Probate in Scotland: how to apply for confirmation

What is confirmation, and how is it different from probate in Scotland?

Confirmation is the Scottish court document that gives an executor authority to uplift the money and property of the person who died from whoever holds it, such as a bank, and then to administer and distribute it according to law. The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service guide to dealing with an estate calls it the Scottish equivalent of probate, although the application goes to a sheriff court rather than a probate registry and is built around a list of everything the person owned, called the inventory. Our guide to what probate is covers the grant in England and Wales.

The application goes to the sheriff court for the district where the person was domiciled when they died. HMRC's notes to the C1 form explain that it goes instead to the Commissary Office in Edinburgh if the person was domiciled in the Edinburgh district or outside the UK, or had no fixed or known domicile within Scotland. Confirmation is only possible if the inventory includes at least one item of money or property in Scotland. Once it is granted, section 14 of the Succession (Scotland) Act 1964 vests the whole estate, heritable and moveable, in the confirmed executor for the purposes of administration.

When do you need confirmation, and when can you manage without it?

You need confirmation when an organisation holding the person's money or property asks for it, and the court service says this is often a bank, building society or insurer, whilst the Scottish Government's guide notes for small estates that confirmation need only be obtained if a fund holder requires it. Each provider sets its own rules, which means the practical answer comes from asking each one.

Some property passes without confirmation at all. Where the title to a house contains a survivorship destination (wording that it passes to the survivor), HMRC's guidance says it normally goes straight to the surviving owner, although its value still counts towards the estate for inheritance tax. Joint bank accounts work differently in Scotland than many people expect, because HMRC's notes explain that the survivor can keep operating the account but does not automatically own the share the person who died paid in, so that share belongs in the inventory.

Who can apply: executor-nominate or executor-dative?

An executor named in the will is called an executor-nominate and can apply for confirmation directly, whereas if there is no will, or the will names no executor who can act, the sheriff court has to appoint one, who is called an executor-dative. The Scottish Government's guide says this will normally be the surviving spouse or civil partner, or failing that another person entitled to inherit. For deaths on or after 1 November 2016, a former spouse or civil partner named as executor is treated as having died first unless the will expressly says otherwise under the Succession (Scotland) Act 2016.

Being appointed executor-dative in a large estate means first raising a dative petition in the sheriff court, and the court service advises taking legal advice for this step. An executor-dative may also need a bond of caution, a form of insurance that protects against the wrong person applying or the estate not being distributed according to law. An executor-nominate never needs one, and nor does a surviving spouse or civil partner appointed executor-dative who takes the whole estate under prior rights, because section 2 of the Confirmation of Executors (Scotland) Act 1823 exempts both. Since 4 March 2016 you also do not need one for a small estate where the sheriff clerk's office helps prepare the inventory, although the court service says you do if a solicitor prepares it.

How do you apply for confirmation for a small estate?

An estate counts as small if its total value is £36,000 or less, the limit set by the Confirmation to Small Estates (Scotland) Order 2011 from 1 February 2012. The court service's small estates page explains that you work this out without deducting debts such as funeral costs, energy bills or the balance of a mortgage, and that bank balances must include interest up to the date of death. HMRC's notes to the C1 add that the figure includes the person's share of jointly held property, but not property whose title passes to the survivor.

The sheriff clerk will prepare the inventory with you. You book an appointment with the sheriff clerk's office for the area where the person last lived, or your own local office if that is easier, and the court service suggests filling in its small estate checklist beforehand so that you bring the right details. For deaths on or after 1 January 2022 the sheriff clerk completes form C1 with you, and the old C5(SE) form is no longer needed. The sheriff clerk cannot give legal advice or help once confirmation has been issued, so dividing up the estate remains your responsibility.

How do you apply for confirmation for a large estate?

For an estate over £36,000 you complete the inventory yourself or with a solicitor, because the court service is prohibited from helping applicants with large estates and recommends legal advice, pointing people to the Law Society of Scotland for local solicitors. The forms are published on GOV.UK as form C1 and the C2 continuation sheet, and for deaths on or after 1 January 2022 you use C1 (2022) with HMRC's C3 notes.

The inheritance tax position decides where the form goes first. If the estate is an excepted estate you send the C1 straight to the sheriff clerk or Commissary Office, but if it is not, you send form IHT400 and a copy of the C1 to HMRC, pay any tax due, and then send HMRC's reply with the original C1 to the court, because tax must be paid, or shown not to be due, before confirmation is granted. Our guide to form IHT400 covers that account in detail. If an asset turns up after confirmation, it is added with a corrective inventory on form C4(S).

Handling a large estate yourself saves solicitors' fees, which are paid from the estate, but the Scottish Government's guide is plain that the executor is legally responsible for mistakes, and the court service strongly advises consulting a solicitor if you are unsure of the procedure or there is any dispute.

