Probate

[emma123456]

Anyone else waiting on probate? Application went in early Jan. still nothing. How much longer?

Hi, probably best to post in legal matters. Last I heard things were slow. I have to wait for months and that was back in 2018. 3 months doesn’t sound unusual.

It's quite random - I did one mid December and it took four weeks.

It really depends how straightforward the estate is. I got probate 2 weeks ago and it took 24 hours!

I'm sure you can check the progress after 8 weeks?

Our seller is apparently checking daily. Were told a couple of weeks ago that it was just waiting to be signed. Just so impatient now. Ready to move but just waiting For this to come through.

I don't suppose you know if they had a solicitor apply on their behalf do you? I think this is what holds things up. The solicitor needs to wait a certain amount of time to ensure all beneficiaries are found/come forward, as otherwise they will be held liable. I applied myself and I think that's why the process was so speedy. Are they using the money to put towards a purchase? If so, is it possible they're stalling?

I have no idea, they assured us probate wouldn’t be an issue when we looked at the property, that the process was all in hand back in November. Our offer was subject to completion by 31/03. Clearly the goal post moved when the stamp duty relief was extended but we must be at risk of losing our buyers after such a long delay.

I don’t know, but we’re in the same spot. We’re buying a probate property- they applied in February and nothing yet!

Are you sure they've actually submitted the probate application? Last time we bought it was a probate sale and we had about 8 weeks of the seller/agent telling us it was all done (to be fair, they'd done their bit so assumed it had) only to find it was the inheritance tax forms that had been dealt with and the probate application hadn't even been submitted by the solicitor. I'd be getting your solicitor to find out the exact date the application was made. You can also check online if it's been granted if you know the surname and year of death.

Mum's has just taken 4 weeks for us too, got an email last week to say they'd received our application - thought well OK, you said I'd get that in 10 days/2 weeks? but hey ho.

Two minutes later I got an email saying that the application had been granted and paperwork would be with me in 10 days. I had it 2 days later.

Apparently the seller has had her original docs returned... I thought it might be imminent at that point but that was nearly 2 weeks ago ....

It's really erratic at the moment. It might take two weeks or four months with seemingly no explanation for the difference. They need to chase literally every day and explain a property transaction hangs on it.

We have a buyer lined up for dads house but still no probate. He died in December and will/estate is extremely straightforward

I didn't even get a chance to send any documents in! I applied and was going to send death certificate recorded. Following day I got an email saying my documents had been received, followed by another saying probate had been granted! My dad didn't have a will, so not sure if that made it faster. I done the opposite and assumed probate would take ages so haven't even started sorting his house yet, never mind put it on the market.