Probate Delays

SanMiguel80

Hi, I will be interested to hear about anyone else experiencing similar delays to myself since applying for probate. Or if can anyone can possibly explain as to why my application is taking so long?

My story: My mother passed away last September and in early October I applied online for probate, as I was named executor in her Will. My only possible error I made at the time was the same day I sent all the forms off to HMRC (IHT400/435 etc) rather than waiting for HMRC reference number first. HMRC came back within a month and I forwarded the reference to HMCTS (Probate). The only correspondance I have received from HMCTS was a few days after submitting my application asking if I had sent off the IHT forms to HMRC, which by then I confirmed I had. HMRC signed off the estate and confirmed no IHT to pay and that they had no further interest by the November.

The DIY Will was drawn up in 2013 of (not by me) and there were three beneficiaries, myself and my two brother's, one of which died before my mother and one since submitting my application for probate. I have phoned HMCTS and emailed them quite a few times in the past few months asking for the reason for delay in issuing probate, they just say to me that all the boxes appear to have been ticked and that they can see no reason for the delay, and then I hear nothing!

To add to this, my brother passed away last November intestate. He had limited assets other than what was due from our mother's estate. I applied for a Letter of Administration for him before Christmas. In March of this year I enquired as to the status of his application, only to be told that they never received it (You can't apply for LOA online), even though RM shows proof of delivery and my bank showed that they had cashed the cheque. I resent all the forms a month later and the mentioned evidence, then only to be told his application had been put at the back of the queue as a fresh application and that I would have to wait on average 12 weeks.

I've just given up chasing this now and i'm not sure what else I can do. I gues, probate will arrive when it does.

Sorry for the long rant.

Keep_pedalling

I would chace once more and if you don’t get a satisfactory response raise the issue with your MP.

You say this was a DIY will, did it have any clauses about what happened if any of her children died before her?

Who is administering the estate of your brother who died after your mother?

Cubicsrube

So sorry you're having this trouble. I am on the other side of a similar probate delay, which was caused by a similar initial slip-up: submitting probate forms before getting a code from HMRC. I rang HMCTS about every month to chase it and a few of the people I spoke to told me that any application that is stopped, for any reason, gets pulled out of the pile and put into a separate queue to be looked at and resolved manually. Even once you've resolved the reason for the stoppage (which like you, we did very quickly) and they have confirmed they don't need anything else from you - it's still in a separate pile with all the problem cases. So unfortunately that might be where you are. I applied in August '25, it was stopped almost immediately, got and sent the HMRC code in early Sept and we eventually got the grant of probate in Feb this year.

At the end, two things may have helped (hard to know) - one, we submitted evidence that an offer had been accepted and a chain was in place on mum's property which had gone on the market before she died; and two, I got through to HMCTS on their online web chat service (instead of phone), where the agent was phenomenally helpful. She told me to expect an update via email the same day and within 30 minutes the grant was approved! Possibly a massive coincidence - but worth a try? You may have to keep trying, the web chat service status often says 'unavailable' if its too busy.

jdvhsully

When my mother in law died, it was a very straight forward will but still took a year with no response etc. It was only when our MP became involved that probate was granted within 48 hours.