The HM Courts and Tribunals Service reveals that average waiting times between probate applications being received and granted exceeded ten weeks in December of 2022.
Though it neared the ten-week window several times in 2022, it never went higher than an average of 9.4 weeks right up until December, when it shot up to a 10.2 week wait on average.
Digital applications have fared much better overall, however, wait times still increased, increasing from 6.9 weeks as of November 2022, to 7.6 weeks in December of the same year.
Within the same timeframe, waiting times for stopped applications also increased from 17.2 weeks to 18.4 weeks. To compare this, between February and March of 2022, the majority of applications didn’t exceed 14 weeks.
Paper applications, however, have a processing timescale recorded on average being 19.6 weeks as of February 2023, just slightly down from November 2022’s wait of 20.4 weeks. Stopped applications are taking just under half a year (at 25.4 weeks) for Grants to be issued. This brings the average timescale for all applications (i.e. digital, paper and stopped) to be issued to 15 weeks.
This backlog has led to increasing pressure upon ministers to extend what is currently a 12 month claims window for loss of relief on share price falls for inheritance tax. In a recent letter addressing Parliament, the Association of Taxation Technicians stated:
“Due to ongoing processing delays with probate applications, executors are losing the opportunity to claim relief from IHT.
“The ATT therefore considers that the current 12-month window is too short and needs to be extended to a two-year period, or at least an 18-month period from the date of death, on a permanent or temporary basis.”
In the chart below are some of our own examples of own probate applications from the last six months:
As you can see even in this limited selection, when looking at the duration of time between submission and confirmation of receipt, there is a significant difference in delay when comparing online to paper submissions. Assuming that an acknowledgement has been received at all in some cases.
By highlighting these significant issues, it is hoped that the Probate Registry will acknowledge this when reviewing the application processes and the often unreasonable timescales provided to applicants during what is already a very difficult time.
Further reading
Probate and estate administration – Oakwood Solicitors
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Zoe Rosenberg Joined Oakwood Solicitors in 2023, having graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a BA Criminology degree.
Zoe previously worked in identity verification and has volunteered a…
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