Is a section 27 notice a legal requirement?

No. Nothing in law compels an executor to place one — section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925 offers a personal shield to the executor who chooses to use it rather than imposing a duty. The consequence of skipping it is personal: if you distribute the estate and an unknown creditor later produces a valid debt, you can be personally liable for it.

How much does a deceased estates notice cost in 2026?

£96.55 plus VAT (£115.86) to place the notice through The Gazette's web form — the same price whether a solicitor submits it or the executor does. Submitting by post or email is £131.70 plus VAT (£158.04). Asking The Gazette to place the local newspaper advertisement as well costs a further £240.00 plus VAT (£288.00). Figures from The Gazette's 2026 price list, checked 20 August 2026.

Can I place a Gazette deceased estates notice myself, without a solicitor?

Yes. The Gazette lets any executor or administrator place a deceased estates notice directly: register a free account, complete the web form, and upload at least one of the grant of probate, the letters of administration, or the death certificate. There is no requirement for a solicitor and no professional discount — the fee is identical either way.

What does a section 27 notice not protect an executor from?

It only protects against claims the executor had no notice of. It does not help against a creditor you already knew about; under s.27(2)(a) a creditor can still follow the money into a beneficiary's hands; under s.27(2)(b) you must still make the searches a buyer's solicitor would make; and it does not shut out a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, which runs on its own six-month clock from the grant.

Probate · Creditors & Notices

The section 27 notice — what it protects, and what it costs

Q: How long do creditors have to come forward after a section 27 notice?

At least two months. Section 27(1) of the Trustee Act 1925 requires a period 'not being less than two months' from the notice, and The Gazette describes the window as two months and one day. Where a local newspaper advertisement is also placed, the careful practice is to count from the later of the two publication dates.

Q: Does the same rule apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland?

No. Section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925 is an England-and-Wales provision, published in The London Gazette. Northern Ireland has its own equivalent in s.28 of the Trustee Act (Northern Ireland) 1958, requiring the Belfast Gazette plus two advertisements in each of two Northern Irish daily papers. Scotland has no direct section 27 equivalent: settled practice is that an executor waits six months from the date of death before distributing a solvent estate so creditors have time to claim, and Scottish advice should be taken on what an advertisement adds.

Q: When is placing a deceased estates notice not worth the money?

When there is realistically nothing unknown to find — a small estate where the deceased lived with the executor, had one bank account and a pension, no business, no property and no lending history. If you are the sole beneficiary as well as the executor, the shield largely protects you from a debt that would have reduced your inheritance anyway. The fee earns itself on the opposite profile: someone who lived alone, ran a business, was a landlord, or had a lending or guarantor history.

A deceased estates notice is an advertisement an executor places in The Gazette, asking anyone owed money by the estate to come forward. Wait out the period it sets, and the law stops holding you personally responsible for debts nobody told you about.

It costs £115.86 including VAT, it runs for two months, and you can place it yourself — no solicitor, no professional account.

It is also not a legal requirement, and on some estates it is not worth the fee. This page is honest about both.

Covered here: what section 27 actually gives you · the 2026 fees, itemised · the four things it does not cover · whether your estate needs one · how to place it, step by step · Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Where this sits in the free executor checklist→

§1

What a section 27 notice actually does

It converts an open-ended personal risk into a fixed two-month wait. An executor who pays out the estate and is then met by a debt nobody mentioned can be asked to make it good from their own money. Section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925 offers a way out: advertise for creditors, give them a stated period of at least two months, and once that period has run you may distribute having regard only to the claims you then know about.

Place the notice

An advertisement in The Gazette — The London Gazette for England and Wales — naming the deceased, naming you, and giving an address for claims. If the estate includes land, section 27 also asks for a notice in a newspaper circulating where the land is.

Wait the full period

The notice fixes a deadline, and section 27 sets the floor at two months. The Gazette describes the window as two months and one day. Where a newspaper notice is also placed, count from the later of the two publication dates.

Distribute protected

After the deadline you may pay the beneficiaries and, in the words of the section, not be liable to any person of whose claim [you] have not had notice. The unknown creditor's claim does not vanish — it simply stops being your problem.

The wording that matters. Section 27(1) protects you against a person of whose claim you have not had notice at the time you distribute. Every limit on this page follows from that one phrase — the shield is drawn around what you did not know, not around what you would rather not deal with. Read it in full at legislation.gov.uk.

§2

What it costs in 2026

The Gazette publishes one price list, and executors pay the same rate as law firms. There is no professional discount and no consumer surcharge. The only lever that moves the price is how you submit it: the web form is the cheap route, post and email cost more.

The Gazette · 2026 price listInc. VAT

Deceased estates notice — web formThe standard route. One notice, one estate, submitted through The Gazette's own online form. This is the figure to budget for.

£115.86£96.55 + VAT

Deceased estates notice — post or emailThe same notice, submitted the slow way. £42.18 more for identical published wording — there is no reason to choose this unless you cannot use the form.

