Probate - how long?

jmr95

Grant issued today, should receive hard copy within 10 days.

What a relief!

Total time from submitting, including them asking me to re-upload death certificate, was 15 days. Can't grumble at that.

SadCodeMan

@kensyrett

One of the questions when go through the initial probate application for probate processs is:

Check if you can apply online

Are you named as an executor on the will or a codicil?

From the above, you will have answered no I think (because your wife was not named as an executor. She is a beneficiary)

The next page then says:

You must apply for probate by post

If you’re not named as an executor or if you’re applying on behalf of someone else, you can’t apply for probate online.

Fill in Form PA1P (opens in a new tab).

numbersrule

We submitted online application on Saturday 20th September 2025 and posted the original Will on Monday 22nd.
Royal Mail confirmed delivery of the Will on Tuesday 23rd and we received an email from HMCTS on Friday 26th confirming they had received the document.  On Sunday 28th September we received an email saying our Probate Application was approved and the Grant should arrive within 10 days.  That's amazing considering the Application process advised 12 weeks!

SnowMan

Here are the HMCTS August probate wait times. The table has been created by me from the data.  The monthly update data is published on the second Thursday of each month, so the next update will be the September data which comes out in November.

Overall (digital and paper combined) there were 23,314 applications received in August and 23,547 grants issued (so slightly more issued than received). The overall average wait time is down at 6.4 weeks. 

But the overall average wait time for paper cases is up at 13.8 weeks; there were 4,285 paper applications received in August which was more than the 3,828 grants issued. 

Variations between consecutive months can be as a result of differences in which cases HMCTS have been working on. Note these are mean (average) figures and there can be considerable variation from the mean in individual cases even within categories. For example the mean time for digital stopped applications is currently 14.3 weeks but the time for an individual digital stopped case may vary considerably from this figure.

SnowMan

And here is my chart from that data of the average wait times over time for digital/paper, stopped/non stopped grants issued up to August 2025.

purplepardalis

Hi everyone,

I'm about to send IHT400 and associated schedules etc. Do I have to wait for the unique reference code to come back before I apply for probate (online) or will they all marry it up somehow their end? When I got to the landing page for the probate application it didn't say I needed the code in the list of prerequisites 

Thanks so much 

probate_slave

Yes @purplepardalis, you must certainly wait for the unique code, which will be requested in the online probate application. The whole point of this process, introduced only last year, is to prevent stalled applications.

You can save yourself a couple of weeks by allowing the code to be emailed rather than posted to you by HMRC.

purplepardalis

probate_slave said:

Yes @purplepardalis, you must certainly wait for the unique code, which will be requested in the online probate application. The whole point of this process, introduced only last year, is to prevent stalled applications.

You can save yourself a couple of weeks by allowing the code to be emailed rather than posted to you by HMRC.

Thank you. Yes, I did pick that option on the forms. 

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. 

I can take a break from adding boxes together!! 

All the best