Named as executor but do not want the job? Renouncing, reserving power and stepping down

Yes. Nobody can be forced to act as an executor, however clearly the will names you. Before you have started, you can give up the role for good by signing form PA15, or stand back while leaving the door open, which is called having power reserved. Once you have started acting, the law calls it intermeddling and only a court can release you. The one thing you cannot do is ignore it, because an estate with a named executor who neither acts nor renounces is stuck, and the beneficiaries have ways of forcing the point.

The three positions you can take

You have three choices. Two of them are good. The third is the one most people drift into.

Renounce. You sign form PA15 in front of a witness who is not a beneficiary, and the form is filed at the probate registry with the application for the grant. From then on you are treated as if you had never been named. It is final. A court can allow a renunciation to be taken back, but that is rare and usually only where it helps the estate, so treat the signature as permanent. The form also asks if you are giving up any role as trustee under the will, which is a separate question worth reading before you sign.

• Power reserved. If the will names more than one executor, one of you can apply for the grant and the other can have power reserved. You are not renouncing. The grant is issued to your co-executor alone, with a note that power is reserved to you, and you can apply to join in later if you are needed. You are not responsible for what the acting executor does.
• Do nothing. This is the worst option. Nothing can happen until someone holds a grant, so the bank, the buyer of the house and HMRC all wait. The beneficiaries can ask the registry for a citation, described below, which gives you a deadline. Miss it and your right to act ends, with your name on the court papers as the cause of the delay.

If you are still weighing it up, the guide to executor duties sets out what the job involves. Not wanting to do the paperwork is a reason to instruct a solicitor, not a reason to renounce.

Intermeddling: what counts and what does not

You cannot renounce once you have intermeddled, which means once you have done something that only an executor is entitled to do. The line decides whether you can walk away with a signature or need a court order.

Acts that usually count as intermeddling:

• Telling a bank, insurer or pension provider that you are the executor and asking them to deal with you.
• Paying the deceased's debts from money in the estate, or collecting money owed to it.
• Selling or giving away anything that belonged to the deceased, including clearing the house and selling the contents.

Acts that usually do not count:

• Arranging and paying for the funeral. This is treated as an act of necessity, whoever does it.
• Securing the house, changing the locks, feeding the dog and moving valuables somewhere safe.
• Gathering paperwork, opening post, registering the death and finding out what the estate contains.

So decide before you touch anything that belongs to the estate. Register the death, arrange the funeral, lock the door, then stop and choose. If you use the deceased's card to pay the milkman, you have probably crossed the line.

If the will named only you

Renouncing as sole executor does not leave the estate without anyone to run it. Somebody else applies for a different grant, called letters of administration with the will annexed. The will still stands and every gift in it is still paid. The only change is who holds the paperwork.

The probate rules set out who may apply, in order. After the executors come the residuary beneficiaries, the people who receive whatever is left after the specific gifts. In most family wills that is the spouse or the children, so in practice one of them steps up.

Whoever takes it on can instruct a solicitor. Aaron takes on the grant application, or the whole administration, for a fixed fee agreed in writing before any work starts, whichever of you is the applicant. Your renunciation is filed alongside their application.

Stepping down after the grant

Once the grant has been issued in your name, a signature is no longer enough. You hold the estate on trust for the beneficiaries and can only be released by a court order under section 50 of the Administration of Justice Act 1985, which lets the court remove a personal representative and appoint someone in your place.

The court will want to see:

• A proper reason. Serious illness, a move abroad, a real conflict of interest, or a breakdown between executors that is stopping the estate being administered. Finding the job tiresome is not usually enough.
• That removing you is in the interests of the beneficiaries as a whole, not just convenient for you.
• A replacement lined up with their written consent, or a co-executor who can carry on alone.
• Estate accounts to the date you step down, showing what has come in, what has gone out and what is left.

The application needs a witness statement and usually a hearing. Legal costs run into thousands of pounds and the court decides who pays them, which can be you personally. That is why these applications are rare.

The other way round: a co-executor who will not act

A common version of this problem is the executor who will neither apply for the grant nor sign a PA15. Sometimes they are grieving, sometimes abroad, and sometimes stalling is the point of a family dispute. The estate cannot wait indefinitely.

• Ask in writing first. A short letter setting out the two options, renounce or have power reserved, with the PA15 enclosed, resolves most cases. Many people do not know power reserved exists.
• Citation to accept or refuse. If they still do nothing, a beneficiary or co-executor can apply to the probate registry for a citation. It is served on the executor and requires them to say within a set time whether they will take the grant. If they do not answer, their right to act ends and the next person entitled applies.
• Citation to take probate. If the executor has intermeddled but not applied, so cannot renounce, they can be cited after six months from the death to take the grant. If they still do not, the court can let someone else apply.
• Passing over. In the clearest cases, for example an executor who cannot be traced or is plainly unfit, the court can pass over the executor under section 116 of the Senior Courts Act 1981 and appoint someone else before any grant is made.

Where the block is a family dispute rather than inertia, get advice before serving anything, because a citation can harden positions. The guide to the grant of probate explains why nothing much can happen without the grant, which is often the fact that persuades a reluctant relative to sign.

What people get wrong

• Renouncing costs you your inheritance. It does not. Being an executor and being a beneficiary are separate. You can sign the PA15 and still receive every penny the will leaves you.
• An executor cannot be a beneficiary. They can, and in most family wills they are. The rule that catches people is that a beneficiary who witnesses the will loses their gift. Acting as executor has no such effect.
• Executors get paid. Not unless the will says so. A lay executor can recover reasonable expenses from the estate, such as travel, postage and the probate fee, but not a wage for their time. A will that appoints a solicitor or a bank usually contains a charging clause allowing them to bill the estate.
• The funeral counts as intermeddling. It does not, and paying for it from your own pocket does not either. Reasonable funeral costs come out of the estate ahead of the ordinary debts, so if you paid £3,800 from your own savings and later renounce, whoever takes the grant repays that £3,800 before any beneficiary is paid. Keep the invoice.
• A professional executor clause means the family cannot do it. A firm named as executor can renounce like anyone else, and many will if the family asks and the estate is straightforward.

What to do next

Check the will to see who is named and whether it appoints trustees as well as executors. Check whether anyone has already started dealing with the estate. Then decide, before any money moves.

If you would like a second opinion on which fits, Aaron offers a free 15-minute call. He is an SRA-regulated solicitor and a full member of STEP, and he will say plainly whether you need him. If you or the person taking over would like the grant or the whole administration handled, the fee is fixed and agreed in writing first. The Plan Finder is the quickest way to begin, and the GOV.UK page on applying for probate has the current application fee, which is £526 for estates over £5,000 and nothing at or under it.

This page is general information about the law of England and Wales. It is not legal advice, and the right answer depends on your facts, the wording of the will and what has already been done with the estate.