How do I put the house in my name?

[Thirdtimeunlucky2025]

DH owned the house before we married. He passed away and left it to me in his will.

Probate has just been completed and I now have the relevant paperwork to process putting in the House in my name

Would it be easy enough to do this myself, or should I engage a solicitor?

Will, I need other forms than the probate forms, like a copy of my passport or a Bill certified?

Personally, I would use a solicitor to do it. You've probably got enough to deal with.

However, you can do it yourself through Land Registry at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/land-registry This is the Government's official Web page. Anything else you come across on the Internet will be an organisation trying to make money from you.
There are guides and the forms you will need.

Unless you did Probate yourself, I'm a bit surprised your solicitor didn't do the transfer as part of winding up your late husband's affairs.

Thank you

I didn’t use a solicitor to do probate. I used an accountant who specialised in it as it was thousands and thousands of pounds cheaper

When my mum died I was the sole beneficiary to her will . I did the probate and when I received it all back contacted the Land Registry to change the details of ownership of the house.
Having said all that , I didn't do anything for at least six months after her death as emotionally , I would not have coped to even attempt it any earlier than that .I

Added to say once you have all the paperwork in place , and take your time , it's not too difficult to do .

It's straightforward once you've worked out which forms you need. The Land Registry itself seems to have a ban on answering questions about how to proceed but MoneySavingExpert has a forum on which Land Registry representatives post regularly, so if you get stuck that's worth a try. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5685941/land-registry-questions/p546

The form you need is an AS1. An Assent.

I am a bit surprised to hear that. I have had to ask them questions a few times now and every time they were efficient and helpful.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/devolution-on-the-death-of-a-registered-proprietor/practice-guide-6-devolution-on-the-death-of-a-registered-proprietor#death-of-a-sole-proprietor-or-sole-surviving-proprietor-of-a-registered-estate-or-of-a-charge-or-mortgage

Section 3.3 explains. You'll need to send in an ID form as well OP, so it might be easier to use a solicitor.

I asked my solicitor to do this. Cost me around £200. My head wasn’t able to process exactly what I needed to do correctly. I just accepted it as a cost of dealing with DH estate. (Solicitor did probate and dealt with everything for me.)

I filled forms in for an elderly friend whose house was unregistered to put it in his name. The instructions were quite straight forward. It saved him about £1K in solicitors fees he’d been quoted so definitely worth ringing them up and getting the appropriate forms sent and doing it yourself. It all went through no problem.

@Thirdtimeunlucky2025 I’m so sorry for your loss.

my friend has recently lost her husband very suddenly and the probate team
she was put in touch with by the funeral
home have been utterly useless. Would you mind sharing the details of the accountant you used? Thank you. I hope you are doing ok.

When I divorced I got the house. I couldn't complete the transfer with the land registry as I was not a qualified conveyancer or words to that effect. How did you all get around that or has that rule changed?

It's quite straightforward in the event of a death where the two legal owners were joint tenants. I did this for my grandmother- didn't even need to wait for probate as jointly owned property passes to the survivor automatically.

You just need to complete the relevant LR form and send it back with a copy of the death certificate. Doesn't need a solicitor/conveyancer (I am coincidentally a solicitor but not a probate/property one).

@socialdilemmawhattodo a divorce situation is more complicated.

Ok, thank you. I did the paperwork just fine, but couldn't complete the transaction. It's weird I jointly owned the house anyway.

I did this when my husband died. Just did the form for the land registry, it seemed quite straight forward, although the land registry seems to take ages to actually do their bit.

I use a solicitors firm to do it - ring round and get the cheapest one (I wouldn’t normally recommend that as you get what you pay for in terms of speed with conveyancing factories when buying and selling, but this straight forward and not time sensitive)

And the reason I say this is, if you do it yourself you will need an ID1 form from a sols anyway and most places have stopped doing them as they are so high risk or charging £300 so it can be easier just to register a “proper” client in the first place.

A solicitor told me today that they wouldn’t do it as I hadn’t done the probate with them and it would actually be cheaper for me to do it myself.

So that’s what I will do and I will report back and let you all know whether I managed to do it reasonably easily

You can process it with land registry or find a solicitor willing to do it for a fixed fee

It’s free to do yourself and seems straightforward.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/deceased-joint-proprietor-djp

That's not what she needs, the house is not in joint names. There are citizen guides on the government website for HMLR to help with the assent. Ring them if you need any further guidance. Should be straightforward to do yourself. Im sorry for your loss 💐

https://www.gov.uk/update-property-records-someone-dies?step-by-step-nav=4f1fe77d-f43b-4581-baf9-e2600e2a2b7a
This should help.

I think that HMLR are not able to provide legal advice but will answer procedural questions. The online guides are very useful.

Not quite the same but I changed my name by deed poll and wanted to change my name on the deeds of my house. The forms from the land registry were straightforward but one thing that resulted in a bit of back and forth was the evidence of identity needed for the witness and what needed to be submitted. You might not need a witness but if you do read the requirements carefully - they need to be a similar profession to who can confirm identity for a passport and you also need a copy of their ID eg passport.

Has your friend applied for probate now or doe rhey still need help?