How Long Does Probate Take? May 2026

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How Long Does Probate Really Take?

Usually much longer than the headline Probate Registry figures suggest.

The problem is that official Probate Registry processing statistics measure only one part of the journey. They generally start when an application reaches HM Courts & Tribunals Service. By then, the executors may already have spent months identifying and valuing the estate, investigating gifts, dealing with Inheritance Tax and obtaining information from banks, investment companies and other organisations. They also exclude sometimes LONG periods when a case has been STOPPED perhaps – or perhaps not – becuase information is missing or incorrect.

And obtaining the Grant is not the end. Assets still have to be collected or sold, liabilities and tax dealt with, estate accounts prepared and the beneficiaries paid.

The Probate Registry’s processing time is NOT the same as the time it takes to deal with an estate.

A straightforward online application may pass through the Registry relatively quickly once everything is complete. That does not mean a family receives an inheritance within a few weeks of the death.

There are really three separate probate clocks

It is much easier to understand probate delays if the process is divided into three stages:

Before the application – identify and value the estate, establish debts and gifts, deal with Inheritance Tax and obtain any HMRC probate code required.
Probate Registry processing – submit the application and wait for the Grant.
After the Grant – collect or sell assets, pay liabilities and tax, prepare the estate accounts and distribute the estate.

Stage 1: How long before you can even apply for probate?

This part of the process is often overlooked when people quote Probate Registry waiting times.

Executors may first have to:

find the original Will;
identify the executors;
identify bank and building society accounts;
obtain investment and share valuations;
obtain property valuations;
identify pensions and life policies;
investigate trusts and business interests;
establish debts and liabilities;
investigate significant lifetime gifts;
work out whether Inheritance Tax is payable;
prepare a full IHT400 return where required;
arrange payment of any Inheritance Tax which has to be paid before probate; and
obtain the HMRC probate code where required.

GOV.UK itself says that valuing an estate can take several months, and that it can take longer if the estate is large or complicated, involves trusts or has tax to pay.

GOV.UK – valuing an estate for Inheritance Tax

The Inheritance Tax stage can add months before probate is applied for

If the estate requires a full Inheritance Tax account, the executors must complete form IHT400 and report the estate to HMRC before applying for probate.

The difficult part is often not filling in the form itself. It is collecting enough accurate information to complete it.

That can include obtaining values for:

homes and other property;
shares and investments;
businesses and partnerships;
trust interests;
foreign assets;
valuable personal possessions;
debts and mortgages; and
lifetime gifts, sometimes going back many years.

There is no useful official average for how long it takes to assemble and prepare an IHT400. HMRC’s own guidance simply recognises that valuing an estate can take several months.

Inheritance Tax may have to be found before probate

There is another practical difficulty with taxable estates.

Inheritance Tax normally has to start being paid before the Grant is issued.

Yet much of the deceased’s money may be tied up in a house, investments or other assets which cannot easily be sold until the Grant has been obtained.

Some banks and investment organisations can pay Inheritance Tax directly to HMRC from the deceased’s accounts. Certain tax attributable to assets such as property may also be paid by instalments.

Nevertheless, finding sufficient money to make the necessary initial tax payment can itself delay an estate.

How long does HMRC take after the IHT400?

Once HMRC has received the IHT400 and enough Inheritance Tax has been paid, HMRC sends a unique probate code which is required before the probate application can proceed.

HMRC says that this code is usually issued within 20 working days of receiving the IHT400 or the required Inheritance Tax payment, whichever is later.

That is roughly four working weeks after the necessary return and payment have reached HMRC. It does not include the potentially much longer period spent obtaining valuations and preparing the return in the first place.

Nor does the probate code mean that HMRC has finally agreed the whole Inheritance Tax position. HMRC can still raise questions afterwards.

GOV.UK – IHT400, paying tax and obtaining the probate code

Many probate applications are not submitted soon after the death

HMCTS’s own research reinforces the point that the Probate Registry’s processing period is only part of the story.

