Clearing the home of someone you’ve lost is one of the hardest jobs grief asks of us. Every drawer holds a memory, and the practical pressure to sort, value and empty a property can feel overwhelming on top of everything else you’re carrying. If you’re the executor, you may also worry about getting things right and not making a costly mistake.
The good news is there’s a safe, sensible order to follow, and you don’t have to do it all at once. This guide takes you through what to do with antiques and household items step by step: how to protect them, how to get them valued the way HMRC expects, and how to decide what to keep, sell or donate, so you can move forward with confidence.
First, Don’t Rush, and Don’t Throw Anything Away
In the early weeks there’s often pressure to clear the house quickly, whether from family, from a landlord, or simply from wanting a difficult job behind you. Resist it. As executor you’re legally responsible for the estate’s assets from the date of death, and getting rid of things too soon can be costly and hard to undo.
It helps to be honest about the market. Much of what fills an older home, the large mahogany sideboards, the dark dining sets, the “brown furniture” the trade once prized, may now be worth far less than the family expects. Tastes have shifted and smaller homes have less room for it. That can come as a relief or a disappointment, but either way it’s better to know than to guess.
The real value often hides in the small things: a tray of watches, a drawer of jewellery, the odd piece of silver, a box of medals or coins, a painting nobody looked at twice. These “sleepers” can be worth a great deal, and they’re exactly the items most easily binned, given away, or sold for a fraction of their worth in a hurried clear-out.
So before anything leaves the property, secure the home, keep everything in place, and at the very least photograph each room and item. You can always dispose of things later, but only if you haven’t already.
Understand Where Antiques Fit in the Probate Process
Probate is simply the legal process of administering someone’s estate: gathering in what they owned, settling any debts and tax, and passing the rest on to those entitled to it. As executor or personal representative, you’re legally responsible for the deceased’s money, property and possessions from the date of death right through to distribution. Before you can apply for the grant, you’ll usually need to work out what the whole estate is worth, including everything in the home.
This is where antiques come in. In probate language, household and personal goods like furniture, jewellery, paintings, silver, clocks and collectables are known as “chattels”. They form part of the estate just as much as the bank accounts and the house itself, and they have to be valued and reported for both probate and Inheritance Tax purposes.
It’s easy to overlook this. Possessions can feel personal rather than financial, but HMRC treats them as assets with a monetary value, recorded on the household and personal goods schedule (form IHT407). The figure you give isn’t what something is insured for, or what the family paid years ago. It’s the realistic value on the open market at the date of death.
Getting that valuation right is the foundation everything else rests on, so it’s worth tackling properly before you decide what to keep, sell or pass on.
Step 1 — Get the Antiques Valued the Way HMRC Expects
This is the part executors most often get wrong, so it’s worth slowing down for. For probate, antiques and household goods must be given their open market value at the date of death, which is the realistic price they would actually fetch if sold, usually at auction or resale. This is set out in Section 160 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984, which defines value as the price property might reasonably be expected to fetch if sold on the open market. It is not the insurance value, not the replacement cost, and not what the family paid years ago. Using any of those figures inflates the estate and can leave you overpaying Inheritance Tax for no reason.
HMRC’s household and personal goods schedule, form IHT407, reflects this in how it’s laid out. Individual items of jewellery worth £1,500 or more must be listed separately. Antiques, works of art and collections are also listed separately, with a professional valuation attached where one exists. Ordinary, lower value household goods can usually be grouped together as a single total rather than itemised piece by piece.
So when is a professional valuation genuinely worth it? For modest, everyday contents, a reasonable estimate backed by evidence is often enough. But you should get a professional opinion if you think any single item may be worth more than £1,500, if the estate is near the Inheritance Tax threshold, or if you simply aren’t sure what something is worth. These are exactly the situations where a defensible figure protects you.
Modern valuations make this far easier than a diary full of dealer visits. Many are now done from clear photographs uploaded online, with an HMRC-compliant report returned in one to two working days. I am often surprised that executors regularly confuse probate value with insurance or purchase value (which can be a costly mistake!), but HMRC only cares what an item would actually sell for on the open market on the date of death.
Step 2 — Check the Will and Any Letter of Wishes
Before you decide what happens to anything in the home, read the will carefully. If it leaves a specific item to a named person, a grandmother’s ring to one granddaughter, a clock to a particular son, that gift is legally binding and must be honoured. Your authority to administer the estate comes from the will itself, so these named gifts aren’t suggestions you can weigh up. They’re instructions you have to follow before items are sold or shared out.
