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Guides for Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has its own succession law, its own probate fees and its own forms. Almost everything published about “UK” inheritance describes the England and Wales system instead — different statutes, different figures, different outcomes. These guides cover the Northern Irish position, with every figure cited to its primary source.

Cost · free routes

What does a Will cost in Northern Ireland?

Every route and its real price, including the free ones — Macmillan's service runs all year for anyone over 18, Free Wills Month covers the over-55s in March and October, and Will Aid's suggested donation in November is £120. Plus why there is no published solicitor fee scale here.

 No Will

Who inherits if you die without a Will in Northern Ireland?

The £250,000 and £450,000 statutory legacies, why your spouse takes one half with one child but only one third with more, and the case where a spouse with no children does not inherit everything. Administration of Estates Act (Northern Ireland) 1955, section 7.

 No Will · after a death

Letters of administration in Northern Ireland

Where there is no Will there is no executor, so nobody has authority until the court grants it. Who the law lets apply and in what order, form NIPF2, the one-year rule on distribution under section 41, and what happens when no relative survives.

 After a death

Probate in Northern Ireland: fees, forms and how to apply

The £326 court fee, the £81 personal-applicant supplement most guides leave out, and the £10,000 threshold below which there is no fee at all. Forms NIPF1 and NIPF2, the online portal, and the two Probate Offices.

Why the Northern Irish position is different

Three divergences do most of the work. The intestacy rules come from a 1955 Act with lower thresholds and a different split from England and Wales. The Trustee Act 1925 does not extend to Northern Ireland at all, so trustee powers rest on the Trustee Act (Northern Ireland) 1958, and the reform that lifted the advancement cap in England and Wales in 2014 never applied here. And probate runs through Belfast and Londonderry on Northern Irish forms at Northern Irish fees.

Execution formalities are the one thing that is substantively the same: a Will must be in writing and signed in front of two witnesses who are both present at the same time, under Article 5 of the Wills and Administration Proceedings (Northern Ireland) Order 1994, which mirrors section 9 of the Wills Act 1837. So a Will properly signed in England is unlikely to fail here for want of form — the problem is its content, which will cite the wrong statutes and assume the wrong law.

Make a Will for Northern Ireland

Drafted under the 1994 Order, with trustee powers under the 1958 Act. From £69, usually delivered within 24 hours.

Start your Will — from £69 →