Probate Office Dublin: Personal Application Process, Fees, and Rejection Risks

The Probate Office at the Four Courts in Dublin currently takes around seven weeks to review an application after it is lodged. That timeline sounds manageable — but it depends on getting the file right the first time. If your application generates more than three queries, it is returned entirely and loses its place in the queue. When you resubmit, the seven-week clock starts again from zero. A single typographical mismatch between two forms can delay an inheritance by months.

This guide explains the exact sequence for a personal probate application in Ireland, from the Revenue form you must file before you ever approach the Probate Office, to the rejection triggers that free resources fail to spell out.

Can You Apply Personally?

A personal application is allowed in most straightforward cases. You can proceed without a solicitor if all of the following apply:

• The original will has been found and is physically intact
• The will is written in English or Irish
• The deceased was domiciled in the Republic of Ireland at the time of death
• You are aged 18 or over and have full mental capacity
• There are no disputes among the beneficiaries or next of kin

A solicitor is legally required — not optional — if the will cannot be located, is written in a foreign language, the deceased was domiciled outside Ireland, you are under 18, you lack mental capacity, or there is any dispute among the parties. Attempting a personal application when professional representation is legally required will result in rejection.

The Revenue Gatekeeper: SA.2 Must Come First

This is the most common source of delay and confusion for personal applicants. The Probate Office cannot process any application that has not first cleared a mandatory Revenue filing.

Before contacting the Probate Office, the executor or administrator must complete the Statement of Affairs (Probate) Form SA.2 through Revenue's myAccount or ROS online portal. The SA.2 replaced the paper Inland Revenue Affidavit (CA24) for all deaths occurring after December 2001. It requires a complete itemised inventory of the estate: all Irish and foreign bank accounts with balances at the date of death, all real property with professional valuations, investments and shares, life assurance with a lump sum element, vehicles, and all liabilities including mortgages and personal debts.

The SA.2 cannot contain estimates. Revenue expects professional property valuations for any real estate. Jointly held assets must be declared even if they pass automatically outside the will by survivorship. Foreign bank accounts and foreign property must also be included — their omission is a leading cause of SA.2 delays.

When you submit the SA.2 electronically, Revenue generates a Notice of Acknowledgement. Print this document. Every applicant listed on the probate application must physically sign it. This signed Notice is the document you attach to your Probate Office application. Without it, the Probate Office will not accept your file.

Preparing the Personal Application Form

With the Revenue Notice in hand, download the Personal Application Form from courts.ie. Assemble the complete file:

Documents to attach:

• Signed Revenue Notice of Acknowledgement
• Original certified death certificate from the Civil Registration Service (not a photocopy — the Probate Office examines the original)
• An exact photocopy of the original will. Do not remove staples, binding, pins, or any attachments from the original document. The Probate Office physically compares the original and the copy, and any alteration to the original is a query trigger
• For intestate estates (no will), include Form CA1 (Oath of Administrator) in place of the will

The Jurat. The oath at the end of the application contains a sworn declaration called the jurat. This must comply with S.I. No. 95 of 2009, which specifies exact requirements for how the jurat is witnessed and signed. A missing witness qualification, incorrect dating, or improperly formatted declaration will return the file. Review the Courts Service guidance notes carefully before executing the oath.

Administration Bond (for intestate estates). Where there is no will, the applicant must provide an Administration Bond. The penal sum must be calculated as exactly double the gross Irish estate value as declared on the SA.2. This figure must match the SA.2 precisely — there is no rounding or approximation. A mismatch of even a few hundred euros is a rejection trigger.

Submitting the Application

Lodge the completed file by post or in person at:

Probate Office, Four Courts, Inns Quay, Dublin 7

After lodging, the Probate Office reviews the file. If they have queries, they contact you directly. If the file is in order, they issue an appointment within 10 to 12 weeks of lodging.

At the appointment, you attend in person, present identification, and swear the oath before a Probate Officer. The original will is examined at this appointment. Fees are collected.

Probate Fees

Fees are calculated on the gross Irish estate value declared on the SA.2. Current rates — verify at courts.ie before applying:

Certified copies of the issued Grant cost additional fees: €15 for an unofficial copy, €20 for a sealed copy, and up to €40 if you need certified copies of both the Grant and the will. Order multiple certified copies at the appointment. Banks, the Land Registry (Tailte Éireann), Revenue, and financial institutions all require an original certified copy each, and ordering them later adds weeks.

The Three Rejection Triggers

Most rejections fall into one of three categories:

1. Exceeding three queries. The Probate Office applies a strict query threshold. If your application requires more than three clarifications, it is returned in its entirety. The file loses its place in the seven-week queue. When you resubmit a corrected version, the clock starts again. One structural error can delay an estate by two months.

2. Mismatch between the SA.2 and the Personal Application Form. Every asset and liability figure in the application must exactly match the SA.2. If the total estate value, property address, account numbers, or any other detail differs between the two documents, the file is queried. The Revenue Notice of Acknowledgement makes this mismatch visible immediately.

3. Defective Administration Bond. For intestate estates, the penal sum calculation must be exact. Using your own estimate of the estate value rather than the precise SA.2 gross figure is the most common error. Obtain the SA.2 submission confirmation showing the accepted gross estate figure, and use that number — nothing else.

After the Grant: Property Registration

Once the Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration is issued, you can deal with the estate's assets. For real property:

• Joint tenancy. If the family home was held in joint tenancy, it passes automatically by survivorship. However, the surviving owner must file LR Form 47 with Tailte Éireann, accompanied by the death certificate, to formally remove the deceased's name from the Land Register. Until this is done, the property title remains in the deceased's name.

• Sole ownership. If the property was solely in the deceased's name, the executor must file LR Form 40 (Assent on testacy) or LR Form 41 (Assent on intestacy) to transfer the title to the beneficiary. The beneficiary cannot sell or mortgage the property until this transfer is formally registered.

Approximately 15% of transfer applications to Tailte Éireann are returned due to administrative errors — incorrect folio numbers, miscalculated fees, or poorly drafted capacity statements. The same precision that applies to the SA.2 applies here.

Combining Probate With DSP Claims

The probate timeline — typically three to five months from start to Grant — creates a cash flow gap for surviving families. Bank accounts in the deceased's sole name are frozen once the institution is notified of the death. However, banks in Ireland can release funds directly to a funeral director upon presentation of an invoice, without requiring a Grant of Probate. Individual banks also apply small-estate indemnity thresholds below which they release funds without a grant: AIB up to €25,000, Bank of Ireland up to €35,000, PTSB up to €30,000.

Do not wait for the Grant to begin DSP claims. Survivor pension applications, the Bereaved Parent Grant, and the Additional Needs Payment for funeral costs can all be submitted immediately and processed independently of the probate timeline.

The Ireland Survivor Benefits Navigator at /ie/survivor-benefits/ includes an SA.2 and Personal Application Form consistency template, Administration Bond calculator, and jurat compliance checklist — all aimed at preventing the query triggers that reset the seven-week queue.

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