ireland records are held by its own Probate Office. If you are not sure which applies, run the free check and we will tell you.
Start with a free check
See where the record should sit in seconds. Hand us the rest whenever you are ready.
Check for free