Apply for Probate in Wollongong

Applying for probate from Wollongong and the Illawarra

There is no probate registry in Wollongong

This is the first thing Illawarra executors ask about, so it is worth being direct. Probate for a New South Wales estate can only be granted by the Supreme Court of New South Wales, and its Probate Registry is in Sydney, in the Law Courts Building at 184 Phillip Street. Wollongong Courthouse, on the corner of Church and Market Streets, is a Local and District Court venue. It has no probate jurisdiction, and you cannot lodge a probate application there.

You still do not have to travel to Sydney

New South Wales applications are filed electronically through the NSW Online Registry, so the application never crosses a counter. The only documents that physically travel are the original Will and the signed affidavit, which are posted to the Supreme Court at GPO Box 3, Sydney NSW 2001. We recommend registered post for anything original. For a Wollongong executor, the practical effect is that the whole application can be done from home.

The two NSW notices

Before filing, a Notice of Intended Application is published on the NSW Online Registry and you wait 14 days. Later, before distributing the estate, a Notice of Intended Distribution is published. Both are online, so neither requires a local newspaper advertisement in the Illawarra Mercury or anywhere else. Our NSW probate guide explains both notices in detail.

Getting documents witnessed in the Illawarra

The affidavit has to be sworn or affirmed in front of a solicitor, barrister, notary public or Justice of the Peace. The registry at Wollongong Courthouse is open 9.00am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday, and there are JPs available at Wollongong City Libraries and at council and Service NSW offices through Shellharbour and Kiama. Alternatively, our solicitors can witness the affidavit for you.

Illawarra property in the estate

Where the estate includes a Wollongong or Illawarra property, the title dealing is lodged with NSW Land Registry Services once the grant issues — a Notice of Death for property held as joint tenants, or a Transmission Application where it was held solely or as tenants in common. Because much of the Illawarra housing stock is held jointly between spouses, it is worth checking the title early: if everything was held as joint tenants and the bank balances are small, probate may not be needed at all.

If there is no Will

If the deceased left no Will, the closest next of kin applies for letters of administration instead. The Sydney registry, the online filing and the notices are identical; the entitlement to apply and to inherit is set by the NSW intestacy rules. See our NSW letters of administration guide.

Where we act in the Illawarra

We act for executors across Wollongong and the wider Illawarra — Figtree, Fairy Meadow, Corrimal, Thirroul, Bulli and the northern suburbs, Port Kembla, Warrawong, Berkeley and Dapto, and south through Albion Park, Shellharbour, Kiama and Gerringong — as well as the Southern Highlands and the Shoalhaven.