Grant of Probate delays?

Sarahspangles

The Will has to be sent in by post whether or not the application is online.  After an online application there is a cover sheet to attach so the physical Will can be linked to the digital application.

oglop

Interesting. Makes you wonder why digital applications get processed so much faster than paper ones then 

SusieT

oglop said:

Interesting. Makes you wonder why digital applications get processed so much faster than paper ones then 

It may be that online applications already have the information on their computer so all they need to do is tick a few boxes to match the will and any other paperwork required, and the compuer automatically kicks out a yes or no, whereas with paper applications someone there needs to key it all in before they can do the checks? 

oglop

Possibly. But...16 weeks before anyone even keys in the basic data, and then another 16 or so weeks to read and check the data?

Ughhhhhhhhh

Sarahspangles

I read somewhere that they scan in paper forms and wills.  The physical Will has to be checked at this point to see if it has been tampered with.  Receipt of the application/Will is currently only being acknowledged when an officer opens the case to look at the scanned-in documents and make the decision.  This is not what the website says will happen when you submit, which is that an email acknowledgment will be sent on receipt.  Which is why signed-for is a good idea.

Toucan13

I've just received email confirmation that probate on my dad's estate has been approved and that the grant will be sent in the next 10 days.  I applied online on 24th January and sent the will in via royal mail on 30th January.  This is much faster than I anticipated (in a good way)

oglop

Wow, congrats. That's going to be about ten times faster than my application gets processed (3 weeks v 30 weeks). I don't understand this descrepancy...

I'm sorry about your dad, by the way 

Toucan13

Thank you oglop, I did hesitate whether to post because I know you have had to wait for a very long time.  Dad's estate is very simple with no IHT so I wonder if that made any difference.  I had to send documents to the Harlow office of HMCTS - maybe they have less of a backlog.  Fingers crossed you get some progress really soon.

oglop

It's ok. It's interesting to compare different people's experiences. My probate case also has no IHT and is also very, very simple. The case is being dealt with in Newcastle not Harlow, so yeah, maybe less backlog? But jeez. Thanks for commenting anyway!

BettysHotpot

Similar experience to Toucan13 here - applied January 10th after tactically avoiding postal strikes/Christmas and received email notification of probate grant Jan 17th.  Also a simple estate, no IHT and no property.

Sorry yours it taking such a long time. Hopefully it will get to the top of the pile soon.