Its probate reform research found that a substantial proportion of applications were not submitted until several months after the death, and some were submitted more than a year later.

The reasons vary. Executors may be gathering information, instructing professionals, dealing with complicated assets, resolving Will or family issues or completing tax work.

HMCTS Probate Reform Evaluation

Online and paper probate applications are very different

This distinction is important because headline averages can conceal a very wide difference between different sorts of applications.

Most straightforward Grants of Probate are now applied for digitally.

Paper applications include people who choose not to use the online service, but they also include a number of cases which cannot be made through the normal digital route. Some of these are inherently more complicated.

HMCTS specifically recognises that paper cases are more likely to involve complexity and processing difficulties.

And there is a large historic difference in processing speed.

For the 2024/25 financial year, the Ministry of Justice reported:

Digital probate applications: just over 5 weeks average processing time.
Paper probate applications: under 13 weeks average processing time.

So a very fast figure quoted for straightforward digital applications should not be taken as a realistic expectation for a paper case.

Current GOV.UK guidance still states plainly that paper applications take longer to process than online applications.

GOV.UK – applying for probate

A stopped application can dramatically increase the wait

One of the biggest risks is that the probate application becomes stopped.

HMCTS may stop an application because:

something is missing;
an error has been identified;
further information is required;
there is a problem concerning the Will;
there is uncertainty over who is entitled to apply; or
another issue prevents the application from progressing normally.

Until the problem has been dealt with, the application may make little or no progress.

A particular danger is not realising that your application has stopped.

An executor may believe that the application is simply waiting in the Probate Registry queue when in fact HMCTS is waiting for information or action from the applicant.

If you applied online, check the probate account regularly rather than simply waiting.

If you applied by post, GOV.UK currently says you should receive a letter or email within 12 weeks. If you have heard nothing by then, contact the Courts and Tribunals Service Centre.

GOV.UK – after you have applied for probate

Stage 2: The Probate Registry

Once everything necessary has been assembled and the application has actually been submitted, the Probate Registry stage begins.

How long this takes depends heavily on the type of application.

A clean digital Grant of Probate application with no problems may move quickly.

A paper application, a stopped application, Letters of Administration, a Will problem or an unusual application can take substantially longer.

This is why a single national “average probate time” is of limited practical value.

Stage 3: Probate is not finished when the Grant arrives

Receiving the Grant gives the personal representatives authority to deal with assets which require probate.

It does not mean the estate administration is finished.

The executors or administrators may still need to:

send the Grant to banks and investment organisations;
close accounts;
collect investments;
sell shares;
sell or transfer property;
collect money owed to the deceased;
pay debts and administration expenses;
settle final Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax or Inheritance Tax matters;
deal with HMRC enquiries;
trace or verify beneficiaries;
prepare estate accounts; and
finally distribute the estate.

A house sale alone can add several months. Trusts, businesses, foreign assets, tax problems or family disputes can add considerably longer.

So how long does probate take from death to inheritance?

There is no honest single answer.

A relatively simple estate may progress quite quickly where:

the Will and executors are clear;
the assets are straightforward;
no full IHT400 is required;
all the information is readily available;
the application is made online;
the application is not stopped; and
there is no property sale or dispute delaying distribution.

At the other extreme, a taxable or complicated estate may already have taken several months to prepare before a probate application can even be submitted.

If the Registry then stops the application, further months can be added. The estate may then require many more months of administration after the Grant.

The realistic probate journey is:

Death → find the Will and executors → identify and value the estate → investigate gifts and liabilities → deal with IHT/HMRC where necessary → obtain probate code → submit application → Probate Registry → Grant → collect or sell assets → pay liabilities and tax → prepare estate accounts → distribute the inheritance.

How can executors reduce avoidable delays?

