Probate in the chain- how long to expect delay

[newmama311]

In our current purchase the top of the chain has unexpectedly died (elderly, in a home, property had been sold by his daughter and then he sadly died at an unexpected time).

Does anyone know how long to expect probate to be granted - only 1 executor and relatively simple estate apparently.

We are in danger of losing our buyer,

Any insights or recent anecdotes welcome

The government website is saying 16 weeks, various solicitors websites are saying 6 to 12 months.

It should take 4 weeks but apparently there are significant delays at the probate registry.

Sorry, I know that’s not what you wanted to hear.

Unfortunately it seems to vary hugely.

could you proceed with your sale and go into temporary rented accommodation?

I submitted my application in February and still waiting…not a complicated estate and no tax to pay.

Probate of family member was submitted Oct,and granted Dec,contrary to warnings about months and months waiting.
So can be relatively quick (if 2 months is quick)
From online info,can be way longer,
Piece of string.

Do you know if it's been submitted?

Hi sorry for the delay in replying, so yes it has already been applied for and there is only one executor and we have been told it is a simple estate, so we are carrying on as if it could be very quick. Sounds like there are some hopeful stories of 2 months which isnt too bad,

We can't go into rented, firstly the probate house is 2 steps along the chain and no one above us in the chain is willing to go into rented, we are all hopeful it won't take long
Porting the mortgage too and rules about how long we can be in rented without losing our low interest rate on the mortgage part we are taking with us

I had to gain a grant of probate to sell, once it was applied for it literally took 3 weeks, we were warned it could take 16+, getting all the info and documents together was by far the longest part

I applied online at the end of February and it came through in 5 weeks. There was no IHT to pay so very straight forward.

Applied at start of Jan, granted in March. IHT due so wasn't as uncomplicated as some.

Relatives simple estate took 4 months (just granted 2 weeks ago).

Thank you all this is giving me some hope, but also setting my expectations.
In the meantime solicitors have advised proceed at speed as if the probate could come through at any moment so that is what we are aiming for

Hi,

I went through this a few years ago. The seller’s solicitor can put in a request to expedite probate citing there is a risk of the sale collapsing (we had mortgage offer due to expire and couldn’t be extended again).

Each solicitor and the sellers estate agent provided a letter to advise the sale was at risk of collapse by whatever our date was (then we stated a date 2 weeks earlier). Could the estate agents/solicitors try this. It got probate through much quicker.

Sadly, experience of two probates recently. One fairly complicated, took a year. Second, dh family - applied for probate in July 2023, simple estate no IHT, still not granted and solicitors coming up against a brick wall as to why. Two sales fallen through unfortunately because of this.

There was a recent Radio 4 You and Yours programme which looked at people's recent experience of trying to gain probate. Some inexplicably quicker than others. It's very frustrating not knowing whether yours will be the one that takes time.