Does anyone know why I might not be able to find a will online?

[MILTOBE]

My ex died a few years ago. His will was read, probate carried out. I wanted to read the will (for a legitimate reason concerned with my children) but it's not on the government website, even though it has gone through probate.

Does anyone know why that might be the case?

Thanks.

Hopeful bump.

Not a clue, I'm afraid - jist bumping.

Youve likely done this already, but did you search the next year and potentially the year after that?

In the past I've not been able to find a will because they died intestate or they defaced the will and it was sent to court to decide how to proceed.

Might have been a contentious will?

Are you sure a grant of probate was definitely needed? Any joint assets pass automatically to the surviving owner, so wouldn't need a grant. And lots of banks will pay a fairly high amount without probate nowadays. If the money is spread over several accounts it might not need probate, a lot will pay up to at least £25k without a grant. If there is property in the deceased's sole name or shares then they would need probate to change these, but it's not automatically needed, even if the wishes of the will were followed.

If you're sure it was definitely granted then widen your search terms on the website. So put in date of death and a variety of spellings of the surname or first name if it has multiple potential spellings. All grants issued in England and wales should be on the website, but if the spellings or dates are slightly different on the grant you might not be getting a match. And probate doesn't always issue in the year of death, so make sure it is searching subsequent years. And make sure you're definitely on the gov.uk website to search, not one of the private ones that exist.