Will sent for review by the probate court - unusual?

tomo876

 I am in the process of applying for a grant of probate, and was informed by my probate solicitor back in November 2021 that probate had been granted and the relevant documents would be issued shortly.

However after two weeks of no contact, my solicitor advised that requisitions had been raised in respect of the will, and it had been sent to a specific probate court for review. The reason being some staples had been removed (rookie error!). 

The will has supposedly been with the probate court for review for almost 10 weeks now, with no further update. Could anyone provide some advice regarding whether the following is common?

- How can it be possible that my solicitor was advised by the court that the documents would be issued imminently and that probate was granted, only for requisitions to be raised at the last minute?

- My probate solicitor advised us that the court/registry often ban them from chasing for a certain number of weeks. Initially we were told in November that the probate solicitor wasn’t allowed to chase for 4 weeks. Then he advised us in December that upon chasing he was advised not to chase for another 4 weeks. Then in January upon chasing again he advised us that he had been told not to chase for another 2 weeks. My question is, does the court genuinely ban solicitors from chasing for status updates? I understand that when the application is submitted there is a period of 8 weeks where solicitors are advised not to chase, but this time frame passed several months ago.

- My solicitor advised me that the court can’t provide a date that they will review the will. Is this typically the case? After ten weeks with the will in hand I would have expected at least a date to have been set, particularly when the issue is so small.

Any advice would be much appreciated, as I’m becoming a bit concerned by the lack of communication from the court and my solicitor.

Best!

poppystar

It was my experience that if a Will is referred for any reason, to another office or to a registrar, then it joins the back of yet another queue! They would only tell me how long the queue was but couldn’t do more than estimate the time it would take to get to the front. This may be the issue here although I’m not sure why the solicitor had told you it had been granted as it does not sound as if that is the case. 

SeniorSam

Th Probate application clearly asks if any staples have been removed from the Will and kit would seem that the answer given is NO.  The reason for the question is that a Codicil or other document could be attached to the Will and change its original wishes, so if you can give a clear explanation, you should.

tomo876

SeniorSam said:

Th Probate application clearly asks if any staples have been removed from the Will and kit would seem that the answer given is NO.  The reason for the question is that a Codicil or other document could be attached to the Will and change its original wishes, so if you can give a clear explanation, you should.

Thank you for the response. Totally understood, I’ve been kicking myself for removing them! I confirmed via a statement of truth that the will hadn’t been amended in any manner back in November when the requisitions were raised, and had hoped for a relatively quick resolution to the matter, and the solicitor was quite confident of that too. Seems the courts are taking their time though, unfortunately.

tomo876

poppystar said:

It was my experience that if a Will is referred for any reason, to another office or to a registrar, then it joins the back of yet another queue! They would only tell me how long the queue was but couldn’t do more than estimate the time it would take to get to the front. This may be the issue here although I’m not sure why the solicitor had told you it had been granted as it does not sound as if that is the case. 

Understood, thank you. Yes I think you’re right, whilst doing some further digging yesterday I read a statistic that for non-stopped applications the grant was issued within 5-8 weeks, whilst stopped applications took on average 11-13 weeks. My application was submitted on the 4th of October, so it seems that it is hopefully nearing the end of the estimated timeframe.

poppystar

tomo876 said:

poppystar said:

It was my experience that if a Will is referred for any reason, to another office or to a registrar, then it joins the back of yet another queue! They would only tell me how long the queue was but couldn’t do more than estimate the time it would take to get to the front. This may be the issue here although I’m not sure why the solicitor had told you it had been granted as it does not sound as if that is the case. 

Understood, thank you. Yes I think you’re right, whilst doing some further digging yesterday I read a statistic that for non-stopped applications the grant was issued within 5-8 weeks, whilst stopped applications took on average 11-13 weeks. My application was submitted on the 4th of October, so it seems that it is hopefully nearing the end of the estimated timeframe.

Fingers crossed for you. Mine took over six months in the end but having given them the first eight weeks before chasing I then discovered it had been passed to the wrong place and it then had to join the queue in the correct place. It then got escalated to a registrar, cue another long queue.  Once I got to speak to a named human, who was excellent, it was sorted in a matter of days!