How long does probate take with a will?

Having a valid will usually makes the process faster and more predictable, but it does not change the underlying timetable much. You still apply for a grant of probate, which typically takes 8-16 weeks from application, and you still administer the estate over roughly 6-12 months. What a will does is remove the arguments: it names the executors, so nobody has to establish who has the right to apply, and it sets out who inherits, so the distribution is not governed by the intestacy rules. Where there is no will, the equivalent document is a grant of letters of administration, and HMCTS statistics for October to December 2025 show letters of administration without a will took around 9 weeks on average to issue, against about 5 weeks for probate grants overall.

How long after probate is money released to beneficiaries?

Institutions themselves are usually quick - most banks release funds within 10 to 20 working days of receiving a sealed copy of the grant. The wait that follows is deliberate. Executors are conventionally advised not to distribute until six months after the grant has passed, because that is the window in which someone can bring a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. In practice, beneficiaries of a straightforward estate often receive an interim payment two to three months after the grant, with the balance once the claims window has closed and the estate accounts are approved. Where a property has to be sold, the timing is driven by the sale rather than by the grant.

Why is probate taking so long?

Look first at whether the application has been stopped, because that dwarfs every other cause. HMCTS figures for October to December 2025 show stopped applications took 15 weeks on average to be issued, compared with 2 weeks for applications that ran clean. Stops come from missing or inconsistent details, an unsigned statement of truth, the original will not arriving, or an inheritance tax position HMCTS cannot reconcile with HMRC records. Beyond stops, the usual culprits are IHT clearance, a property sale that will not complete, a DWP benefit overpayment review, foreign assets, or a dispute. If none of those apply and you are past 16 weeks from a clean application, it is reasonable to chase.

How long does it take to get a grant of probate in 2026?

Typically 8-16 weeks from the date of application, and often considerably faster for a clean digital application. HMCTS has substantially reduced waiting times since the 2023-24 backlog peak: Family Court Statistics Quarterly for October to December 2025 records probate grants taking approximately 5 weeks on average to issue, around 2 weeks faster than the same quarter in 2024, with digital applications that were not stopped averaging about 2 weeks from submission to issue. Plan on 8-16 weeks rather than the average, because the average is pulled down by the large majority of applications that go through without a hitch, and you do not know in advance which side of that line you are on.

Can probate be done in 3 months?

Getting the grant within three months is realistic for a straightforward estate. Completing the whole administration in three months is not, in most cases, and would usually be unwise even where it is technically possible. The obstacle is not paperwork but the six-month claims window that runs from the date of the grant. An executor who distributes everything at three months has no protection if a 1975 Act claim arrives at month five, and executors are personally liable for mistakes. Where the estate is small, uncontroversial and going to a single beneficiary who is also the executor, moving faster carries less practical risk - but that is a judgement about your own exposure, not a general rule.

Do I have to wait 6 months before distributing the estate?

There is no rule that forbids distributing earlier, but there is a very good reason to wait. The Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 gives certain people - spouses, former spouses, children, cohabitants and dependants - six months from the date of the grant to bring a claim that reasonable financial provision was not made for them. If you distribute the estate and a valid claim then succeeds, the money has gone but the liability has not, and as executor you may have to make up the shortfall personally. Waiting until the window closes is the conventional protection. Many executors make an interim distribution earlier, holding back a reserve that comfortably covers any foreseeable claim.

How long does probate take if there is a house to sell?

Expect 9-18 months for the full administration. You cannot complete a sale before the grant is issued, so the property timeline starts where the grant timeline ends. Marketing, finding a buyer and completing a chain typically adds three to nine months on top of the 8-16 weeks for the grant, and probate properties often need work, which narrows the pool of buyers who can get a mortgage. You can shorten the overall timeline by getting the property valued and on the market early - marketing before the grant is fine, it is only completion that has to wait - and by ordering extra sealed copies of the grant with the application at £2 each so the conveyancer is not waiting on a copy.

When should I chase HMCTS about my probate application?

HMCTS asks that you do not contact the Probate Service until 16 weeks have passed since you submitted your application, or 8 weeks since you responded to a request for more information or documents. Chasing earlier does not move you up the queue and adds to the correspondence load that slows everyone down. When you do chase, have your application reference to hand, and check first whether you have had a "stop" notice you may have missed - stops are often communicated by post or through the online portal rather than by phone. If you applied on paper, allow longer before chasing, as paper applications consistently take longer than digital ones.

