Probate was applied for in January 2021. Still heard nothing

[namechangeranonymouse]

Is this normal? Seems an awful long time

Who applied? Are you an executor dealing with the estate, or are you expecting an inheritance?

Beneficiary. Relative is executor

I have a standing search set up, as we are not on speaking terms

Whats a standing search, is this in England?

I’d it likely to have been a complicated estate? Has any property been sold?

How do you know when probate was applied for?

Ours went in December 2020, we just received probate in March 2022. No real estate involved just financial institutions. So you should get yours through in the next month unless other complications kick in.

We got probate less than 2 months after applying. You can check online to see if it’s been granted. I think you can also obtain a copy of the will and see who the executors are.

I applied for probate on my mum’s estate recently (end of February) and haven’t even had an acknowledgment of the documents being received.

That does seem like a long time to be honest, even with all the delays due to covid. If this is England and the will / estate is fairly straight forward then no way it should take over a year to grant probate.
If you look at the registry you can see that there are deaths from Feb and March this year which have had probate granted already.

I am of course talking about an application which has been completed correctly. If the executor has failed to provide all the necessary paper work and financial details then there will be delays because probate can’t be granted without the correct process and documentation.
I would therefore guess that either it’s a complex case or the executor hasn’t followed the process and it’s stalled. Or perhaps someone has contested the will - which would mean probate hasn’t been completed.

Would a contesting of the will make it complicated? Otherwise a fairly straightforward will with a property involved. England.

Probate solicitor is dealing with it so it's being done Correctly

@Googlecanthelpme. Or you have a solicitor who is incomprehensibly slow - despite getting a fixed fee and banks and financial institutions which act as if no one has ever died before in the history of mankind. !

[quote Alphabet1spaghetti2]@Googlecanthelpme. Or you have a solicitor who is incomprehensibly slow - despite getting a fixed fee and banks and financial institutions which act as if no one has ever died before in the history of mankind. ![/quote]

We are contesting so it may be an issue.

Although the probate solicitor said it wouldn't affect anything 🤷‍♂️. Totally confused.

I’ve had an email today to say probate has been granted and my paperwork will be with me within 10 days.
I know they will keep the original will, but will I be sent a copy?

@Hucklead

I applied for probate on my mum’s estate recently (end of February) and haven’t even had an acknowledgment of the documents being received.

I sent mine online at the end of Feb, gor everything back last week. Really simple estate though, only took me a couple of hours to complete everything.

I suspect if 'applying for probate' means that a solicitor was engaged to deal with things, it could take a great deal longer as there is just so much stuff to go through.

Before covid the probate office changed IT systems and there was a resulting massive clusterfuck that caused delays. So there was a stonking backlog when covid happened. And that did not help.

That said, erything seems to be slow and still slow - not just in probate but everywhere. In my firm in their 'wisdom' the partners mass furloughed 95% of support staff saying the solicitors had to do their own admin. While WFH without the infrastructure. I estimate that this hampered our efficiency several thousand times, with a corresponding delay on all standard bread and butter work such as filing documents. It's a disgrace. (Thank god I have now put my notice in. Can't stand it a moment longer).

From the other side as a client - a family member I am executor for died in January 2021. We have JUST NOW got the Grant of probate- despite the fact I am a solicitor and the other executor (a cousin) is also a solicitor, and we were going through an entirely separate firm of solicitors to handle it for us!!

It's nuts.

The family member's estate was compliated though with overseas property involved as well which did not help.

It took 7 months to get my father’s probate beginning of last year, and 5 months to get my mother’s (she died in spring last year)
Still neither Will has been completely settled 😳

I don’t suppose I could trouble you for a brief outline of the complications? My mother’s estate is 0 in the UK but she has an overseas property.

I sent probate off myself middle of July 2020, sent a copy will and they contacted me to send original. Duly collected from solicitor and sent off.
probate granted 14 th August 2020

i used a firm Farewill to do my probate and it took 7 weeks that was October 2021
When I did my mums in Dec 2019 it took 5 weeks

This is why I didn't use a solicitor, I was warned it would take ages so I applied online myself but I'm the executor, had an email back saying it would be completed in 6-8 weeks so fingers crossed.
I've sent the original will recorded delivery.
There will be a reference number, do you have this op?
You could then get in touch with the probate office and ask for an update