Probate. How long?

[wanderlove]

We put an offer in on a property in September. We have sold our house and are living at in laws. Not ideal but we didn’t want to lose our sale as was a quirky house to sell. We are not in a chain and the house was empty so no chain so hopeful it wouldn’t take too long. The process has been chugging a long slowly : we have had a full
Survey is electric and gas inspection as the property was empty so needed to double check everything. The last few are just waiting for a response from their solicitor s so we were hoping to move hopefully in January. The EA has just let us know that they are still waiting for probate to be granted. Any advice? How long? I just thought it was nearly there but a quick google says probate can take 6-12 months …so over moving…

We bought a probate property, OP, the family had applied for probate about a month before they started marketing our home, probate was done by middle December. Good luck, I know it’s a stressful time but it’s worth it in the end, just hang on in there

When my father died probate took 18-months. We then tidied up my mother's affairs and when she died earlier this year probate took 9-months.
We didn't start marketing the house until we were told probate was "nearly there" so that way it won't delay the sale. As it turns out, probate was granted the week viewings took place.

"they are still waiting for probate to be granted."

that is worded to suggest the application has been made and is waiting to be confirmed. Which is quite quick unless the application is incomplete or looks wrong.

However the truth might be that the application has not yet been made because the executors are still sorting out the estate, finding papers, getting valuations, or arguing with the family. Which can be tedious, painful or lengthy. Sometimes people get stressed or depressed and put the job aside for long periods.

Try to find out which it is.

If you know the name of the deceased person, you can look on
probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#wills to see if it has been granted. You can pay £1.50 for a standing search to be notified, but you will have to look up the death to get the necessary details on www.gov.uk/browse/births-deaths-marriages You can buy copies of the certificates if you want.

(these are for England and Wales, I have also done Scotland which is different)

Only use the gov.uk websites, not the others which are scams.

My aunts took 2 years as hmrc decided to probe some gifts which slowed it all down...each response took several months etc....try and find out the progress and if its going ahead without issues etc.

The grant of probate (from submitting the form online to the Probate Office issuing the go ahead) is taking around six weeks at the moment, assuming the form has been completed correctly. Add that to the normal conveyancing timeline (anything from a month to many more) for an idea of how long the purchase will take.

Thanks for your responses everyone. We are speaking to the estate agent tomorrow as he seemed a bit taken aback too. He is going to ascertain exactly where it is. I don’t know thr name of the vendor but I think it is just one child who has inherited it. Hopefully this will make it slightly easier. Fingers crossed

Name of vendor should be easy to find - most older people will have been on the electoral register. If ancestry are doing a free trial, sign up and search by address (it goes up to 2010 on there i think so they need to have been living in the same property since then) I've done this and then cross referenced with probate records to confirm it's been granted before making an offer because I don't trust estate agents!

And then if you want to go in depth on ancestry you can find out how many children are inheriting!

Stupid question—I obviously know the address…how do I check the electoral role?

You can look up the owners name on the Land Regustry. If it's a house you are buying you may as well buy copies.

www.gov.uk/government/organisations/land-registry

As ever, only use the Gov.uk site, not the others that are scammers.

It took 7 weeks this year I applied in oct and got it 7 weeks later
I used a firm called Farewill as my parents house had a lifetime possession trust and I wasn’t sure how it affected the probate application
Cost me £750 in total but worth it for piece of mind .
It’s not the probate that takes the time it the sellers getting all the stuff together quickly that can take ages .
My parents had a death box 😂 so it was excuse the pun - dead simple to do 😂 plus I had done my mums a few years ago so I was familiar with the process
I didn’t put the house up for sale until I had actually applied for probate so that I could let the estate agents tell the buyers that probate was applied for but a lot of people put the house up for sale and then apply for it

It took three weeks this time last year.

Honestly, this is like asking how long a piece of string is. Probate for my dad took 24 hours. It was a fairly substantial estate, but I applied myself online, without a solicitor and this really helped. This was during covid, with the apparent backlog. When solicitors are involved I believe they have to wait a certain amount of time to ensure all beneficiaries have come forward... so it really does depend on the individual estate.

We've been waiting since April.

It's an investment property so no drama but it's taking bloody ages.