Inheritance Act 1975 — 6-month claim window

The Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 lets certain people — spouses and civil partners, former spouses who have not remarried, cohabitants of at least two years, children (including adult children), and anyone maintained by the deceased — claim reasonable financial provision from an estate in England and Wales where the will, or the intestacy rules, failed to make it. Section 4 imposes a 6-month limitation period running from the date of the grant of representation (the grant of probate or letters of administration), not from the date of death.

The calculator adds six calendar months to the grant date you enter, clamping to the end of shorter months (a grant on 31 August gives a deadline of 28 or 29 February), and sets reminders at 2 months, 1 month and 7 days before the deadline, with an .ics download for your calendar.

The court has discretion to permit a late claim under s.4, but the case law (notably Berger v Berger [2013]) shows permission gets harder the longer the delay, and you need a good explanation plus an arguable claim. The safest course is to issue the claim before the deadline — negotiations can continue afterwards. A standstill agreement with the estate is sometimes used instead, but it depends on everyone's cooperation.

What this tool does not check: whether you are within the categories of people entitled to claim, whether provision was in fact unreasonable (a separate merits question), or the correct grant where more than one has issued. Distribution of the estate is not stopped by the deadline alone — personal representatives can distribute six months after the grant unless they know of a claim, another reason to act early. Take specialist advice well before the date shown.