Inheritance Tax / Probate timelines (England)

[poorcook]

I am buying a property where the owner died after contracts had been exchanged but before completion.
I understand the process involves sending Inheritance Tax accounts to HMRC, who will then issue form IHT421 to the Probate Office so probate can be granted.
The Inheritance Tax accounts were sent about 5 weeks ago. The Government website says that probate can usually take 16 weeks.
My question is whether the 16 weeks would include the time it takes for HMRC to agree the Inheritance Tax forms, or is it in addition to the time taken by HMRC?

Also interested, it took HMRC about 8 weeks to issue the IHT code for our solicitor to make the IHT payment, now we're waiting for probate.

I did probate recently without iht and it took 16 weeks for that part.

Thank you for your replies, I think I will have to expect a lengthy delay before we can complete on buying the property. I still haven't been able to confirm whether the time already taken by HMRC is included or additional to the timescales given on the Government Probate website.

Not exactly what you asked but I think private is taking a lot longer than 16 weeks for many people at the moment.

Meant to start that by saying just a heads up

The HMRC time is in addition to the 16 weeks the probate registry takes.

You cant send in your probate application until four weeks have passed after you send your inheritance tax return to HMRC.

We've been waiting 4 months and still no news from the probate office. Our estate agents for DFs property told me last week that other probate properties on their books have been taking between 6-9 months! 😭

Hi, I'm a probate solicitor. The 16 weeks doesn't include the time spent waiting for the IHT421 unfortunately.

16 weeks starts from when the probate registry confirm receipt of documents from you/your solicitor. This means the legal statement, original Will and coversheet if applying online. These can't be generated until 20 working days has passed from sending the IHT400 to HMRC.

It's a long old process unfortunately. Online applications are taking less than 16 weeks at the moment generally though so there's always hope of a quick turnaround.

Thank you @Pilateshappy for clarifying the position regarding the IHT/Probate timeline. It is disappointing, but nothing I can do to speed things up. I understand the solicitors dealing with the estate have sent copies of the exchanged contract with the probate application that clearly shows we should have completed a couple of months ago (we exchanged over 3 months ago) , and requesting probate is expedited, but it seems the IHT421 hasn't even been issued yet so it may be a long wait. I only hope my buyers will continue to be patient while this runs its course.

I received Probate in 9 weeks with no IHT to pay. I applied on-line and received an email stating it would take at 16 weeks and so I was pleasantly surprised to get it back in 9 weeks. Hopefully HMRC have also got a little speedier too.

I hope it works out quickly for you OP, the timing has been very unfortunate for you.

How long did it take to get probate? Did you use solicitors for any of the process?