Grant of Probate waiting times

[NobbyButtons]

Just wondering what other people's recent experiences are with waiting times for the Grant of Probate. My mum died in November and the probate application was submitted in late January (14 weeks ago now). Apparently it's still waiting to be processed. We keep being told it can take 16 weeks to issue the Grant of Probate, but the government's 'Search probate records and find a will' service shows it often doesn't take anywhere near that long, and I was speaking to someone last week whose application took 8 weeks.

I wish the Probate Office could be made liable for excessive delays on their side.

At one point we were told that an issue had arisen with the probate that would take another 6-8 weeks to resolve. 8 weeks came and went. After 12 weeks, the estate agent managed to get us an update to say that the Probate Office would be getting to “our” case in the next 1-2 weeks. Getting to? GETTING TO? I was livid, but there was nothing I could do. I just had to suck up any extra costs caused by the delays.

Ours went through in 4 weeks last year but only because the solicitor put a note through requesting it to be expedited quickly.
The reason being it has been started 6 months earlier by a different solicitor and then stalled because that solicitors practice ? had had to close due to some unfortunate circumstances . They were handling the conveyancing too. Our new solicitor said that was very unusual but not unheard of . It was a simple estate though - one property & two bank accounts .

It varies a lot, but it can take months. What’s soul-destroying is that the Probate Office doesn’t seem to be under any obligation to provide a timely service to applicants, so you just have to accept it will take as long as it takes.

This is all true. We've been through it three times with close family. It's luck of the draw as to the efficiency/speed of different offices. Our local one is awful - they're typical "jobsworths" who literally plan their workload to do the work on the latest possible day within their targets, that's whether they could do it quicker or not. Their entire workload is planned around working backwards from the target date. After I applied for my mother and waited a couple of months, I phoned to ask for progress update and estimated time, and the person who answered the phone just said "16 weeks", didn't take my details etc - just a bored "16 weeks" as the answer to my question. I persisted and asked her to check they'd received it and it was logged into their systems, etc., and after a bit of sighing I heard a few keystrokes, and she confirmed date of receipt and the date it would be dealt with, which was the 16 weeks! When they finally deemed to deal with it and I got the appointment to go in to sign and take the oath, I arrived 30 minutes early, no one else there, just several staff small-talking in the office. Bang on the appointment time, someone wandered over and took me into the adjoining meeting room, and then disappeared again, only to appear half an hour later with the file! There's just no sense or urgency at all unfortunately. So OP needs to just sit back and wait because they're not going to go any quicker!

It’s all so frustrating! And causes unnecessary upset and expense.

I’ve shared my experience before but worth adding here. Having a professional executor who work at their own snail pace hasn’t helped either.
Dad died May 2022, met with executor week after to set ball rolling. I provided them with all account, share, insurance details.
They applied for grant of probate (in writing rather than online) August 2022. Granted end of January 2023.
We were aware we could market property but couldn’t exchange without GOP so held on until we had it.
House sold quickly and now conveyancing is dragging on for no reason.
Water is turned off so no cost but standing charges for utilities are hitting monthly and despite monthly communication they don’t accept the no change meter readings so continually estimate a higher fee showing his account in debt. It’ll all get sorted but it’s a right pain.
Interestingly, we have had to ask for the available estate to be shared between beneficiaries as a partial payment. They were reluctant but have agreed to an amount as a % payment.
We have a formal complaint with the Legal Ombudsman due to all the errors and delays along the way- that’s a different story.

I think you must mean Xmas 2022.
How come estate agents are able to chase applications, we have been informed that only executors and solicitors can follow it up with the probate office?
We are now approaching a year since the person's death.

Just heard that the grant of probate has now come through.

@catndogslife how long did that take in the end?

Approx 20 weeks, but that doesn't allow for Christmas, New Year or Easter holidays.

I submitted a probate application on 10th December 2021 and it was granted on 25th January 2022. I was pleasantly surprised by that, as it was over the Xmas period. It was quite a simple estate though, and under the threshold for inheritence tax. I assume bigger or more complex estates take longer because things need to be checked.

16 weeks have come and gone and the application hasn't even been looked at yet. It's now been escalated and is supposed to be looked at in the next 3 weeks

I got one for MIL in six weeks. Applied for DH's mid February and they've only just come back with a query. His was less complicated 🤷‍♀️

We applied for letters of administration (having wrested control from the professional executor) end August. Letters received mid November after a bit of chasing and sending an additional document (my marriage certificate). I found chasing using the online chat did seem to help. You have to be there 8am on the dot to get in the queue.

Simple application, no IHT, no house.

Sil been waiting since last August.
It's disgusting at a time when family are stressed already.
.

20 weeks now since the application was submitted and it still hasn't even been looked at yet!

I used to work for a solicitors and the various probate registries waiting times can vary a lot I’d say 16 weeks isn’t unusual and was common when I worked in this area - 8 years ago. Covid probably has caused delays.

In my personal opinion a good probate solicitor will try to deal asap, a not so good or inexperienced one they’re ok but not sure I’d want them to handle my case.

From what others have said here, simpler estates often quicker to issue grant of probate. Different probate offices are quicker or slower. You do have to remember they’re a government service and though the solicitors can and do chase often in my experience this makes little or no difference to speed. The solicitors know it’s frustrating for bereaved families though.

We submitted in November still nothing.

In Scotland you can’t put a property on the market until you have received confirmation ( which is similar but not identical to probate).

Ours was crazy. Relative passed October. We applied for probate mid Feb and it was back first week of march. We had 3 months in our heads not 3 weeks.

There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason why some are so quick and others take ages. I know that doesn't help. This wasn't through a solicitor as we did it all ourselves and iht bill has been settled. Not sure if that made a difference

We're still waiting to hear about a probate which was applied for last October. We can't chase it as it was applied for by the executor and we just have to wait until we hear from them to say that it's been granted. I know there are delays but I'm starting to wonder if we should ask the executor about it at some point and if so when that should be after 9 months, 10 months a year?

You can search online with very basic details

I do check online, I check it every day but its not appeared yet. I'm sure I'll find it online before the executor gets in touch to tell us it's been granted. It's been over a year since the person died and It's just so frustrating not knowing anything and having to wait.

Three weeks! There seems to be no rhyme nor reason why some applications are so quick and some take ages. I have just had confirmation today that our application has been approved after 20 weeks. The vast majority of that 20 weeks was just sitting in a queue; it was not a complicated estate.

I sent in the IHT forms (under threshold but told by the IHT helpline that we had to complete the forms if there was a property) two months ago. Was told to wait four weeks and then submit for probate online, which I did. Had a query last week from the IHT office (we had ticked a box we hadn’t meant to tick on one of the forms) so I assume that nothing has happened with probate yet. My Mum had eight bank accounts and it took ages finding all of the paperwork.