Can I Make a Will at Home?

Under the Wills Act 1837, a valid will must be in writing, signed by the person making it, and that signature must be made or acknowledged in the presence of two witnesses who are both present at the same time, who then also sign the will themselves. Nowhere in this does the law say anything about location. A will signed at your kitchen table with two neighbours as witnesses is just as legally valid as one signed in a solicitor's meeting room.

What actually causes problems with home-made wills is not the location, it is getting the content or the signing process wrong: for example, using a beneficiary's spouse as a witness, or wording a gift so unclearly that it is open to more than one interpretation. These are the risks to manage, rather than the setting.

You need two witnesses who are both over 18, mentally capable of understanding what they are witnessing, and, importantly, not beneficiaries under the will and not married to or in a civil partnership with a beneficiary. If a witness is a beneficiary, or married to one, that beneficiary's gift can fail even though the rest of the will remains valid, which is a common and easily avoided home-signing mistake.

Neighbours, friends, or colleagues make perfectly good witnesses, provided they meet these conditions. They both need to watch you sign, or confirm that the signature is genuinely yours, and then sign the document themselves while you are present, all at the same sitting.

Writing the will itself is straightforward to do at home using a guided online service. My Posh Will asks the right questions in a sensible order, covering executors, beneficiaries, guardians if relevant, and specific gifts, and produces a properly structured document for £69, or £89 for mirror wills as a couple, usually completed in around ten minutes.

Once the document is ready, you print it, read it through carefully, and then arrange your signing at home with your two witnesses, following the clear signing and witnessing instructions provided alongside the will.

The most common problems with home-made wills come from rushing the signing process or not fully understanding the witnessing rules, such as using a spouse and their partner as the two witnesses, or having one witness sign at a different time to the other. These mistakes can partially or wholly invalidate the will, even though the writing itself was fine.

Take your time over the signing stage specifically. It only takes a few minutes once your witnesses are with you, but it is worth reading through the instructions carefully first rather than assuming you already know the process.

If your estate involves a business, agricultural property, assets overseas, complex trusts, or a family situation where a dispute is likely, a home-made will using a template is not the right approach, however carefully you sign it. These situations need individual legal advice to get the structure right.

For everyone else, making a will at home using a proper guided service, followed by careful signing, is a legitimate, valid and increasingly common way to get a will in place without unnecessary cost or delay.