Author and Publication
Author: Nellie Supports Ltd
Publication Date: 15/05/2026
Citation
The Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987, SI 1987/2024. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1987/2024/contents
Copywright
Copyright © 2026 Nellie Supports Ltd. All rights reserved.
This article is made available for general information, education and professional reference. It may be downloaded, printed and shared for non-commercial purposes, provided that it is reproduced in full, is not altered in any way, and is properly cited as the work of Nellie Supports Ltd. This material must not be edited, adapted, sold, republished, incorporated into commercial products, or used for commercial training, assessment, report-writing or advisory services without prior written permission from Nellie Supports Ltd.
This article does not constitute legal advice, clinical advice or a substitute for a decision-specific professional assessment. Where legislation, government guidance, court forms or external professional materials are referred to, those materials remain subject to their own copyright, licensing and re-use terms.
What is a PA14 probate mental capacity assessment?
A PA14 probate mental capacity assessment is the assessment behind the PA14 medical certificate: the form the probate registry requires when a person entitled to a Grant of Representation, an executor or administrator, lacks capacity to manage their property and financial affairs. The assessment establishes, with reasons, whether the person can act in the administration of the estate; the certificate then allows someone to act on their behalf, usually their attorney under a registered LPA or their deputy, taking the grant for the person's use and benefit. This guide explains what the assessment covers, who completes the form and how the probate process continues around it.
Where the PA14 sits in probate
The PA14 is the probate registry's medical certificate, used where a person entitled to apply for or act under a grant of representation may lack capacity to do so. It supports an application for someone else to take the grant on that person's behalf, most commonly their attorney or another entitled person, so that an estate is not stalled by an executor or beneficiary who cannot act. It is a short form with a specific job, and understanding that job is the key to completing it usefully.
The decision the PA14 is actually about
The capacity in question is the person's ability to manage the task the grant involves: applying for it and administering the estate, or, framed practically, managing their property and financial affairs to the extent the role demands. It is not a general verdict on the person, and it is decision-specific like every capacity question: a person may be unable to administer an estate whilst retaining capacity for many other decisions, and the certificate should speak to the probate role rather than to the person's life at large.
What the form asks the practitioner to confirm
The PA14 asks a practitioner to identify themselves and their basis for knowledge of the person, to describe the condition affecting the person and to confirm the incapacity the application relies upon. Its structure is brief, but brevity is not licence for assertion: the confirmation should rest on an actual assessment or genuine clinical knowledge, because registries can and do raise queries, and a certificate that cannot be substantiated stalls the very application it exists to unblock.
The assessment behind a reliable PA14
Behind a reliable certificate sits the ordinary discipline of the Mental Capacity Act 2005: the presumption of capacity, practicable support, the functional test of understanding, retaining, using or weighing the relevant information about the estate role and communicating, and the causative link to an impairment of, or disturbance in the functioning of, the mind or brain. Where the completing practitioner has not assessed recently, a decision-specific assessment should be conducted rather than certifying from an ageing impression.
When a fuller capacity report should accompany or replace it
The bare form serves straightforward cases. Where the estate is substantial or contested, where family members dispute the person's capacity, where the incapacity finding may feed later steps such as deputyship, or where anything about the situation invites challenge, the PA14 should be underpinned by a full decision-specific capacity report, with the form completed consistently with it. The certificate then carries the registry stage whilst the report stands behind it for everything that follows.
Common problems with PA14 evidence
The recurring difficulties mirror capacity work everywhere: certificates resting on diagnosis alone with no functional basis, completed by practitioners with no recent knowledge of the person, contradicted by other evidence in the application, or framed as though the person lacks capacity for everything rather than for the estate role. Each invites requisitions and delay, and each is avoided by the same means: a real assessment, recent, decision-specific and consistent with the wider application.
The person's position and dignity in the process
The person the certificate concerns retains their rights throughout: the presumption of capacity until evidence displaces it, support to participate where participation is possible and a process that treats the finding as specific to the probate role. Where their capacity may fluctuate or recover, the papers should acknowledge it, and where they can express wishes about the estate or its administration, those wishes deserve recording even though the grant is passing to another.
Practical steps for families and practitioners
In practice: identify early that an entitled person may lack capacity, obtain a recent decision-specific assessment of their ability to take on the estate role, have the PA14 completed by a practitioner who can substantiate it, keep the certificate consistent with every other document in the application and, where the incapacity has wider consequences, deputyship, registration of an LPA, commission the fuller report once and let it serve each process. Sequenced this way, the probate application proceeds instead of circling.
Key takeaway
The PA14 is a narrow instrument doing an important job: certifying, on a proper evidential basis, that an entitled person cannot take on the grant so that an estate can move forward through someone who can. Treat it as the visible edge of a real decision-specific assessment rather than a signature exercise, and it unblocks probate without creating the disputes that thin certificates invite.
Frequently asked questions
Does a diagnosis automatically mean someone lacks capacity?
No. A diagnosis may explain why capacity is in doubt, but it does not answer the legal question. The assessment must still consider the specific decision, the relevant information, the support provided and whether the person can understand, retain, use or weigh that information and communicate a decision.
What evidence is useful for PA14 Probate Mental Capacity Assessment?
The PA14 itself, the assessment behind it addressing the person's ability to manage property and financial affairs, relevant medical records and the LPA or deputyship order of whoever will apply in the person's place. The registry's question is narrow and the evidence should answer it directly.
When is a formal assessment for PA14 Probate Mental Capacity Assessment useful?
A formal assessment is useful whenever an executor's or administrator's ability to act is genuinely in doubt: it either evidences the PA14 route cleanly or confirms the person can act after all, which avoids wrongly bypassing them.
Related mental capacity assessment pages
These internal links help readers move from this guide to the most relevant Nellie Supports service page, assessment option or legal framework page.
Need a PA14 assessment?
Nellie Supports completes PA14 probate capacity assessments across England and Wales, with a same working day response to every enquiry and every report peer reviewed before delivery. Call 0333 987 5118 or visit the PA14 probate assessment service page.