£158.04£131.70 + VAT

Local newspaper advertisement, placed by The GazetteOptional convenience. The Gazette will book the local paper for you as one transaction; you can also approach the newspaper yourself and pay its own rate.

£288.00£240.00 + VAT

Claim-forwarding serviceClaims go to The Gazette's address instead of yours, and are forwarded on. Worth knowing about if you would rather not publish your home address.

£105.06£87.55 + VAT

Late advertisement surchargeCharged when a notice misses the copy deadline for the edition you want. For submissions by post or email, The Gazette asks for copy by 11:30am at least two working days before publication.

£72.06£60.05 + VAT

Figures taken from The Gazette's 2026 price list and checked on 20 August 2026. VAT shown at 20%. The price list also carries a £0.00 column — that rate is for public bodies placing mandatory notices, not for executors.

To be clear

Valoren does not place Gazette notices, and we take no fee if you place one. The notice is placed by you, with The Gazette, at the price above. We wrote this page because the fee, the wait and the limits are hard to find in one place — not to stand between you and The Gazette's own form.

§3

The four things it does not cover

Section 27 is narrower than most executors assume. It is sold as protection, and it is — but it is protection against one specific thing, and the statute itself spells out the gaps in the subsection immediately after.

Read these four before you rely on it, not after.

A creditor you already knew about

The shield covers claims you had no notice of. A statement in the deceased's post, a debt a relative mentioned, an unpaid invoice in a drawer — once you know, you know, and paying the beneficiaries instead can still leave you personally liable. The notice is for the unknown, not the inconvenient.

The beneficiaries who received the money

Under s.27(2)(a) a creditor may still follow the property into the hands of any person other than a purchaser. Your protection is personal. A beneficiary who has already spent their share can be pursued for it — which is worth saying to the family before the money goes out, not after.

The searches you should have made

s.27(2)(b) says the notice does not free you from making the searches, or obtaining the certificates of search, that an intending purchaser would be advised to make. Advertising is not a substitute for a Land Registry check, a will search or a bankruptcy search. The notice and the searches answer different questions — do both.

A family claim on the estate

A claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 is not a creditor's claim, and section 27 does nothing about it. It has its own clock — six months from the grant — which is the reason careful executors hold back a distribution until that window has closed too.

One more that is not a gap in the statute but catches people anyway: HMRC and DWP are not really unknown creditors. An outstanding tax position or a benefits overpayment is something you are expected to go and ask about — clear those directly rather than treating the notice as cover.

§4

Does your estate actually need one?

Nothing obliges you to place a notice — so the question is whether £115.86 buys you anything on this estate. It is insurance against one event: a real debt, held by someone you have never heard of, surfacing after the money has gone out. Where that event is plausible, the fee is trivial against the exposure. Where it genuinely is not, you are buying cover for a risk that does not exist. Most guidance refuses to say the second half out loud.

Place one

Where the fee earns itself several times over

The deceased lived alone, and nobody has had sight of their post or paperwork for years.
There was a business, a trade, or a partnership — trade creditors are the classic unknown claim.
They were a landlord, or held property jointly with someone outside the family.
There is any history of lending, guarantees, or a loan taken out for someone else.
You are the executor but not a beneficiary — every pound a late creditor takes comes out of your own pocket, not an inheritance.
The estate is large enough, or the family tense enough, that you want the paper trail as much as the protection.

Probably not

Where it is honestly hard to justify

A small estate you can see the whole of: one bank account, a pension, no property, no cards.
The deceased lived with you, and you have handled the post and the bills for years.
You are the sole executor and the sole beneficiary — the shield mostly protects you from a debt that would have come out of your own inheritance regardless.
An excepted estate with no land, no lending and no business interests behind it.
The estate looks insolvent. Stop — that is a different regime with a statutory payment order, and advertising is not the first move. Take advice before paying anyone.

If you are hesitating, place it. The asymmetry is brutal: the cost of the notice is £115.86 and two months of patience. The cost of being wrong is a debt you pay yourself, with no cap and no insurance behind it. Uncertainty is itself a reason to advertise — the whole point of the section is that you cannot see what you cannot see.

This is a guide to help you gather the right information and weigh the decision. It is not legal advice, and it does not take account of anything specific to your estate. On an insolvent estate, a contested will, or an estate with business assets, take advice from a solicitor before you distribute anything.

§5

How to place one yourself

The Gazette takes notices directly from executors — you do not need a solicitor to submit one. You register as a notice placer, complete the deceased estates form, upload one piece of evidence and pay. The published wording is identical to the one a law firm would file.

Get one qualifying documentYou need at least one of: the grant of probate, the letters of administration, or the death certificate. The death certificate is enough to place the notice, which means the two-month clock can start running before your grant arrives.
Create a Gazette accountRegistration is free. Notices can only be placed by a registered account holder — that verification step is why the process cannot be completed anonymously.
Complete the deceased estates formYou will give the deceased's full name, last address and date of death, your own name and an address for claims, and the deadline date you are setting. The address you enter is published — use the forwarding service, or a solicitor's address, if you would rather not publish your home.
Set the deadline at least two months outSection 27 fixes the floor, not the ceiling. Many executors set a date two months and a week ahead so a slow postal claim still lands inside the window. Never set it shorter than two months — a short notice may give you no protection at all.
Decide about the newspaperIf the estate includes land, section 27 also wants a notice in a paper circulating where the land is. The Gazette will place it for you at £288.00 including VAT, or you can ring the paper's legal-notices desk yourself.
Diarise the date and hold the moneyPublication is the start of the clock, not the end of the job. Diarise the deadline, and do not distribute until it has passed — a notice placed and then ignored costs £115.86 and protects nothing. If a newspaper notice went in too, count from the later date.

