In short
1,217 disputed probate cases were filed at the High Court in England and Wales in 2025 — the highest annual total on record, up 12.7% on 2024. Probate caveats, the formal step used to freeze an estate, topped 11,300 for the second year running. If you're an executor trying to sell a property while a dispute rumbles on in the background, here's what the numbers mean for you and what your practical options actually are.
If it feels like more families are falling out over estates than they used to, the data backs that up. Court records show disputed probate cases climbing every year since 2021, with 2025's total the highest ever recorded. Two things are driving it: rising estate values, which raise the stakes of every disagreement, and the growth of blended families — remarriage, step-children, and half-siblings with competing expectations — which the majority of estate professionals now identify as the single biggest source of inheritance conflict.
None of that is much comfort if you're the executor named on a grant, sitting on a property you need to sell, while a sibling, a step-parent, or a beneficiary you've never met is threatening to contest the will. So here is what actually happens to the property, and what you can and can't do about it.
What a dispute actually does to your ability to sell
The mechanism most families encounter first is the caveat — a simple, cheap application that anyone with a potential interest in the estate can file at the Probate Registry. A caveat doesn't need to prove anything. It simply stops a Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration being issued while it's in place, which in turn stops you legally dealing with the property.
A caveat lasts six months and can be renewed indefinitely while a genuine dispute is being resolved. In practice, that means a property can sit unsold — and, just as importantly, unmaintained and increasingly uninsured — for months or years while relatives argue.
The cost that catches families out
The financial risk isn't just the falling value of a property sitting empty. Standard buildings insurance on most policies starts to lapse or exclude cover after a property has stood unoccupied for as little as 30 to 60 days — exactly the position many disputed estates find themselves in. Council tax also continues to accrue once any exemption period ends, regardless of whether the family is speaking to each other. Legal costs are the biggest risk of all: protracted disputes have been reported to consume a significant share of an estate's total value in fees alone before a single beneficiary sees a penny.
What executors can still do
- Check whether the dispute is actually about the property, or about something else entirely. Many caveats are lodged as a holding tactic in a wider disagreement rather than a genuine objection to the property being sold. If all parties agree the house should be sold and proceeds held while the real dispute is resolved, a caveat can often be withdrawn by agreement.
- Get the property insured and secured regardless of the dispute's progress. This is not optional and should not wait until the legal position is settled.
- Take independent legal advice early, not once positions have hardened. A short conversation with a probate solicitor at the first sign of family disagreement is far cheaper than a caveat renewed for the third time.
- Where the property genuinely cannot be sold while a dispute continues, get an up-to-date, defensible valuation anyway, so you're ready to move the moment the legal position clears.
Why speed matters once the dispute clears
The families who come out of a contested estate in the best financial position are rarely the ones who spent the most time fighting — they are the ones who resolved the dispute as quickly as the facts allowed, and then moved on the property immediately rather than letting it sit on the open market for months. Once you are legally able to sell, a fast, certain cash sale avoids exactly the kind of prolonged uncertainty that caused the problem in the first place — no chain, no risk of a buyer walking away, and one point of contact rather than juggling multiple beneficiaries' solicitors through an estate agency sale.
Frequently asked questions
Can I sell a probate property if there is a caveat on the estate?
Not until the caveat is removed or resolved. If all parties agree the property should be sold while a separate dispute continues, a caveat can sometimes be warned off by agreement so a sale can proceed with proceeds ring-fenced.
How long can a probate caveat last?
Six months, and it can be renewed indefinitely while a genuine dispute is resolved — meaning a property can sit unsold for months or years in contested cases.
Who pays for insurance and upkeep on a disputed probate property?
The executor remains responsible for protecting the estate's assets, including keeping a property insured and secure, regardless of how the family dispute is progressing.