How long should probate take?

[Cileymyrus]

Keeping an eye on the gov website to see when an elderly relative’s will is sorted.

they died in sept, nothing yet, but I see there’s a lot of people who died sept/oct/nov whose probate is through already.

it should be very straightforward, as far as we know there were mirror wills so everything goes to their surviving partner. Fairly sure probate is required because they had separate bank accounts as well as joint ones (from the reading I’ve done probate is only usually not needed if everything is joint?)

what could be holding it up?

Yes parent is sole beneficiary, son is (now) sole executor, as far as we know.

son plans to have parent move in with them, so won’t be homeless. The house doesn’t need to be sold as the remaining parent will own it outright, but the parent is needing increasing amounts of help.

Probate registry is currently advising a 16 week wait from application to issue of a grant. Some are quicker for no apparent reason. Why are you so interested?

They won't be homeless but is it what they actually want? And how will the money be managed considering it belongs to the elderly spouse?

I think there are bigger issues here frankly than the time its taking to get probate and if there are other siblings/executors named in the will they have a responsibility here as well.

It is very tax efficient in regards to passing on assets for the older person to sell their home before their death. Whether its emotionally the right thing is up to the individual.

In what way is it tax efficient? I thought it was the opposite because of the way inheritance tax bands increase if the "family home" is passed to offspring.

I guess it's tax efficient if they sell, give the money away, and try not to die within seven years though.

What's not clear in this OP is who owns the house and how is it owned. If it is owned as joint tenants, it automatically passes to surviving spouse and private is not needed to sell it.

However, if it was owned as joint tenants, there can be no inheritance for the offspring from the house sake as the deceased did not fully own a "share" to bequeath.

If it was owned as tenants in common, then the deceased can bequeath their share and the house probably needs to be sold to release the funds, unless survivor can buy the other half from the estate and give the beneficiaries their share that way (unless they come to some other agreement of course).

Mixed up in this is potential elderly financial abuse.

Questions are - why is the son acting as executor? Why is the son deciding the parent will live with them? Does the son have POA? If not, does anyone?

I think I'd be wanting to send a solicitor's letter to the son, if I was one of the beneficiaries, asking for detailed information and accounts to date.

If the parent is of sound mind, why aren't they questioning or resisting all this?

One problem with selling the house and distributing proceeds to others is if you need care and can't pay for it - the government won't just step in and pay if they know you've distributed monies to avoid taxes/care home costs. You're totally reliant on whoever has received your monies, having the money available to support you or willing to do so.

A lot depends on who's doing it. If the exec does it themselves and is reasonable capable they could have the probate application in within a couple of weeks. I did this for my mother.
On the other hand if a solicitor is involved it takes much longer because there is never any urgency. Either way you can't affect the time taken at Probate office once the forms go in.

Giving money away isn't tax avoidance.

You could, potentially, have the council (not govt) checking where your money went if they need to fund a care home. But unless they can show you gave your money away in order to avoid care home fees, they have a very low chance of getting anywhere. And while someone is fit and healthy there's no reason to suppose they might need a care home, so they can't be trying to avoid it. Not everyone goes into care, I don't think it's even the majority of people.