Probate: Last Stages Taking Ages!

spiral_3

Hello - I’d be grateful for any comments and advice you may have regarding the following situation with our probate ‘journey’.

My father passed away in early 2024 leaving his estate comprising of a property rented out to a tenant (he no longer lived in it) and various funds. He nominated local solicitors as executors and myself and my sister are the beneficiaries.

Probate was granted in July 2024 but there was a pause before we sold the property in April 2025 and it completed at the end of August.

Here’s where things became frustrating:

There was some IHT due, but the amount paid was based on a higher property probate valuation than was realised so just after completion - early September 2025 - the solicitors applied for a reduction in the IHT paid advising us that it could take ‘months’ for a response. They weren’t wrong! It took some nine months: the good news is HMRC agreed to a refund and repaid some money, but we’ve had to wait again since apparently they hadn’t provided the solicitors with any breakdown or even a notification the funds related to our case. 

The solicitors are sure it’s ‘our money’ based on process of elimination with other appeals for refunds they’re handling, but require official notification and a break down from HMRC so said they’d have to request this. Once they receive it, the solicitors would have to contact HMRC again requesting a ‘tax clearance certificate’ which, as we understand it, is HMRC confirming the estate is ‘wrapped up’ with no further tax liability so protecting the executors, and once this has been received funds can be disbursed.

After checking in with the solicitors as to what’s happening (two months after they’d asked HMRC for the above) they’ve heard nothing so we’re nearly at a full year since the property sold. 

The solicitors have told us now, due to the protracted wait, they’re prepared to forget about the IHT refund breakdown if they haven’t heard anything by the end of October and go straight to requesting the tax clearance certificate which, when received, will mean the estate can be distributed. Also, they’re saying this could also take a while to turn up - so more waiting.

My questions:

• If our solicitors are prepared to forget about the IHT refund paperwork in October, can’t they forget about it now and get on with applying for the tax clearance certificate? Also, has anyone heard of HMRC repaying money and not supplying any supporting information?
• We did offer to follow up with HMRC ourselves but our solicitors are reluctant for us to do this: their argument is that it could cause confusion and delay things even more if HMRC are talking to the executors and the beneficiaries. Any views?
• Any thoughts on how long this has taken? I appreciate probate cases vary but it does seem, since the property was sold, things have moved at a glacial pace.
• We’re a bit disappointed with the solicitors in this: all we get is ‘we’re still waiting’. While HMRC are being extremely sluggish in this, we feel the solicitors could have done a better job of at least reassuring us they’re chasing and giving a better impression of actually chasing instead of, as we fear, doing the bare minimum. Is this fair?

Many thanks!

spiral_3

Any comments at all?

Thanks!

Cubicsrube

Commiserations on the delay and loss of your dad. Yours seem like a very particular set of circumstances so that may be why no one has weighed in. I’m sorry I have no advice to offer but just didn’t want you to get crickets.

Maybe try reposting this query with a more specific title (“tax clearance certificate problem” for eg) and try shortening the text — shorter generally gets read more, I have found!

Good luck.

RAS

The OP doesn't yet have enough posts to edit either their original post or the title. So adding a few might help down the line.

It's not clear from the description what the problems are?

Why are the solicitors sure it is "our money"?

It sounds like this firm do quite a lot of probate work if they have other accounts for which they are negotiating IHT probate?

Is there a named head of department?

tooldle

From experience, Tax Clearance Certificates can take months. The solicitor can chase ( I believe they have a specific number to call, not available to general public) but may still spend sometime waiting for the call to be answered. When answered they’ll likely just be told their request is in the queue. Useful to know the request has been received but otherwise, a waste of everyone’s time and a charge to the estate.
Solicitors with many probate cases on the go will have a reasonably accurate idea of expected wait times and, might argue that chasing is worthless until the expected wait time has been exceeded.
in terms of waiting for details of the refund, I’m cautious, so I’d wait. Better to finalise matters accurately than have to revise things if it becomes apparent the refund was for another case. A solicitors professional insurance might not cover, if they chose to just wing it.

You’re almost there.

pcgtron

Another post that shows using solicitors for probate slows down Timelines.

I'm in a similar position to you, but with very different outcomes. I did all the estate work myself, with the exception of the personal tax returns of the deceased. Iht 400 was done by me and iht paid. On the iht 400, I had to guess the tax liabilities as there were outstanding tax returns. Once both of those had been submitted, I also found that a credit card bill was not taken into account on the iht 400. I submitted an iht correction form to hmrc reclaiming some of the iht paid due to these news debts, and approx 6 weeks later, the money had been reimbursed into the executor account. Approx 1 week after that I had a letter to from hmrc saying they had done this and that the matter was closed. Not sure why there was a 9 month delay your end. Sorry for your wait. Pita

spiral_3

Thanks all for your comments:

RAS: 'It's not clear from the description what the problems are?' - it's really about whether more can be done to chase HMRC beyond our solicitor just saying "HMRC work slowly so we have to wait it out". Nine months waiting for a ruling on whether an IHT refund was due, then another wait for them providing supporting 'paperwork' illustrating how the refund has been calculated. Then another wait likely in the offing for the Tax Clearance Certificate which the solicitor will apply for once the supporting paperwork for the IHT refund turns up.

'Why are the solicitors sure it is "our money"?' - sounds like they're basing it on process of elimination against other cases they have in progress. We did ask them directly if they're sure the HMRC payment is 'ours' and they're certain it is.

'Is there a named head of department?' - yes we've been dealing with a named solicitor: they're not a huge practice.

pcgtron: 'Another post that shows using solicitors for probate slows down Timelines.' - yes I've heard doing it yourself can be quicker. My late father appointed probate solicitors in advance. Don't know whether we could have 'taken over' from them from the outset or not. Too late now of course!

Thanks again for your thoughts.