Probate delays - any insights to share?

[TheCaptainsLog]

Hello, I've posted under this username before about an elderly relative of mine. I am a fairly prolific poster under my usual username. Said relative died at the end of July 2025 and I am the sole executor of her will.

I applied for probate by post in August 2025 and still haven't heard a sausage back from them. Is this usual? I know they received the application because 1) they returned the death certificate and 2) they cashed my cheque less than a fortnight after I sent the application.

I called the helpline earlier this month and I was told it would be escalated, but again not a single obvious sign of action from them.

So as not to drip-feed: the solicitor who drew up the will had lost the signed original, although I had a photocopy of the final signed document. I used the form PA13 along with the PA1P in my paper application because of that.

The gov.uk website has a press release dated a year ago (14/2/25) crowing that probate wait times are down to four weeks, but it's been 25 weeks now.

Anyone have a clue what's happening? I've got relatives screaming at me, I've got creditors screaming at me, and there's a four figure income tax bill for the deceased due this week that I cannot pay.

I don’t think that is usual. My dm died in January 2024 and at that time there were delays in granting probate and HMCTS would not respond to a query unless your application has been submitted at least 16 weeks prior.
However, I understand that waiting times have improved greatly since then so I would give them a ring.
you have my sympathies- being an executor is a time consuming process.

Thanks Shanghai.

I did give them a ring, they promised it would be escalated and... nada.

Can you tell anyone screaming at you if they're not careful you'll resign?

The person responsible for Inheritance Tax is Philippa Madelin Director of Wealthy & Mid-sized Business Compliance at HMRC.

I'd email her and ask her to step in and look at what the issue is and to get probabte resolved. I'd also explain to her that the executors can't pay the incoe tax due and that you therefore don't expect to have to pay interest or penalties on overdue tax when it is HMRC that is at fault. Her email is
[email protected]

You need to keep calling them sadly. She who shouts loudest and all that

Anything unusual takes longer so submitting a copy will take longer than if you had the original will. Give them a call again and ask for an update. Call HMRC to update them.

this is not normal. Is the estate very complex? What can you see when you track your application online?

how Much is the iht and do you have cash in the estate? You can apply to get the banks to release cash to pay the iht if you don’t yet have grant of probate and control of the accounts

you could also take out a loan against the estate to pay the iht (I would only do this with consent of the beneficiaries personally)

or you could ask the beneficiaries to stump up the cash or accept there will be interest on the late payment of iht

Key Probate Contact Information

• HMCTS Probate Department (General/Application Status): tel:0300 303 0648 0300 303 0648
• HMRC Probate and Inheritance Tax Helpline: tel:0300 123 1072 0300 123 1072 (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm)

call both of these - repeatedly!

I’m a probate solicitor. Simple probates are being granted very quickly- I had one issued the same day as the application this week. However, anything out of the ordinary (and proving a copy rather than the original counts as that) can take months. Unfortunately all you can do is ring the helpline, where someone very nice but ineffectual will tell you that they will escalate it. And then you just have to keep ringing I’m afraid. I’ve had one take from last August to last week, but ringing repeatedly was the only way anything happened. I don’t know if it helped, or if it just came to the top of the queue in any event, but it’s very frustrating as there appears to be no way of escalating any complaint.

Any chance someone’s lodged a caveat? They won’t contact you to tell you, although I believe they’ll tell you if you ask.

keep checking the website- it often appears there before post works it way to you.

creditors should not be screaming at you. Tell them in writing the estate is not settled and you will be in contact in due course.

same with screaming relatives. Tell them to back off. You do not have to keep them updated- it is manners to do so- so write to them also stating you are waiting for probate and will update when you have more. if they keep at you you can consider reporting them for harassment of an executor, or at lest threaten it. Tell them they can take it up with probate court if they aren’t happy. For start they can’t do anything as there is nothing to do, and second it will cost them £££££ in legal fees.

income tax bill- try speaking to the bank and see if they will release funds to pay the bill. If you have death cert and will showing you as executor they will often allow a surprisingly large sum to be released without probate- many high street banks it’s 30-50k.

if they won’t help speak to hmrc and see if they can help.

i wouldn’t be taking loans or asking beneficiaries to stump up the cash. If there isn’t enough left in the estate after debts you will be on the hook for it. Same with threatening to resign- once you’ve “intermeddled” I don’t think it’s that simple. Are you the sole executor? A beneficiary?

If you have an email address then complain and make sure you state in the header that it is a complaint and in the body of the email too.

They have a whole department that just deals with complaints so it should get it sorted.

It took 3 years for probate to come through in my family. Complications were due to a tax return, deceased person had lived abroad for a few years. Could there be something like that delaying things?