Find the original Will as soon as possible.
Establish who the executors are.
Start gathering financial information early.
Investigate lifetime gifts early where Inheritance Tax may be relevant.
Obtain proper property and asset valuations.
Do not guess at information on the application.
Use the online probate service where the case is eligible.
Check the online account regularly after applying.
Respond quickly to HMRC or HMCTS questions.
Do not promise beneficiaries a payment date too early.
Do not commit a property buyer to an unrealistic completion date before probate is available.

Can professional probate help reduce delays?

No professional can make HMRC or the Probate Registry work faster.

What experienced probate help can sometimes do is reduce avoidable delay by ensuring that the estate has been properly investigated, the tax work is dealt with and the probate application is complete before it is submitted.

This can be particularly valuable where the estate involves:

Inheritance Tax;
substantial lifetime gifts;
trusts;
business interests;
foreign assets;
several properties;
an unusual or badly drafted Will;
a deceased or unwilling executor; or
family disagreement.

Need professional probate help?

We can help you compare appropriate probate services and likely costs.

Request probate help or probate quotes

Waiting for an inheritance?

Where an inheritance is expected but administration of the estate is taking a long time, an inheritance or probate advance may sometimes be available.

Read about probate loans and inheritance advances

How to chase an existing probate application

If you applied online, check the status in your probate account first.

If you applied by post and have not received a letter or email within 12 weeks, GOV.UK says you can contact the Courts and Tribunals Service Centre.

Probate helpline: 0300 303 0648
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 9am to 1pm
Email: co************@*********ov.uk

GOV.UK – track or chase a probate application

If there is a genuine complaint about the handling of the case:

How to complain about the Probate Registry

Latest official Probate Registry statistics

These figures need context.

They measure Probate Registry activity after an application has reached HMCTS. They do not include the potentially lengthy period spent identifying and valuing the estate, preparing an IHT400, finding money to pay Inheritance Tax, waiting for an HMRC probate code or administering the estate after the Grant.

They also combine very different types of cases. Digital and paper applications, stopped and unstopped applications, Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration can have very different timescales.

April to June 2026

The Ministry of Justice reports that:

61,941 applications for Grants of Probate were received;
57,698 Grants of Probate were issued;
92% of Grant of Probate applications were digital;
94% of Grants of Probate issued were digital;
the reported mean time from application submission to a Grant of Probate was approximately 5 weeks;
stopped Grant of Probate cases averaged approximately 14 weeks;
the latest bulletin reports approximately 2 weeks for cases which were not stopped;
Letters of Administration with a Will annexed averaged approximately 22 weeks; and
Letters of Administration without a Will averaged approximately 10 weeks.

A caution about the 2-week figure: the overwhelming majority of current Grant of Probate work is digital. Recent preceding Ministry of Justice publications specifically identified the very fast two-week cohort as digital Grant of Probate applications which had not been stopped. It should not be read as saying that a paper probate application normally takes two weeks.

Paper applications

The latest quarterly commentary does not provide an equally clear current paper-only average.

The Ministry of Justice’s 2024/25 annual figures reported average processing times of:

just over 5 weeks for digital probate applications; and
under 13 weeks for paper probate applications.

HMCTS also notes that some paper applications are cases which are not eligible for the digital service and are consequently more likely to be complex.

Open cases do not necessarily mean actively progressing cases

At the end of June 2026, HMCTS recorded 47,003 open probate cases.

Only 48% of that open caseload was classified by HMCTS as workable.

It would be wrong simply to describe every other case as “stopped”, because HMCTS uses different administrative classifications. However, it demonstrates why an open-case total should not be interpreted as meaning that every case is actively progressing towards a Grant.

HMCTS reported that 76% of the open caseload had been open for less than six months.

Again, none of these figures includes estates which have not yet reached the Probate Registry at all.

View the latest official Ministry of Justice probate statistics

Official sources

Questions, corrections or need help?

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This page relates to probate in England and Wales. Probate times vary considerably according to the estate and the type of application. Statistics were last reviewed on 30 September 2026.

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How Long Does Probate Take? Current Delays & Timescales