The form itself, and the current fees, are at thegazette.co.uk. A notice sent by post or email has to reach The Gazette by 11:30am, at least two working days before the edition you want; miss that and the notice moves to a later edition or attracts the late surcharge.

Which Gazette, and which statute

Section 27 is an England-and-Wales provision. The other two nations have their own rules, their own Gazette and — in Scotland's case — a different claim period entirely.

England & Wales

The London Gazette

StatuteTrustee Act 1925, s.27

Claim periodAt least two months

Gazette notice, plus a local paper where the estate includes land. The route described on this page.

Northern Ireland

The Belfast Gazette

StatuteTrustee Act (NI) 1958, s.28

Claim periodAt least two months

Near-identical protection, heavier advertising: the Belfast Gazette once, plus twice in each of two Northern Irish daily papers. Text at legislation.gov.uk.

Scotland

The Edinburgh Gazette

StatuteNo direct section 27 equivalent

Claim periodSix months from death

A different regime, not a variation. Settled Scottish practice is to wait six months from the date of death before distributing a solvent estate, so that creditors can claim — there is no advertisement that buys the same statutory shield. Take Scottish advice before you distribute.

Section 27, answered plainly

No — nothing in law compels an executor to place one. Section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925 is permissive: it offers a personal shield to the executor or administrator who chooses to use it, not a duty imposed on the estate.

The consequence of skipping it falls on you personally, not on the estate. Distribute the money, and then a creditor nobody knew about produces a valid debt, and you can be personally liable for it out of your own pocket — the notice is the statutory answer to exactly that risk.

£96.55 plus VAT — £115.86 — to place the notice yourself through The Gazette's web form. That is The Gazette's own published rate for a single deceased estates notice, and it is the same price whether a solicitor submits it or you do.

Submitting by post or email instead is £131.70 plus VAT (£158.04). If you also ask The Gazette to place the local newspaper advertisement for you, that is a further £240.00 plus VAT (£288.00) — you can deal with the newspaper directly instead.

Yes. The Gazette lets any executor or administrator place a deceased estates notice directly — you register a free account, complete the web form and upload your evidence.

You need at least one of: the grant of probate, the letters of administration, or the death certificate. There is no requirement for a solicitor to submit it, and no professional discount — the fee is identical either way.

The notice must give them at least two months, and the statutory floor cannot be shortened. Section 27(1) requires a period 'not being less than two months' from the notice, and The Gazette's own guidance describes the window as two months and one day.

Where a local newspaper advertisement is also placed, the careful practice is to count the period from the later of the two publication dates. Distribute a day early and the protection you paid for may simply not have started.

It protects you against claims you had no notice of — nothing else. A creditor you already knew about, or one whose paperwork was sitting in the deceased's post, is not an unknown creditor, and the notice buys you no protection at all against them.

It also leaves three things untouched: a creditor can still follow the money into a beneficiary's hands under s.27(2)(a); you still have to make the searches a buyer's solicitor would make under s.27(2)(b); and it does not shut out a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, which runs on its own six-month clock from the grant.

If the estate includes land, yes — section 27 requires a notice in a newspaper circulating in the district where the land is, as well as the Gazette notice. For an estate with no land, the Gazette notice alone satisfies the section.

Many solicitors place a local advertisement anyway on estates without land, because it is the cheap half of a belt-and-braces approach. That is a judgement call about risk, not a statutory requirement.

No — all three nations work differently. Section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925 is an England-and-Wales provision, published in The London Gazette.

Northern Ireland has its own near-equivalent in s.28 of the Trustee Act (Northern Ireland) 1958, which asks for the Belfast Gazette plus two advertisements in each of two Northern Irish daily papers. Scotland is not a variation on the same theme at all. There is no direct section 27 equivalent: settled practice is that an executor waits six months from the date of death before distributing a solvent estate, so that creditors have time to claim, rather than buying a shield by advertising. An executor in Scotland should take Scottish advice on what an advertisement adds.

When there is realistically nothing unknown to find. A small estate where the deceased lived with the executor, had one bank account and a pension, no business, no property and no lending history is not the risk section 27 was written for — and if you are the sole beneficiary as well as the executor, the shield largely protects you from a debt that would have come out of your inheritance anyway.

The fee stops being optional in the opposite case: someone who lived alone, ran a business, was a landlord, had a lending or guarantor history, or whose affairs the executor simply has no visibility of. On any estate you would call complicated, £115.86 is the cheapest protection available to you.

Plate R · Related