How to find out if someone left a will you don't know about (UK)
18 August 2026 · Inherit Vault
There's no single official register that catches every will in England and Wales. A perfectly valid will can sit in a solicitor's storage room while the family shares out the estate as though there wasn't one. Finding it afterwards is a genuine mess.
Start with the obvious places, they're where wills usually are
The deceased's own paperwork first, then their bank, if they had a safe custody arrangement, then any solicitor they ever used, including for the house purchase decades ago. Firms merge and get taken over, but files get passed on, so the Law Society can help track down where an old practice ended up. Will-writing companies and online providers are worth a call too. A quick note in the local paper or a post in a village Facebook group has turned up more wills than anyone would like to admit.
The registers worth searching
Certainty, the National Will Register, is the closest thing to a proper database and lets you run both a register search and a wider search of solicitors in the area. There's a fee, and it isn't exhaustive, because registration is voluntary. Wills can also be deposited for safekeeping with the probate service, so it's worth asking them directly. And if the death was some time ago, try gov.uk's Find a Will service. It covers every will that has been through probate since 1858, and copies cost a couple of pounds.
Buy yourself time with two small forms
If you think a grant is about to be issued and you're not sure the right will is being used, a caveat stops it. It's form PA8A, costs £3, and lasts six months, renewable. If you just want to know when a grant is issued, a standing search does that instead and also lasts six months. Both are cheap, and both are enormously easier than unpicking an estate that has already been distributed.
If a will turns up afterwards
It still counts. A later valid will overrides the intestacy rules, or an earlier will, even after the money has gone out. Beneficiaries who received what wasn't theirs can be asked to hand it back. There's also a trap in reverse: if the original will can't be found and it was last known to be with the person who made it, the law generally presumes they destroyed it deliberately. Copies can sometimes be admitted, but you're arguing your way to it.
Nearly all of this comes down to one thing nobody wrote down: where the will is. Not the contents, just the location and the firm's name. That one line prevents almost every problem on this page.
Sorting this out for someone else? Make sure your family never has to.
Most of the time goes on finding out what the person had and who to call. Inherit Vault keeps that list for you: your accounts, pensions and policies, and where your will is kept. Only you can read it. Your executor gets it when it is needed.
Read more
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- How do you find a pension after someone passes away? (UK)
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- My Lost Account: how the free bank account tracing service works
- How to trace a lost pension in the UK, step by step