Does inheritance tax delay probate?

Yes, and it is one of the most reliable sources of delay. Where inheritance tax is due, it generally has to be paid before the grant is issued, and HMRC needs around 20 working days to process form IHT400 before HMCTS can move forward. That creates the circularity every first-time executor runs into: you need the estate's money to pay the tax, but you need the grant to get at the money. Two mechanisms help. The HMRC direct payment scheme lets banks and building societies release funds directly to HMRC to pay the tax before the grant is issued. And IHT attributable to property can be paid in ten annual instalments, so you only need the first instalment up front rather than the whole bill.

How much does the probate application itself cost?

The court fee is £526 for estates over £5,000, with no fee at £5,000 or less. That fee rose from £300 on 13 July 2026, so a good many pages still quote the old figure. Extra sealed copies of the grant cost £2 each if you order them with the application, but £16 each afterwards - order generously up front, because you will need one for each bank, registrar and conveyancer, and requesting them later costs eight times as much and adds a wait. Statutory advertisements in the London Gazette and a local newspaper, which protect you against unknown creditors, typically cost £200-£300. See our probate cost calculator for the full picture including professional fees.

How long does probate take in 2026? Realistic timelines

The three timelines people conflate

Almost every argument about how long probate takes is really a misunderstanding about which clock is being read. A solicitor says "about three months", a bereaved daughter waits eleven, and both of them are describing something true. There are three separate periods, they start at different moments, and only one of them is under the court's control.

Timeline 1

Getting the grant

8-16 weeks

from the date you apply

This is the only stage HMCTS controls, and the only one with published statistics. It is also the number most articles quote when someone asks how long probate takes - which is why the answer so often feels wrong.

Timeline 2

Administering the estate

6-12 months

from the date of death

Valuing assets, settling inheritance tax, selling property, paying debts and preparing estate accounts. The grant sits in the middle of this period, not at the end of it.

Timeline 3

Money reaching beneficiaries

9-12+ months

from the date of death

Executors are conventionally advised to wait until the six-month claims window after the grant has closed before distributing. That waiting period is deliberate, and it is why beneficiaries so often wait almost a year.

The practical consequence matters more than the definitions. If you are an executor, the number you should be planning around is the middle one: 6-12 months of work, of which the grant is one stage. If you are a beneficiary waiting for money, the number that governs your life is the third one, and the honest answer to "when will I get it" is usually somewhere around a year, not somewhere around three months. Setting that expectation early prevents a great deal of family friction later.

Where these figures come from

The 8-16 week range for the grant reflects what executors should plan for, not the average. The Ministry of Justice's Family Court Statistics Quarterly for October to December 2025 records probate grants taking approximately 5 weeks on average to be issued, about 2 weeks faster than the same quarter in 2024, with digital applications that were not stopped averaging around 2 weeks from submission to issue. Averages are flattering here because they are dominated by clean applications. Applications that were stopped averaged 15 weeks. Plan for the wider range, and be pleasantly surprised.

Probate timeline month by month

The table below tracks a fairly typical estate: a valid will, one property, some savings, an inheritance tax liability, no dispute. Timings are cumulative from the date of death and the stages overlap in practice - you will be chasing a pension provider while waiting on HMRC. What the table is really for is showing you where the risk sits at each point, because knowing that a stage can go wrong is most of what lets you stop it going wrong.

