Probate timescales - Oct 21, any recent experience?

MJB1208

My mum's case finally got examined today after 11 weeks, but now they've requested her divorce details. I've only had to reply with the date and court by email, not post any documents.

Anyone been in a similar boat where they've just had to respond to a question by email, and can tell me how much longer you had to wait after that?

Thanks.

Algie

I phoned the probate helpline after waiting 15 weeks with no feedback. I was told that, coincidentally, they had emailed HMRC an hour earlier to ask them to resend the stamped IHT421 form, because the one they had received was blank. I then phoned HMRC who confirmed that they had sent a blank form in error and, while I was on the phone, they uploaded the form correctly. I emailed the probate office to give them that news. That was two weeks ago and I've heard nothing since.

MJB1208

MJB1208 said:

My mum's case finally got examined today after 11 weeks, but now they've requested her divorce details. I've only had to reply with the date and court by email, not post any documents.

Anyone been in a similar boat where they've just had to respond to a question by email, and can tell me how much longer you had to wait after that?

Thanks.

Replying to myself as it may help others. Probate was approved 3 days after I sent the information to their email address. 12 weeks in total.

kipsterno1

Replying to myself as it may help others. Probate was approved 3 days after I sent the information to their email address. 12 weeks in total.

Thanks, that was helpful. My application got looked at on the 14th followed by a request to confirm it was the only will in existence. Sent confirmation straight away so fingers crossed for a quick response.

Megandlg

My application was submitted by solicitor on 27th August. On 11th Nov, they asked a question and solicitor replied with documents same day. They replied to her on 23rd Nov saying they’d just seen her response. Yesterday she contacted and was told the Grant had been made on 14th Dec, and would be with the solicitors between 5 and 10 days. 

So 15.5 weeks in total. 

It was a fairly simple estate- no IHT, total value £325 including a house, 2 beneficiaries (myself and brother, equally split). 

Still not showing on the Find a Will pages on www.gov.uk though? Not sure how long it takes to appear on there? 

RociCap

Megandlg said:

My application was submitted by solicitor on 27th August. On 11th Nov, they asked a question and solicitor replied with documents same day. They replied to her on 23rd Nov saying they’d just seen her response. Yesterday she contacted and was told the Grant had been made on 14th Dec, and would be with the solicitors between 5 and 10 days. 

So 15.5 weeks in total. 

It was a fairly simple estate- no IHT, total value £325 including a house, 2 beneficiaries (myself and brother, equally split). 

Still not showing on the Find a Will pages on www.gov.uk though? Not sure how long it takes to appear on there? 

Interesting, I thought it was updated on there immediately based on something I'd read elsewhere on here about it being updated the same day, so I've been checking it - I'll stop torturing myself! Maybe they're prioritising getting the grants approved rather than updating the system online.

Your estate sounds roughly similar to ours (size, 2 beneficiaries, no IHT), except ours is all cash and no property. Fingers crossed it's soon for us - I believe it's supposed to be quicker when done yourself rather than through a solicitor, but we're at 9.5 weeks since documents received by them and 11.5 weeks since digital submission.

Algie

Megandlg said:

Still not showing on the Find a Will pages on www.gov.uk though? Not sure how long it takes to appear on there? 

This notice is appearing on the website today.
Maintenance: We are experiencing technical difficulties and grants issued after 23/11/2021 may not be currently available for order.
Might explain why it is not showing.

RociCap

A (small) update: having spoken to them again this afternoon, a very nice woman who seemed to have a better idea of what was going on said she could see our case was actually still flagged as only having been 'live' for 3.5 weeks - i.e. the time they've had our paper documents, minus the stopped time - and wasn't due to be looked at for ages yet.

However, she was shocked that we'd been told so many different things and could see clearly that we'd been messed about a bit - she also agreed that as the stop on our case wasn't our fault, it was a simple estate, and had been with them for quite some time, that she was escalating it and it would now be dealt with as a priority (by a particular team for urgent cases, which a different adviser of theirs swore didn't exist!).

She said she thought it'd be done before Christmas, but couldn't guarantee it. 

While it doesn't mean much as there's no consistency whatsoever whenever we call and I'm not getting my hopes up, she was very apologetic and seemed sure it would be very soon (as opposed to weeks). Maybe she was just trying to get us off the phone before she goes on her Christmas break ... but it definitely pays off to keep calling them (or at least hopefully it does) because you get new snippets of information each time!

JGB1955

Megandlg said:

Yesterday she contacted and was told the Grant had been made on 14th Dec, and would be with the solicitors between 5 and 10 days. 

Still not showing on the Find a Will pages on www.gov.uk though? Not sure how long it takes to appear on there? 

Takes approximately 14 days - see Search probate records for documents and wills (England and Wales) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)   That could be 10 working days or 14 calendar days.  Either way - I wouldn't expect it to appear until the New Year.

Megandlg

Algie said:

Megandlg said:

Still not showing on the Find a Will pages on www.gov.uk though? Not sure how long it takes to appear on there? 

This notice is appearing on the website today.
Maintenance: We are experiencing technical difficulties and grants issued after 23/11/2021 may not be currently available for order.
Might explain why it is not showing.

Yes, this has appeared on the site today, since I posted this morning. Just hope it doesn’t take too long for the hard copies to come, as I need to progress the house sale.