You may also find a letter of wishes alongside the will, and this is a different thing. A letter of wishes is persuasive but not legally binding, an expression of how the person hoped certain belongings would be shared rather than a formal gift. You should respect it where you reasonably can, but it doesn’t carry the same weight as a clause in the will.
Family feelings often run deepest over particular pieces, the ones tied to memory rather than money. Where relatives have asked about something in particular, talk it through openly and sensitively before anything leaves the house. A quiet conversation early on saves a lot of upset later.
Step 3 — Decide What to Keep, Sell or Donate
Once items are valued and any specific gifts are accounted for, you can sort the rest into three routes: keep, sell or donate. None of these decisions removes the need for a probate value first.
Keep. Where a beneficiary wants a particular piece, whether it’s furniture, jewellery or a sentimental keepsake, they’re welcome to take it. But remember it still has to be given its open market value at the date of death and recorded on the estate, because it forms part of what’s being inherited. Wanting to keep something doesn’t take it outside the figures HMRC expects to see.
Sell. If items are to be sold, your options depend on what they are. A specialist auction house suits antiques, jewellery, silver, watches and fine art, where the right buyers compete. A reputable dealer can offer a quick, certain sale, and online marketplaces work well for more ordinary household goods. There’s a real advantage here too. A genuine, arm’s-length sale price achieved after death, particularly at auction, is some of the strongest possible evidence of open market value, and HMRC will usually accept it as the true figure.
Donate or dispose. Beneficiaries who inherit household and personal goods can donate some or all of them to a qualifying charity and claim charity exemption, using form IHT408. Items of genuine historic or cultural interest may be welcomed by a museum, though acceptance is never guaranteed. Whatever’s left can be cleared responsibly.
A word of caution on selling before the grant. It can be possible in practice, but get anything potentially valuable properly assessed and documented first. Selling too soon, without evidence of what an item was, is exactly how estates run into trouble with HMRC.
Step 4 — Keep Records for HMRC
Whatever you decide for each item, keep a paper trail. Hold on to the photographs you took at the start, any written valuations or reports, and the receipts or sale records for anything you sold. Together these show how you arrived at the figures on the estate accounts, which is just what HMRC may want to see later on.
This isn’t only good housekeeping. HMRC can ask to see your records for up to 20 years after Inheritance Tax is paid, so the evidence you gather now needs to last. Keeping copies of the will, signed forms, supporting valuations and final accounts protects you long after the estate is wound up.
The reassuring part is that honest, well evidenced figures are your best defence. As executor, you carry real risk in both directions: undervaluing assets can mean penalties and a challenge from HMRC, while overvaluing them needlessly inflates the estate and may cost the beneficiaries tax that was never due. Defensible numbers, backed by photos and valuations, keep you on the right side of both.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do antiques need to be valued for probate? Yes. Antiques, jewellery, art and other household goods are “chattels” that form part of the estate, so they have to be valued and reported for probate and Inheritance Tax. The estate must be valued before you can apply for probate, and that includes the contents of the home, not just bank accounts and property.
How are antiques valued for probate? They are given their open market value at the date of death, meaning the realistic price they would fetch if sold, usually at auction or resale. Section 160 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 defines this as the price the property might reasonably be expected to fetch if sold on the open market. It is not the insurance value, the replacement cost, or what the family originally paid.
Do I need a professional valuation, or can I estimate? It depends on the items. For ordinary, lower-value household goods, a sensible estimate backed by evidence is usually fine. But you should get a professional opinion if you think any single item might be worth more than £1,500, if the estate is near the Inheritance Tax threshold, or if you simply aren’t sure what something is worth.
Can I sell antiques before probate is granted? In practice it can be possible, but be careful. Get anything potentially valuable properly assessed and documented first. Selling too soon, without evidence of what an item was, is how estates run into difficulty with HMRC, so photograph and value before parting with anything.
What if an antique sells for more or less than the probate valuation? A genuine sale after death, particularly at auction, is some of the strongest evidence of true open market value, and HMRC will usually accept it. If a sale price differs significantly from your reported figure, you may need to update HMRC or submit a corrective account, so keep the records either way.
Are antiques subject to Inheritance Tax? Not as a separate category. Inheritance Tax is charged on the value of the whole estate above the £325,000 nil-rate band, at 40% on the excess unless a relief or exemption applies. Antiques simply add their open market value to the estate total, they are not taxed in their own right.
Getting a Compliant Valuation Without the Guesswork
If you’d rather not guess at open market figures, Swift Values offers HMRC-compliant house contents probate valuations from uploaded photographs for £119, with reports usually returned within one to two working days and no immediate home visit needed. For a standout antique, painting or piece of jewellery, single item valuations start from £30, giving you defensible date of death figures so you can move forward with confidence.