When	Stage	Typical duration	What can go wrong
Week 1-2	Register the death, obtain the death certificate and order extra certified copies. Locate the original will and identify the executors.	5 days to 2 weeks	A death referred to the coroner delays the certificate by weeks or months. Without an interim certificate you cannot write to banks. If the original will cannot be found, the estate may have to proceed as an intestacy.
Week 2-6	Write to every bank, pension provider, insurer, registrar and utility. Ask for date-of-death balances. Instruct valuations for property, and for any shares, chattels or business interests.	4 to 8 weeks	Institutions routinely take 3-6 weeks to reply, and one slow provider holds up the whole valuation. Forgotten accounts surfacing later force you to correct figures already submitted.
Week 6-10	Add up the estate and decide the inheritance tax position. Excepted estates need no full IHT account; taxable estates need form IHT400 and the supporting schedules.	2 to 4 weeks of work	Getting the excepted-estate test wrong means filing the wrong forms and starting again. Lifetime gifts in the seven years before death are the single most commonly missed item.
Week 10-14	Where IHT is due, pay it - or at least the instalment-free portion - and submit IHT400 to HMRC. Wait for HMRC to issue the code confirming receipt.	HMRC needs around 20 working days	This is the classic hidden delay: IHT generally has to be paid before the grant is issued, but you often cannot access the money until you have the grant. The HMRC direct payment scheme is the way out.
Week 14-16	Apply for the grant of probate online, send the original will to HMCTS and pay the court fee.	1 to 2 hours to apply	The original will must arrive within the deadline HMCTS sets, unstapled and undamaged. Pinholes, paperclip marks or a removed staple raise questions about a missing document.
Week 16-28	HMCTS processes the application and issues the grant of probate. Order extra sealed copies with the application.	Typically 8-16 weeks from application	A stopped application is the difference between weeks and months. Missing details, an unsigned statement of truth or an unresolved IHT position all trigger a stop.
Month 6-8	Send sealed copies of the grant to each institution and collect in the assets. Put the property on the market or transfer it. Place statutory advertisements if you are protecting yourself against unknown creditors.	4 to 12 weeks	A property that will not sell, or a buyer who withdraws, can add six months on its own. Statutory notices carry a fixed two-month waiting period that runs alongside everything else.
Month 8-10	Settle debts, funeral costs and any income tax owed for the final period. Deal with DWP over any benefit overpayments. Prepare estate accounts for the beneficiaries.	4 to 8 weeks	A DWP compliance review into overpaid benefits can sit unresolved for months, and distributing before it closes leaves the executor personally exposed.
Month 10-12	The six-month window for claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 closes. Approve the accounts and distribute to beneficiaries.	Distribution takes 2 to 4 weeks	Distributing before the window closes is the single biggest personal risk an executor takes. A successful claim after the money has gone can leave the executor making up the shortfall.

England and Wales only. Scotland (confirmation) and Northern Ireland run separate systems with different timescales. Durations are typical rather than guaranteed - every estate differs, and a single slow institution or an unresolved query can move any stage by months.

Two features of that table surprise most first-time executors. The first is how much happens before you can even apply - roughly three to four months of valuing and form-filling in a taxable estate, none of which the court has any part in. The second is that the grant arrives around the middle, not the end. Getting the grant feels like the finish line and is actually the point at which the collecting, selling and settling begins. Our guide to applying for probate covers the application stage itself in detail, and executor duties sets out what you are legally responsible for across the whole period.

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What delays probate, ranked by how often it actually bites

These are ordered by real-world impact rather than by how often they are talked about. The first one is worth more attention than the rest combined, because it is both the most damaging and the most preventable.

#	Cause of delay	Typically adds	Why it happens
1	The application is stopped by HMCTS	Weeks to months	Family Court Statistics Quarterly for October to December 2025 shows stopped applications took 15 weeks on average to issue, against 2 weeks for those that were not stopped. Nothing else on this list has anything like the same leverage. Stops are usually caused by missing details, inconsistent names or dates, or an IHT position HMCTS cannot reconcile.
2	Inheritance tax has to be settled first	4 weeks to several months	Where IHT is due it generally has to be paid before the grant issues, and HMRC needs around 20 working days to process the IHT400 before HMCTS can proceed. The circularity - you need the money to pay the tax, and the grant to get the money - catches almost every first-time executor.
3	A property has to be sold	3 to 9 months	You cannot complete a sale before the grant, and once you can, you are at the mercy of the market and the chain. Probate sales are also more likely to involve a buyer who needs a mortgage on a property in poor condition.
4	The original will is not sent, or arrives damaged	4 to 12 weeks	HMCTS wants the original document. A will that arrives with a staple removed, extra pinholes, or a paperclip mark can prompt questions about whether another document was once attached, and that turns into correspondence.
5	DWP investigates a benefit overpayment	2 to 6 months	Where the deceased claimed means-tested benefits, DWP may review whether undeclared capital led to overpayments. The estate owes anything overpaid, so a careful executor waits for the outcome rather than distributing and hoping.
6	Foreign assets or foreign domicile	3 to 12 months	An overseas property, bank account or pension usually needs a parallel process in that country, often with sworn translations and a local lawyer. Timescales are set by the other jurisdiction, not by anything you can influence from here.
7	Missing or untraceable beneficiaries	2 to 12 months	A beneficiary who cannot be found means tracing agents, and often insurance against a later claim before the rest of the estate can be distributed safely.
8	The estate is contested	12 months to several years	A challenge to the will's validity, or a 1975 Act claim by someone who says reasonable provision was not made for them, effectively suspends distribution. A caveat entered at the registry stops the grant being issued at all.

