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Legal, pensions and money

Anybody know how long probate is likely to take

(42 Posts)
Franbern Fri 29-Dec-23 09:23:57

No property involved, straight forward will - all to be shared equally between adult children. Named and willing Executor. Only complication is due to monies given less than seven years ago, will take total amount over inheritance tax rates.

Just wondered if anyone could give some sort of idea as go how long this is likely to take - three months? six months?

M0nica Tue 05-Mar-24 14:19:46

^Severe delays that currently see clients being advised that probate will take at least nine months, will not improve without adequate resources, The waiting time for probate almost doubled from April 2022 to April 2023, says CILEX (the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives.
www.cilex.org.uk/media/media_releases/probate-delays-causing-stress-loss/

Date of link: 23 Jan 2024

bookwormbabe Tue 05-Mar-24 17:39:44

Ours took nearly a year, similar scenario apart from the inheritance tax part. There was a discussion on the radio about probate the other day, and it seems this is not unusual. Apparently the government is partly to blame for it taking so long because there used to be regional probate offices and then it was centralised. Plus you have staff working from home. People were complaining that it is almost impossible to get through to them on the phone. Another example of nothing working in this country.

Grantanow Thu 14-Mar-24 08:43:18

In fact the probate documents arrived within 5 working days. I can't complain about the service at all.

1summer Thu 14-Mar-24 08:55:07

I seem to have been quite lucky, I was executor of my husbands will and did probate myself. Although it took over 6 months to collate all the information from submitting the probate application to approval took 5 weeks. The Grant of probate was received 6 days later.

ferry23 Wed 03-Apr-24 17:01:49

I did it myself for my Dad - the estate was reasonably straightforward but there was property involved along with various savings instruments. It took 4 weeks from start to finish and cost a little over £400.

HomeAgain123 Wed 03-Apr-24 17:19:12

Recently filed my mams it took 8 weeks for it to complete but we still have property to sell … I’m in uk

Franbern Sun 07-Apr-24 09:22:53

MY son, who is the Executor for this probate, received a number. But, the total amount of IH had to be paid in full, before probate could continue.
This was okay for this as there is no property involved, just cash, so the IH (a large amount) was taken from that.
However, if the IH is because of a property. I do wonder how people can pay over big amount of money, when they cannot actually get this money until probate is granted and the property sold.

He is still hoping for it all to be completed sometime in the summer, and the share out between him and his siblings made.

Germanshepherdsmum Sun 07-Apr-24 10:10:34

If IHT cannot be paid in full until a property or other assets are sold payment can be deferred for up to ten years but the outstanding amount will attract interest.

JackyB Sun 07-Apr-24 10:57:04

Our mother died in July 2019. We only recently got the ends tied up. The solicitor was totally incompetent. Would have been much quicker to do it ourselves.

Cabbie21 Sun 07-Apr-24 11:48:35

The actual Probate was the easy bit. Collecting all the information took months. Dispersing , including selling items is taking forever.

Primrose53 Sun 07-Apr-24 14:58:37

JackyB

Our mother died in July 2019. We only recently got the ends tied up. The solicitor was totally incompetent. Would have been much quicker to do it ourselves.

That is dreadful! I hope you haven’t paid their bill. I would be having a word with them if it was me.

I did my Mum’s probate with no prior experience and the forms really were self explanatory.

PamelaJ1 Sun 07-Apr-24 15:08:36

Can I also add to the conversation that when I did the probate for my father the probate office was very helpful. It was 20 years ago though so that may have changed.
It only took a few weeks.

Jaxjacky Sun 07-Apr-24 15:30:30

One of the bond companies released some money before probate was formally granted to pay my Mums IHT which was thousands Franbern. No property involved in her case either.

Lovetopaint037 Fri 19-Apr-24 17:18:08

Hope you have considered that if both husband and wife have died the beneficiaries of both can be claimed.

Germanshepherdsmum Fri 19-Apr-24 17:33:26

???

Cabbie21 Fri 19-Apr-24 18:32:59

Lovetopaint can you explain please? What you wrote doesn’t make sense.