Length of time for probate for death of a foreign domicile

SadCodeMan

I got to the 6 month mark without HMCTS even having looked at the forms.

I thought I would give them 1 last chance via their contact centre so sat for an hour repeatedly hitting F5 to refresh the page while I sat and listened to hold music for an hour... The phone won on this occasion. And then - The phone call was immediately cut off by them as it was answered! I guess the agent hit the wrong button.

So I raised a formal complaint and also contacted my MP to ask if they would help by trying to contact HMCTS on my behalf.
The next day, I got an email asking for a bit of information (which I replied back to within a few mins)
5 days later - Probate granted.
So, why could that not have been done at some time in the last 6 months when they did absolutely nothing...

How depressing that it should need to be like this...

The silver lining is that this is the first time in my life I have needed to contact my MP and I am really impressed by how that went. They were really helpful and really efficient. It makes my choice of how to vote at the next election an easier one if nothing else!

julian_sand

@SadCodeMan - That's amazing news. Congrats on getting the probate despite the trouble! 

On my end two short updates:

- After 2.5 months I actually did get an answer on my multiple emails asking for clarification for their request for "missing documents". Turns out that I did indeed send the documents in the original application and they were scanned & added to my file. However they were sent back to me as they deemed not needing the originals of these specific documents, as opposed to others such as the will. I've now had to send back those same original documents, which were received a week ago. Now waiting where this is going to take things.

- My case has now been forwarded by my MP to the PHSO. But there's a current wait time for up to 7 months for my case to be taken on. Guess I'll have to wait a bit more... but am really wondering whether there's still a single public service left around in the UK that is actually still functional.

SadCodeMan

7 months! Wow. It is almost comical. I hope that it does, at least, end up getting things sorted when you finally get to the front of the queue.

My only other mildly interesting observation is that the email they asked me to give details on had a reply address of the one they advertise to use to contact them on - contactprobate@justice.gov.uk - but, when I used that to reply to, it did get to them and I got an automated reply saying they had had the email.

Every other time I have emailed to that address, the email has been 'deleted without being read' so they must have some sort of routing at their end to know that an email coming back into them is one they actually want to see.

Possibly that means you are better off replying to one of their previous emails to you if you ever want to try to get to them by email (rather than starting a new conversation).

I really hope it all works out for you. I am glad it sounds like your MP is also doing some bits to help.

julian_sand

Yes, I've indeed always responded to their emails instead of sending my own. Hence I never received any warning of my message having been "deleted without being read". But despite that responses have been non-existent or slow (even when I responded within an hour of their own outreach).