The inheritance tax circularity

Where inheritance tax is due, it generally has to be paid before the grant is issued. But the assets that would pay it are usually frozen until the grant exists. Executors discover this at exactly the wrong moment, and some end up borrowing personally.

There are two established ways out, and both are underused:

The HMRC direct payment scheme. Banks and building societies can release funds from the deceased's accounts directly to HMRC to pay the inheritance tax before the grant is issued. You ask each institution; most have a standard form.
Paying by instalments. Inheritance tax attributable to property can be paid in ten annual instalments, so you only need the first instalment before the grant rather than the entire bill. Interest applies to the outstanding balance.

HMRC needs around 20 working days to process the IHT400 before HMCTS can issue the grant, so build that into your plan rather than discovering it. Our guide to inheritance tax and pensions covers how pension funds interact with the estate.

How to speed probate up - a practical checklist

You cannot make HMCTS work faster. What you can do is avoid being the reason it stops, and run the stages that are in your control in parallel rather than in sequence. Almost all of the available time saving is in those two ideas.

Executor checklist

Nine things that genuinely save months

Order 6-10 certified copies of the death certificate at registration. Every institution wants one and returning a single copy round the country in sequence wastes weeks.
Write to every institution in the same week. Valuation replies take 3-6 weeks each. Sent together they cost you six weeks in total; sent one at a time they cost you six months.
Check the application against the will character by character before submitting. Names, spellings, dates and the estate figures must match the will and the IHT forms exactly. This is the single highest-value hour of work in the whole process - a stop costs 13 weeks on average.
Send the original will unstapled, unmarked and unfolded. Do not remove a staple, add a paperclip or attach anything to it. Marks that suggest a document was once attached generate queries.
Use the HMRC direct payment scheme early if inheritance tax is due, rather than waiting to discover you cannot pay it.
Order extra sealed copies of the grant with the application at £2 each. Afterwards they cost £16 each - eight times as much - plus a wait you do not need.
Market the property before the grant arrives. You cannot complete a sale without the grant, but nothing stops you valuing, listing and finding a buyer meanwhile. This alone commonly saves two to three months.
Apply online rather than on paper where you are eligible. Digital applications accounted for 92% of applications in late 2025 and consistently move faster than paper.
Respond to any HMCTS query the day it arrives. The clock on a stopped application does not restart until you have answered, and the delay is yours, not theirs.

Weigh cost against time too. Our probate cost calculator compares doing it yourself against fixed-fee and percentage-based professional routes - a solicitor will not make HMCTS faster, but a good one makes a stopped application much less likely.

When should you chase HMCTS?

There is a defined point before which chasing achieves nothing except adding to the correspondence queue that slows everyone down, and a point after which you should absolutely pick up the phone.

Quick check

Should you chase the Probate Service yet?

1
Fewer than 16 weeks since you submitted the application

→ Wait. HMCTS asks that you do not contact the Probate Service until 16 weeks have passed. Most applications are issued well inside that, and chasing does not move you up the queue. Use the time to progress valuations, the property and the estate accounts.
2
Fewer than 8 weeks since you replied to a request for information

→ Wait. Where your application was stopped and you have since responded, the guideline is 8 weeks from your reply rather than 16 from the original application. Check you actually answered every point raised - a partial reply does not restart anything.
3
More than 16 weeks, and you have had no contact at all

→ Chase, with your application reference to hand. First check the online portal and your post, including anything that went to a previous address, in case a stop notice was issued and missed. Then contact the Probate Service and ask specifically whether the application has been stopped and what is outstanding.
4
You applied on paper rather than online

→ Allow longer before chasing. Paper applications consistently take longer than digital ones, and in late 2025 they made up under 10% of applications. Keep proof of postage for the original will and the application.
5
A caveat has been entered against the estate

→ Chasing will not help - a caveat prevents a grant being issued at all, for six months at a time, and is a signal that someone intends to challenge. Take legal advice rather than waiting it out.

Contact details for the Probate Service are on GOV.UK. Have the application reference, the deceased's full name and the date of death ready before you call.

