Probate - how much longer?

[rubybambini]

Can someone please advise! We are paying a solicitor to administer my late mum’s estate. She left a will, and died in March last year. Her estate consisted of some savings, a couple of ISAs (all to go to my dad) and 4 x £750 to go to her godchildren. We are now some 14 months after instructing the solicitor, and things are still not wrapped up. The lack of closure is really hurting my dad now, and when he calls, it’s always ‘in a couple of weeks’...

About how long would you expect this to take? Are we unreasonable in our expectation that it should be done by now? We thought it would be easier / better to pay for a solicitor, and we are paying ££.

No that is way too long for what should have been a fairly simple process. Probate should have been granted by now and the estate doesn't sound complex at all.

That’s sounds shit
My mum passed away in Oct
I sent off the probate field to Cardiff Dec 27th 2019 and got probate first week of Feb
I did it myself
My mums was simple
She had a will owned a house with my dad no savings of her own

Meant to say if you do it yourself it’s really very simple .
From memory I think it took me about 45 mins as I had to first do the form online for any tax due and then you get a ref number which I used for the probate form
I then download the forms and I did it by hand 🤗 and I made sure I photocopied everything as well

It took me longer thinking about doing it than to actually do it

That is way too long. My mum also died in March last year. Her estate was a little complicated but it was still done and dusted by December.

Uncle passed awa March, probate finished before Christmas.

This sounds like it's taking quite a long time.

My Dad passed away in the February, I started the process in April & probate was granted by early July, small simple estate, no property etc. My Mum started the probate process for my Gran in February of this year & it's just been granted, quite a large complicated estate. We were expecting it to take a while due to the current situation.

Way too long. My husband died in the march and settled by the November... Had to redo some stuff as I found another financial thing which delayed it by a few weeks.

Sounds like you should demand a full refund OP and just do it yourself x

That’s too long to be reasonable. My mum was executor for my grandmother’s complicated estate (house, rentals, trusts, insurance policies, stocks & shares Etc) & she got probate in 9 months.

Wow, so many responses - thank you. And pretty unanimous. My next worry is how to actually get the solicitor moving. The last comms - a call from my dad to them two weeks ago - was to say that things were even harder to progress now because of corona, which we have of course, been sympathetic towards. I feel so sorry for my dad.

How? What has corona have to do with it? Surely it's just a matter of filing the paperwork now. Ask explicitly what the hold up is and get an itemized invoice of expenses.