Should it be taking this long to get probate started?

Aaron3195

Its been 2 months now since my father passed and I don't seem to be anywhere near getting probate started with my solicitors.

They have given a long checklist of information I need to gather for them so they can start the IHT and probate process for me (estate is valued over 650k), I've done them all except for finalising my dad's income tax returns.

Nationwide are taking an eternity to send out the taxable interest statements of his bank accounts for the tax year 25-26, (they say they have a 10-30 day backlog) then I'll have to send this on to an accountant I've found, and wait again for them to get back to me on the status of his tax returns.

This is giving me a lot of anxiety as 2 months are already gone and IHT only give 6 months after death before IHT interest starts to accumulate (for them). It's also not helping that letters that arrive from Royal Mail are two weeks old.

YBR

I imagine the solicitors will not start until all the information is gathered, and usually this would be cheaper than doing stop-start partial efforts each time further information comes in.

Both probate and tax returns are generally things that can be done yourself rather than paying someone else to do it in their timescales.

probate_slave

Honestly, you seem to be making excellent progress so far.

Since your father died early in the tax year, it's likely that he will be due an income tax refund for 25/26. If HMRC haven't confirmed the amount before IHT is due on 31st Jan 2026 your accountant can estimate the repayment, and the solicitor will adjust the figure later. (Likewise for 24/25 if the return has yet to be submitted.)

If your solicitor is competent I don't see why there should be any difficulty submitting the IHT forms in time.

Aaron3195

YBR said:

I imagine the solicitors will not start until all the information is gathered, and usually this would be cheaper than doing stop-start partial efforts each time further information comes in.

Both probate and tax returns are generally things that can be done yourself rather than paying someone else to do it in their timescales.

I've been disabled my whole life so I've never needed to pay tax. Tax and HMRC is very foreign to me. If I did do it myself I would still need information from dad's bank accounts either way I would have thought.

probate_slave said:

Honestly, you seem to be making excellent progress so far.

Since your father died early in the tax year, it's likely that he will be due an income tax refund for 25/26. If HMRC haven't confirmed the amount before IHT is due on 31st Jan 2026 your accountant can estimate the repayment, and the solicitor will adjust the figure later. (Likewise for 24/25 if the return has yet to be submitted.)

If your solicitor is competent I don't see why there should be any difficulty submitting the IHT forms in time.

Yeah I got a letter a few days ago dated 28 august from HMRC that said dad paid too much tax, and they included a cheque. I told the solicitor this in the email so hopefully that is good enough for them to get started.

Edit: Just adding that dad was retired and had state pension and private work pension, on his P60s it calculated income tax for him already, it shouldn't be that complicated right?

Daniel54

You have one year ( not 6 months) to identify and pay any IHT due

Unfortunately  some  entities take longer than others to provide the necessary information,

For our own reasons we employed a competent solicitor to establish and pay IHT within this timeline,but this does I think always need considerable legwork from the actual executors to move matters forward

Bear in mind that probate value is at at date of death so  subsequent estate liabilities can arise later in the process

i can’t see you have anything to worry about concerning deadlines only two months in,which is not to say the entire project cannot be stressful.

As has been said by p-b,adjustments can always be submitted later if necessary

probate_slave

Daniel54 said:

You have one year ( not 6 months) to identify and pay any IHT due

https://www.gov.uk/paying-inheritance-tax#:~:text=You must pay Inheritance Tax by the end of the sixth month after the person died. For example, if the person died in January, you must pay Inheritance Tax by 31 July