The six-month claims window - and why waiting protects you

This is the part of the timeline that beneficiaries find hardest to accept and executors ignore at their peril. The Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 allows certain people to apply to the court on the basis that the will - or the intestacy rules - did not make reasonable financial provision for them. The category is wider than most people assume: spouses and civil partners, former spouses who have not remarried, children of any age, people treated as children of the family, cohabitants of at least two years, and anyone who was being maintained by the deceased.

The window for bringing such a claim is six months from the date the grant is issued. That is why the conventional advice is not to distribute the estate until it has closed - and why a beneficiary who was told "probate takes three months" ends up waiting nearly a year.

Executors are personally liable

If you distribute the estate and a 1975 Act claim then succeeds, the money has gone to the beneficiaries but the liability has not gone anywhere. As executor you may have to make good the shortfall from your own pocket. The same principle applies to creditors who emerge after distribution, and to a DWP benefit overpayment that surfaces once the accounts are closed.

Two established protections, used together, cover most of the risk:

Statutory advertisements in the London Gazette and a newspaper local to the deceased, giving unknown creditors a two-month notice period to come forward. Typical cost £200-£300. Once that period has run and you have distributed, you are protected against creditors you did not know about.
Waiting out the six-month 1975 Act window from the date of the grant before making the final distribution.

A common middle path is an interim distribution once the assets are in and the debts are settled, holding back a reserve large enough to meet any claim that could realistically be made. Beneficiaries get most of their money at around six to eight months, and the executor keeps a buffer until the window closes.

Three real-world timelines

The scenarios below are illustrative composites rather than real cases, built to show how the same process produces five months, fourteen months and two years depending on what the estate contains.

Scenario

Eileen, 71

Executor for her sister's estate - no property, no IHT

Situation: Her sister Bernadette died in January leaving a valid will, a flat she rented, £68,000 across two bank accounts, a small workplace pension and no debts beyond a credit card. Eileen and her brother are the only beneficiaries.

Total elapsed: 5 months. This is close to the realistic floor for an estate that needs a grant at all.

Weeks 1-2. Death registered, eight certified copies of the certificate ordered at once, original will located in Bernadette's filing box.
Weeks 2-6. Eileen writes to both banks, the pension provider and the credit card company in the same week. Replies land between weeks 4 and 6.
Week 7. The estate totals £71,400 - comfortably an excepted estate, so no IHT400 and no HMRC wait. This is where Eileen saves three months against a taxable estate.
Week 8. Applies online, pays the £526 court fee and orders four extra sealed copies at £2 each. She checks every name and date against the will twice before submitting.
Week 14. Grant issued - six weeks, no stop. The banks release funds within a fortnight of receiving a sealed copy.
Month 5. Debts settled, accounts prepared. Eileen and her brother agree to distribute at five months rather than waiting out the full window: they are the only possible claimants, and the risk of a 1975 Act claim is effectively nil. That is a judgement they make consciously, having understood the exposure.

Scenario

Marcus, 54

Executor for his father's estate - house to sell, inheritance tax due

Situation: His father Roy died in March leaving a house in Leicester worth £340,000, £120,000 in savings and investments, a share portfolio, and £14,000 of gifts made to grandchildren within the previous seven years. Three beneficiaries.

Total elapsed: 14 months. Nothing went badly wrong here. This is what a normal taxable estate with a property looks like.

Months 1-2. Valuations requested. The share portfolio and the house both need formal valuations, and the estate agent's appraisal is not enough for HMRC.
Month 3. Marcus nearly misses the lifetime gifts entirely - his father had not mentioned them and they only surface in bank statements. Including them correctly avoids an amended account later.
Month 4. IHT400 submitted. Marcus uses the HMRC direct payment scheme so his father's bank pays the tax on the non-property assets directly, and elects to pay the tax attributable to the house in ten annual instalments. Without those two mechanisms he would have had to find the money himself.
Month 5. HMRC processing complete after just over 20 working days. Probate application submitted.
Month 7. Grant issued - nine weeks. Meanwhile the house has been on the market since month 4, which is the decision that saves the most time in the whole administration.
Months 8-12. The first buyer withdraws at month 9 after a survey flags damp. A second sale completes at month 12. This is the single largest block of time and none of it is HMCTS's doing.
Months 13-14. Instalment IHT position settled, estate accounts approved, distribution made - comfortably after the six-month claims window closed at month 13.

Scenario

Priya, 39

Administrator for her mother's estate - no will, a claim, foreign assets

Situation: Her mother Anjali died intestate. The estate includes a flat in Croydon, an apartment in Portugal, and a partner of nine years who was not married to Anjali and is not provided for under the intestacy rules.