Thanks, but I'm not sure that Ms Madelin is the most appropriate as there is no IHT for the estate - it's just a relatively modest income tax bill. Good idea to contact HMRC about it though.

Thanks, but when I call the Courts and Tribunals Service they won't update me, just tell me they've escalated it....

As i said to a PP I'll see if I can get any joy speaking to HMRC about deferring the tax payment.

It took me six months for both in laws when I dealt with this in the last 3 years. I did have to keep on at them though … they have a chat option online during the working day .. I found that helped a lot.

The first chat revealed some missing info .. no idea when they would have contacted me about that 🤷🏼‍♀️

Thanks Daffy.

It's a pretty simple estate - some assets in a wealth management company and savings at a couple of banks, but at sufficient levels that all require probate to do anything. There is about £250k in cash at the banks and about the same still fully invested with the wealth management company. Both banks said they cannot release funds without probate except for the funeral expenses.

There's no IHT. The tax bill is an income tax one and as far as I can tell there is no way to pay it late and incur interest.

A loan against the estate is one option, but of the four beneficiaries one is untraceable, one is long dead (adult children screaming at me though!), one is me, and the other won't speak to me... consent for a loan might conceivably be an issue, and they're certainly not going to stump up the cash themselves!

Thank you Ladyflip

Glad the system doesn't work for professional probate practitioners either! I have spent hours on hold for that bloody helpline just to be told it has been escalated, to no discernable effect.

This afternoon I submitted a formal complaint to HMCTS, so I'll see if that makes a difference.

Thanks Username.

I've already done most of what you've suggested - the thing about the banks is that as soon as they realised I didn't have the original of the will then they wouldn't co-operate in case the will was never proved.

I'm sole executor and one of four equal beneficiaries with a mightly dysfunctional dynamic amongst them. The relative was 95 when she died and had been in a state of poor and deteriorating mental health for more than ten years before that. I was the only one who would go anywhere near her and as with many carers have been left significantly out of pocket as a result, not that I would have done anything different, but I'm buggered if I'm going to give up any control now.

It's a webform rather than an email address you can complain to at HM Courts and Tribunal Service, but I've been on it this afternoon!

Not that I'm aware of, but I am beginning to fear that I am being terribly naïve assuming they will contact me if there's a problem!

The deceased never had to do tax returns until the last year of her life when I took over her finances under a POA and what had been under £400 of bank interest income in 2023-24 went up to nearly £10k for 2024-25. That was dealt with by a Simple Assessment tax calculation by HMRC after I reported the death, which produced the bill due imminently.

I can't think of any other obvious complexity other than the will being a copy rather than the original.

Thanks, Myballs (this sounds like something teen DS would say!)

I've never had a positive experience with online chat, though I guess for everything there is a first time. I have phoned though, and stupidly assumed that if there was some missing info they might have mentioned it then even if they hadn't troubled themselves in the six bloody months they've sat on it otherwise...

I wish I could offer you a positive story, OP, but probate on my mum took nearly three years for a VERY straightforward situation. Mum died, left everything she had split between my brother and I. We used a solicitor local to my DB, I live 350 miles away. Our solicitor went off sick, supposedly passed the case to someone else who didn't see it. That solicitor then left, and someone else took it over, and did nothing for months... It went on and on and we kept having to poke them (whereupon they would write an email or letter updating us - and charge us for the privilege). It ended up costing an absolute fortune, when it ought to have taken weeks and cost a fraction of what it did.

In my next life I am deffo coming back as a probate solicitor.

I feel your pain! I'm trying to do this myself as it seems so straightforward, but part of me secretly wants to pass it to a probate practitioner so that I can see the look on the other beneficiaries faces when I tell them I've started eating into the estate with legal costs. But, I don't really rate most solicitors either (and I'm married to one!)

DB and I thought it would be straightforward too, but opted to use a solicitor because it would all have fallen on him to do the work (he lived with Mum so had access to all the bills etc) and I didn't think that was fair.

Ended up costing an eyewatering amount but still probably better than fracturing our sibling relationship beyond repair.

Ah I see the issue if you don’t have the original will. Maybe that’s what’s holding it up?

we have a different issue where the executor for my uncle emptied all the bank accounts with only the will and death cert, then as they didn’t need probate to get the money they didn’t bother. The bank accounts held all release up to 50k with no probate. Only it now appears they have just kept the money- As there’s no probate they won’t show anyone else the will, and I can’t compel accounts or the will as I can’t prove my aunt is the beneficiary without the will.

suspect there’s over 100k missing, and it seems the executor will get away with it as unless we can show they’ve misappropriated funds- will, bank statements etc, which only the executor can get, there is no investigation. Only the executor can raise a fraud case according to the bank 🙄

the whole process is a shit show and badly needs an overhaul.