Any recent experience of probate - timescales please?

[RosaMoline]

Grateful for any advice please, thank you ☺️
My brother is the executor of my parent’s will, and with regards to probate, as far as I understand, probate has been approved (this was 2 weeks ago on Wednesday) and he’s just waiting on the final bit of paperwork/letter to come back (probate approved in writing), then he can start to administer the estate, and once utility bills/council tax paid, he is going to make an interim payment to us both, then we get the remainder when property sold.
Has anyone had any recent experience of this stage? Probate approved and waiting for final papers to arrive in the post? If so, how long did you have to wait? I thought it was around 10 working days?
Thanks again.

The probate certificate arrived in the post a couple of days after an email/text telling us it had been approved. Your brother would have received it by now.

Thank you…he hasn’t yet. Hopefully nothing to worry about & it’s in the post 😬

Almost immediately, less than a week.

Solicitors received it within the week.

Sorry couldn't edit. Meant to say this was I. July this year.

I had to wait about 3 weeks or so for the probate certificate to arrive in the post after probate had been granted. I have no idea why there was a delay, but it arrived two days after I chased it up with the probate office. Gut feeling is they forgot to post it 😡and needed reminding.

Are you 100% sure it was probate and not the inheritance tax calculation which has to be done first? That seems like far too long? Ours was granted in July, certificate arrived days later. Good luck, it’s an awful process

I think the answer to this question is always dependent on whether you are the executor or the beneficiary: 😉

How long does probate take:
(Executor)

• Longer than you anticipated
• Even longer than you anticipated due to unexpected complications (have you seen the state of the UK postal service recently?)
• As long as it takes, regardless of how much the beneficiaries hassle/call you
• Feels like a lifetime with all the stress and responsibility of it...

(Beneficiary)

• Too long!
• Much longer than the shortest timescale I can find about through Google
• Longer than it should - likely due to the laziness or incompetence of my executor...
• Too long - probably to create more fee income (if using a solicitor)
• It's already been longer than I think it should, I'll call them again...

I’ve just spoken to sis in law, and it seems like the stage we’re at, is that all the final paperwork has been submitted and we’re actually still waiting on approval (I’ve clearly misunderstood)
so, has anyone been at this point recently, and how long did it take? I know 16 weeks is bandied about - did it take as long as that?
Thanks again!

ah that's different. It does take ages. We applied in early Feb, and it got approved in Sept.

I'd advise going on to their webchat frequently asking for an update ... this seemed to spur them on a bit. I'm sure we would still be waiting if I hadn't done that. The first time I went on it, they came back with an email that afternoon querying something on the form.

Did you brother do it himself or through a solicitor?

My Mum passed away in June, We used a solicitor to sort the probate as my dad is still with us and things are being split 50% to Dad and 50% to me and my 2 sisters.
Anyway, we were told that once submitted the probate approval would take at least 16 weeks, however, it was approved after about 4 weeks. There was no inheritance tax to pay.

Through a solicitor. Not full estate admin or anything like that. Just probate paperwork.

Thank you. That’s encouraging. Maybe mid November for us then perhaps 🤞🤞

Quicker if your brother is applying for probate himself. Longer if your brother has instructed a probate professional.

I did my late mother's probate application myself which took around 4 months to get the probate granted. In comparison, my aunt's estate was handled by probate professionals - they got probate granted six months after my aunt passed away, but only distributed some of the estate (still holding back a portion), a year and 4 months after my aunt passed away due to various searches they did for any monies or relatives unknown to us.

He is doing it through a solicitor but probate only. It sounds like in your aunts case they did full admin on the estate which takes longer, and is more costly.

We applied around March and got it back in July, so around the 16 weeks. It’s a long old wait isn’t it, made worse by no updates. We did it ourselves, not massively complicated but soooooo many different forms. They certainly don’t make it easy, felt almost as though they were trying to catch us out. Hope it proceeds smoothly and quickly for you.

Fil passed away in April 2024. DH worked with the solicitor to gather all the required info to be presented to IHT. That's took them 7 weeks. IHT applied for at the begining of June and approved 4 weeks later to the day. Probate applied for the same day again it took exactly 4 weeks. The estate was just below IHT.
The solicitor has made some payments to DH and his brother for expenses incurred. They are the only two beneficiaries. Some banks are better than others at supplying information. Despite the grant of probate being issued Nat West are still dragging their heels. Likewise the selling of the shares is taking sometime.
We put the house up for sale the day we were granted probate. And accepted an offer within two weeks. That's taking an age to sell for a number of reasons outside probate.
Any questions just ask and I will do my best to add any other information.

Going through at the moment and I've been advised it's currently 5-6months

Our solicitor advised us that things had sped up considerably and it was her suggestion that we put the house up when we applied for Probate (I realise that in my previous message I said when probate was granted, that's incorrect). Our solicitor was confident that probate would be granted within 4 - 6 weeks and it was 4 weeks to the day.
She did say there are various probate offices and some are working better than others. She is in the SW of England. I don't know which office it went to.

My brother died on June 3rd, and probate was granted on September 27th. It was a very simple estate and the executor, his daughter is a solicitor, which might have helped.

Thanks everyone for these amazing replies. Mum and dad lived in SW England too in answer to @Isthiscorrect - maybe it won’t take too long then?!?
Once brother receives the official paperwork, he will present to the bank, and once the utilities etc have been paid, he will do an interim payment for both of us as I said earlier. I’ve heard that if the solicitor is doing full estate admin, you have to wait even longer for money as they wait to see if any claimants come out of the woodwork (which definitely won’t happen!!)

@Isthiscorrect NatWest were complete shite with my in laws probate. Def the most inept of all the banks.

Mum and Dad were with HSBC - hopefully they’re better! 🤞🤞

We had probate in a couple of weeks. We were expecting it to take months so it was quite a shock.