How to Complain about the Probate Registry

URGENT – the Probate Registry Service is currently DIRE,

please sign our Probate Petition for improvements and draw it to the attention of your MP:

Click the link to sign the petition and please ask others to sign it. It will have no effect until 10,000 signatures are received, but there is time!https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/644554/ The Key request is for 4 weekly progress updates by text or email.

I will be looking for personal case studies of how this has affected families – please email st***@*********************co.uk with a phone number. Please remember that your whole family will eventually suffer if the Probate Complaints Petition doesn’t bring about any improvements – the more signatures, the better – and ask your MP to support it – only Parliament can brig about real change in support of us battered voters.

Probate Quotes                    Probate Disputes

My probate petition:

• Make the Probate Registry more customer friendly.
• No information for 16 weeks after submission, bills can’t be paid, whilst beneficiaries pester executors and increase professional fees.
• So please acknowledge applications and update by email, text, or post every 4 weeks.
• Have a nominated individual or small team dealing with each case.
• Answer the phone (there would be fewer calls with automatic updates).
• At the present moment, “problem” cases are apparently being dealt with 9 months after submission – and the issue may be a simple clerical error.
• SADLY, dealing with the probate registry is a further twist of the knife for the already suffering bereaved.

Incidentally, a recent survey showed that just 1% of executors found the process easier than expected, and 99% did not. 

The Customer Service Journey at the Probate Registry needs a severe shake-up, with clients being automatically kept informed. In private enterprise, heads would have rolled long since. But you can complain about the probate registry service, and you can suggest improvements. But only MPs can force those changes through, so make sure yours knows about the Probate Petition.Always remember that the staff at the Probate Registry did not make the decision to permanently close most offices or get rid of so many experienced senior staff who are now being replaced with staff new to the Department.  As I understand it, the miscalculation was so bad that the Registry will end up with more staff than it had before the cutbacks, perhaps due to issues with the computer system which sometimes gets things wrong. As you are not even allowed to talk to them asking if your case is going OK for 16 weeks, when it may be sitting somewhere being ignored, or the wrong email address may have been emailed with a query.Have you checked that probate hasn’t been granted?  If it has, you will eventually be able to get a copy Will (if there was one) and Grant.Learning how to complain about the probate registry is one thing. Still, as individuals we are going to make no difference – but combining and using the Probate Petition gives us a real chance of making change actual happen – and this time, for the better. 

This is the formal Probate Registry complaints procedure:

Items in italics are my comments.If you are NOT the executor, then this is unlikely to be a way to complain about matters and my experience is that the Registry staff are generally unwilling to engage even with executors if a professional submitted the application.  They are positively not allowed to give information to third parties such as beneficiaries. I understand that the Registrar considers that professionals have access to information on all cases submitted online.  That does make it VERY expensive to chase professional executors for information they may not have, and at least will involve 5 touch points – your call, their secretary’s action, the lawyers’ email, the registry reply (if lucky), and conveying that information to the client. At a minimum that is 5 units of time, typically 30 minutes costing on average around £150 including VAT.  Usually, for no response.So, wait 16 weeks, then email co************@*********ov.uk with case reference if you have it, if not then date of death, full name of deceased and date the cheque was cleared, wait 10 days for a reply, then email again copying in your MP.  Only then continue reading:

Probate Registry Complaints procedure