Grant of Probate delays?

uknick

OGLOP

Which probate office did it go to?  I'm involved with one that went to Cardiff and is currently at about 20 weeks and still counting.  

user1977

oglop said:

poppystar said:

Who’s power of attorney is the solicitor? You refer to him as your solicitor but presumably he isn’t appointed by you if he’s acting as POA which may be why responses are not really forthcoming. 

i was the executor, but gave power of attorney to the solicitor myself, as i'm not in the country!

You're still their client though - you don't give up any rights by granting a POA, and it isn't an excuse for the solicitors not being transparent with you about what's going on.

oglop

poppystar: I don't rightly remember, but I'm pretty sure POA was given for however long the case was open

uknick: it was Newcastle. apparently paper applications are "taking longer than usual" (bit of an understatement, that)

user1977: I sent my solicitor an email last night and, surprisingly, she responded the same day. I asked when the probate office received the case, and she said it was August 15, so a couple of weeks later than was implied before. She also said she'd put in a request to have the case expedited, although it's a bit annoying that only happened because I keep pestering her... Let's see what happens then. Sigh.

msb1234

Why don’t you check to see if the grant of probate is available online now? https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate

It only costs around £3. That way, you’ll know if it’s been granted or not. To be honest, it’s probably cheaper for you to do this once a week than contacting the solicitor! I’d guess that them responding to your email could cost you 10 x more than checking the probate registry!

uknick

msb1234 said:

Why don’t you check to see if the grant of probate is available online now? https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate

It only costs around £3. That way, you’ll know if it’s been granted or not. To be honest, it’s probably cheaper for you to do this once a week than contacting the solicitor! I’d guess that them responding to your email could cost you 10 x more than checking the probate registry!

Checking costs nothing.  The £3 fee is for them to check for the grant for a period of 6 months and then they send you a copy when it's been granted.

Search probate records for documents and wills (England and Wales) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

p00hsticks

oglop said:

uknick: it was Newcastle. apparently paper applications are "taking longer than usual" (bit of an understatement, that)

Yes, anecdotely,  online applications are getting processed much more quickly than paper ones.

Of course not all are straightforward enough to be submitted electronically.

You say it was the 'simplest of cases', so do you know why it was submitted on paper rather than being done online ? 

oglop

msb1234: i've been doing this daily!

p00hsticks: i had to leave the UK (i live abroad), so decided it would be easiest to hire a solicitor to take care of probate for me. i believe solicitors always submit paper applications, but if you submit the application yourself (sans solicitor) it can be done digitally. of course, i only learned of this in recent months after wondering why my application was taking so long!

SusieT

Solicitors apply online through myhmcts so have no need to do paprer applicationsoglop said:

msb1234: i've been doing this daily!

p00hsticks: i had to leave the UK (i live abroad), so decided it would be easiest to hire a solicitor to take care of probate for me. i believe solicitors always submit paper applications, but if you submit the application yourself (sans solicitor) it can be done digitally. of course, i only learned of this in recent months after wondering why my application was taking so long!

hara____

They publish information on the average time taken here. See the spreadsheet in the Nov 22 link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmcts-management-information

The average time taken is now over 20 weeks for paper applications. But that is only an average so some will be taking much longer.

@SusieT - I think some solicitor applications still use paper, depending on whether there is a will and so on

oglop

Susie - That's interesting. Hmm. I thought I read differently somewhere at some point, but I must have misunderstood. I'll definitely take your word for it. Wonder why they used a bloody paper application then. Why do paper applications even still exist? Argh. There was a will, if that makes a difference.

Hara - thanks for that. At least they points to the probate office being slow and not my solicitor being useless. It took the probate office 16 weeks before they even scanned my application into their system! Yeesh

I did get an email today from my solicitor saying she asked to escalate it, although I'm sure it won't make the slightest bit of difference!