Whether or not Probate will be needed to deal with a property will depend on how it’s owned. Probate will always be needed to sell a property owned in the deceased’s sole name, but it’s not always needed to transfer a property to a surviving joint owner.
Dealing with a Probate Property
Whether you need Probate to sell the property or not will depend on how the property is held.
If the property is held in the sole name of the deceased, then Probate will always be needed to sell or transfer it into someone else’s name, regardless of who this is.
If a property is held jointly as Joint Tenants, where neither party owns a divisible share, the deceased person’s share will automatically pass by survivorship to the surviving owner and no Grant of Probate will be required.
If a property is held jointly as Tenants in Common, each owner holds a defined share. This is usually representative of how much money they put into the property when it was purchased. If a property is held as Tenants in Common, then the deceased’s share in the property will not pass automatically to the surviving owner. Instead, it will be subject to the deceased’s Will or the Rules of Intestacy (if there is no Will).
If the deceased’s share of the property has been gifted to someone other than the surviving co-owner the property can be transferred into the names of the surviving co-owner and the beneficiaries of the deceased’s estate, and a Grant of Probate is not always needed.