Grant of Probate - How long?

TomOB90

We have recently found a house on the market and only found out after putting in an offer that it is currently waiting a grant of probate. The estate agents has informed me it should take no longer than 3 months and that it should complete before March. I said I'll be happy to wait until March 2022.

However after reading online there are so many answers ranging from 4 weeks up to 12 months!

Just wondering what other people's experiences have been recently with the timing of the grant of probate?

Thanks

davilown

It depends entirely on the estate, whether it’s complicated or not.

I think 6-9 months is the max you’ll be waiting. Obviously all the paperwork can be done ready to exchange once probate is complete.

fingers crossed it’s sooner

canaldumidi

The EA will have no idea. He is picking a date out of the air!

GoogleMeNow

How long is a piece of string.......!

Generally speaking, if an executor of the Will has applied for probate and is doing the work themselves, it will be quicker than if a firm of solicitors are acting as executor and applying for probate.

Similarly, a fairly simple estate - e.g. everything passing to a spouse, rather than multiple beneficiaries/bequests and whether the estate is below the threshold for IHT or above, will also have an effect on how complicated the paperwork will be and consequently how long it will take.

An uncle died recently and the probate was granted within 10 weeks, but an aunt who died and had solicitors acting as executors to the Will, probate took over a year.  Both quite similar in complexity.

badger09

Impossible to say.

1st thing to establish is whether Probate has been applied for, if so, when?
If the application hasn't even been submitted yet you could be looking at a very very long time.

p00hsticks

badger09 said:

Impossible to say.

1st thing to establish is whether Probate has been applied for, if so, when?
If the application hasn't even been submitted yet you could be looking at a very very long time.

But on the other hand, if it has been applied for it could be very quick indeed - ours took around ten days from (electronic) submission to receiving the paper grants of probate.

I'll just check my piece of string.....

Thrugelmir

Talk to the EA and ask them to ascertain what the state of play is. 

Jeffers55

We are currently in probate hell! Offer was accepted on 28th of April and they said probate was being applied for. Later found out it wasn't applied for until June. By August our buyer (which we spent a year trying to get) was getting twitchy so we gambled, sold it and moved in with my mum as a short term fix. It is now mid September and still no idea how much longer this will take.
Noone knows how much longer it will take. 
Noone seems to be able to speed it up 

I'm going slightly insane in some odd probate limbo life. 

t2havock

Definitely sure it got applied for in June...? Is this the EA saying that? I'd be suspicious they may not even have applied yet. Valuations can take what seems like forever depending on which organisations are involved..not to mention 'you know what'. 

Or it could be that the application got stopped by HMCT which can happen for a range of pretty benign reasons. This can delay things up to 17 weeks. 
Are the executors applying themselves? or do they have a probate specialist (solicitor or accountant) applying for them? They can chase HMCT from after 8 weeks, so you should be able to get a meaningful update so you can plan a bit more. 

You can search the public records to see if they have been given the grant. 

https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate
 
You can also put in a standing search for £3, so when it is granted, (if it is within the next 6 months) you'll get notified. Saves needing to worry about it and you just live with your Mum. I know what this feels like, cause I moved in with my Mum in March, waiting for probate. 

I take it all your legal work has been completed in readiness to exchange. 

Check your mortgage offer in the meantime. If you're using one of the big lenders, they have reduced rates significantly since April. You may be able to switch to a new product, or apply for a new product, which would save you a lot and possibly offset some of the loss of missing the stamp duty deadline and potentially extend your offer deadline if you have to wait longer. 

We just did this for a second time now as been waiting for probate since June. 

Good Luck

Jeffers55

If the EA is to be believed it was applied for in June. I email every week and they assure me that the probate solicitor have spoken to the court and they can't tell us anymore than that! 

They say it is progressing and they know there is a house to sell. Today we got told it might take another 8 weeks or it might be 5 days. Helpful. 

13 weeks and counting....