When should I issue a Caveat?

Issuing a Caveat is quite a simple step and costs only ￡20. However, it has catastrophic consequences for the administration of an estate and has possible costs consequences for all parties involved in the Administration of the estate. So, some consideration should be given as to when they are appropriate and if they should remain in place.

Section 44 of the Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987 states: 

 ‘(1) Any person who wishes to show cause against the sealing of a grant may enter a caveat in any registry or sub-registry, and the registrar shall not allow any grant to be sealed (other than a grant ad colligenda bona or a grant under section 117 of the Act) if he has knowledge of an effective caveat’

 The Form PA8A used for issuing a Caveat states:

‘You may want to stop an application when:

• you think the person who made the will was being influenced by someone else or was not able to make their own decisions
• you think someone interfered with the will or forged it
• there is a more recent will
• the will was not properly signed and witnessed 
•  the person applying for probate refuses to share a copy of the will with you
• you are in dispute with the person applying or you think they are not suitable to carry out the instructions in the will
• you think the person applying is not eligible to apply if there is no will
• you are entitled to apply but have not been included in the application
• the person who died got married or entered into a civil partnership after the will was signed’

 A Caveat should therefore only be issued if there is a need to investigate the validity of the Deceased’s last will or there is reason to believe that the person likely to apply for the Grant of Letters of Administration is either not entitled to do so or is in not a suitable person to do so.

 Whilst the Caveat remains in place no Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration can be issued.

 If a Caveat is issued, then in order to be able to obtain Probate it will need to be removed. Ideally this would be agreed between the parties but if that is not possible further steps will need to be taken. 

 Prior to taking out a Caveat you can check if a Grant has already been issued at https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#wills. You can also do a standing search at the Probate Registry (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/find-a-will-or-probate-document-form-pa1s). The website states that a probate record should appear online 14 days after it has been issued.

 A Caveat should not be used for claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975. 

It’s also worth noting that a Will can still be contested after probate has been granted. However, the risk with allowing probate to proceed is that the estate is distributed, and it becomes much more difficult to recover any distributed estate assets.