Probate goes fully online as rules drop attestation and bond sealing

Probate and administration applications can now be handled without two long-standing paper formalities: documents filed digitally no longer need to be attested, and administration bonds no longer have to be sealed and delivered in the estates of persons whose date of death is on or after 1 January 1967. The change is made by the Rules of the Superior Courts (Probate) 2026, published as S.I. No. 549 of 2026 in Iris Oifigiúil No. 88 of 3 November 2026.

The instrument is a short amending text rather than a new code. It rewrites two provisions of the Rules of the Superior Courts — Orders 79 and 80 — which govern applications for grants of probate and grants of administration, and states expressly that the amendments are made “in relation to online applications for grants of probate and administration”. It appeared in Section I of the gazette alongside S.I. No. 548 of 2026, the Employment Equality Act 1998 (Section 20A) (Gender Pay Gap Information) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, and S.I. No. 550 of 2026, the Health (Provision of Contraception Prescribing Service in Retail Pharmacy Businesses) Act 2026 (Commencement) Order 2026.

Digital documents no longer need attestation

The first limb of the instrument addresses the evidencing of papers that arrive electronically. The official text provides that documents filed digitally do not need to be attested.

In practice, that removes a step that sat between the person filing and the court: a document no longer has to carry a separate attestation in order to be accepted because it was lodged online rather than on paper.

• The relief covers applications for grants of probate.
• It covers applications for grants of administration.
• It is framed around documents filed digitally.

Administration bonds: the 1967 cut-off

The second limb concerns administration bonds, the security given by an administrator when taking charge of an estate. The rules remove the need to seal and deliver such bonds in the estates of persons whose date of death is on or after 1 January 1967.

The date is the limit of the change, not its trigger. Estates of persons who died before 1 January 1967 remain outside the wording of the amendment, so the sealing and delivery requirement continues to apply to them.

Two elements of the bond process are named in the text as no longer required:

• Sealing of the administration bond.
• Delivery of the administration bond.

Who is affected

The instrument reaches the practitioners and parties who move an estate through the probate system, and it reaches them at the point where documents are lodged and security is given.

• Solicitors filing probate and administration applications online.
• Executors seeking a grant of probate.
• Administrators taking out a grant of administration and giving an administration bond.
• Estates where the deceased died on or after 1 January 1967.

The rules are on sale through Government Publications, Mountshannon Road, Kilmainham, Dublin, D08 XA06, at a price of €3.50.

The significance lies in the removal of two formal steps that existed only on paper. For solicitors, the filing of a digital document and the giving of an administration bond become single acts, without the additional attestation or sealing that previously sat alongside them; for executors and administrators, and for the estates they represent, the practical effect is a shorter path between the death and the grant, with the 1967 threshold marking the boundary of the change.

Source: Iris Oifigiúil, No. 88, 3 November 2026, Section I, p. G-3 (official reference: S.I. No. 549 of 2026).