How much does confirmation cost in 2026?

The court fee depends on the value of the estate being confirmed, and under the Sheriff Court Fees Order 2026, in force from 1 April 2026, there is no fee for receiving and examining an inventory where the estate is £50,000 or less, £351 where it is between £50,000.01 and £250,000, and £705 where it exceeds £250,000. The court service says there is no statutory court fee for confirmation in a small estate.

Smaller fees apply to extra documents, and they are cheaper if you order them when you lodge the inventory. A certificate of confirmation for a single item costs £10 at that point, or £23 for the first one ordered later, and has the same effect as confirmation for that item. A copy or duplicate confirmation costs £15 when ordered with the inventory, a certified extract of the confirmation and will costs £33, and a dative petition costs £23. The same Order sets a further schedule of fees from 1 April 2027, so check the figures again if you apply after that date, and remember that solicitors' fees and any bond of caution are paid on top.

How long does confirmation take?

The court service does not publish a standard timescale, and most of the time goes on gathering valuations before anything reaches the court. The Scottish Government's guide, last revised in 2016, said the sheriff clerk would issue confirmation to a small estate within a few days if no further enquiries were needed, so ask the sheriff clerk's office for a current estimate. A large estate takes longer because you need the date-of-death value of every account, policy and property first, and with an IHT400 you also wait for HMRC's reply.

After confirmation there is a further wait, because the Scottish Government's guide says executors should not distribute the estate until six months have passed since the death, which gives creditors time to make their claims. Paying out earlier risks the executor becoming personally liable for a debt that surfaces later.

Which Scottish succession rules affect the executor?

Scotland gives close family fixed rights that a will cannot remove, so the executor has to account for them before following the will. These legal rights come from the moveable estate (money, shares, cars, furniture and similar, but not land and buildings). The Scottish Government's guide to legal rights explains that a surviving spouse or civil partner can claim one third of the moveable estate if there are children, or one half if there are none, and that the children share one third if there is a surviving spouse or civil partner, or one half if there is not. A spouse, civil partner or child who is left something in the will has to choose between that legacy and their legal rights, because they cannot have both.

When there is no will, prior rights come first. Under the Prior Rights of Surviving Spouse and Civil Partner (Scotland) Order 2011, a surviving spouse or civil partner who lived in the home is entitled to the person's interest in it (or £473,000 if it is worth more), its furnishings up to £29,000, and a cash sum of £50,000 if the person left children or £89,000 if they did not. The executor deals with prior rights before legal rights, and the remainder then passes in a fixed order of relatives.

What if the person had property in England, Wales or Northern Ireland?

If the person was domiciled in Scotland, one confirmation covers their property across the UK. Under section 1 of the Administration of Estates Act 1971, a confirmation that notes a Scottish domicile is treated in England and Wales as a grant of representation without being resealed, and section 2 does the same in Northern Ireland. If the person was domiciled in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, the executor needs a grant there instead, and section 3 of the same Act gives that grant effect over property in Scotland. In Northern Ireland the grant is still called probate and is applied for through the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service Probate Office.

To check whether confirmation has already been granted, you contact the sheriff court for the area where the person was domiciled, or the Commissary Office in Edinburgh. Older records are searchable online, because the ScotlandsPeople wills and testaments index covers 1513 to 1925, whilst records from 1925 to 1999 can be consulted in person at the National Records of Scotland, and later ones are held by the Commissary Department at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. Our guide to probate searches covers the equivalent in England and Wales.

What to do next

1. Register the death within 8 days where possible, which the National Records of Scotland says you can do at any registration office in Scotland, and our guide to registering a death explains what to take.

2. Find the will, if there is one, to see whether it names an executor-nominate or whether someone will need to be appointed executor-dative.

3. List everything the person owned with its value at the date of death, including interest, and note which property passes by survivorship.

4. Decide whether the estate is small or large, then book an appointment with the sheriff clerk or speak to a solicitor.

5. Check the inheritance tax position and complete an IHT400 first if the estate is not excepted.

6. Order certificates of confirmation for each bank or insurer when you lodge the inventory, and wait six months from the death before distributing.

The C1 declaration asks the executor to confirm that the inventory is full and complete, so it pays to be thorough before you lodge it. Tell Us Once works in Scotland and reaches most government organisations, but it does not reach the person's bank, energy supplier, phone provider or insurers, and each of those needs telling separately. Legacy Trail's free notification service contacts those private-sector providers for you wherever the person lived, and our Account Discovery Service searches for accounts the family does not know about, which can help before the inventory is finalised. Our guide to what an executor does sets out how confirmation fits into the wider work of winding up the estate.