Total elapsed: 26 months. Every one of the slowest factors on this page applies at once.

No will. Priya applies for letters of administration rather than a grant of probate, and the intestacy rules decide who inherits. HMCTS figures for late 2025 put letters of administration without a will at around 9 weeks on average - slower than probate grants, though not dramatically.
A 1975 Act claim. Anjali's partner had lived with her for nine years and receives nothing under intestacy. He brings a claim within the six-month window. From that point distribution is effectively suspended until it resolves - by negotiated settlement, at month 22.
Foreign property. The Portuguese apartment requires a parallel process in Portugal, with sworn translations and a local lawyer. It runs to its own timetable and adds roughly nine months, overlapping with the claim rather than following it.
The lesson. A will naming the partner would have removed the claim, the delay and the legal costs. It is worth reading our guides on what probate actually is and what an executor is responsible for before you are the one holding the file.

Does paying more make it faster?

Not directly, and it is worth being clear about that because a good deal of marketing implies otherwise. A solicitor cannot make HMCTS issue a grant sooner, and there is no paid expedited route for an ordinary application. What professional help genuinely buys you is a much lower chance of a stopped application, which on the HMCTS averages is the difference between roughly two weeks and roughly fifteen - and confident handling of the inheritance tax stage, where first-time executors lose the most time.

Against that, percentage-based fees on a large estate are rarely good value, and banks acting as executor tend to be both the most expensive and no faster. The unavoidable court costs are the same whichever route you take: £526 for estates over £5,000, plus £2 per sealed copy ordered with the application. Compare the routes in our probate cost calculator, and see probate costs explained for what each option includes.

Frequently asked questions

How long does probate take?: Three different timelines get called "probate", and conflating them is why the answers online vary so wildly. Getting the grant of probate typically takes 8-16 weeks from the date you apply. Administering the whole estate - valuing assets, paying inheritance tax, selling property, settling debts - typically takes 6-12 months from the date of death. Money actually reaching beneficiaries commonly takes 9-12 months or more, because executors are conventionally advised to wait until the six-month claims window under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 has closed before distributing. A simple estate with no property and no inheritance tax can finish in 4-6 months; an estate with a house to sell and IHT to settle routinely runs past 12 months.
How long does probate take with a will?: Having a valid will usually makes the process faster and more predictable, but it does not change the underlying timetable much. You still apply for a grant of probate, which typically takes 8-16 weeks from application, and you still administer the estate over roughly 6-12 months. What a will does is remove the arguments: it names the executors, so nobody has to establish who has the right to apply, and it sets out who inherits, so the distribution is not governed by the intestacy rules. Where there is no will, the equivalent document is a grant of letters of administration, and HMCTS statistics for October to December 2025 show letters of administration without a will took around 9 weeks on average to issue, against about 5 weeks for probate grants overall.
How long after probate is money released to beneficiaries?: Institutions themselves are usually quick - most banks release funds within 10 to 20 working days of receiving a sealed copy of the grant. The wait that follows is deliberate. Executors are conventionally advised not to distribute until six months after the grant has passed, because that is the window in which someone can bring a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. In practice, beneficiaries of a straightforward estate often receive an interim payment two to three months after the grant, with the balance once the claims window has closed and the estate accounts are approved. Where a property has to be sold, the timing is driven by the sale rather than by the grant.
Why is probate taking so long?: Look first at whether the application has been stopped, because that dwarfs every other cause. HMCTS figures for October to December 2025 show stopped applications took 15 weeks on average to be issued, compared with 2 weeks for applications that ran clean. Stops come from missing or inconsistent details, an unsigned statement of truth, the original will not arriving, or an inheritance tax position HMCTS cannot reconcile with HMRC records. Beyond stops, the usual culprits are IHT clearance, a property sale that will not complete, a DWP benefit overpayment review, foreign assets, or a dispute. If none of those apply and you are past 16 weeks from a clean application, it is reasonable to chase.
How long does it take to get a grant of probate in 2026?: Typically 8-16 weeks from the date of application, and often considerably faster for a clean digital application. HMCTS has substantially reduced waiting times since the 2023-24 backlog peak: Family Court Statistics Quarterly for October to December 2025 records probate grants taking approximately 5 weeks on average to issue, around 2 weeks faster than the same quarter in 2024, with digital applications that were not stopped averaging about 2 weeks from submission to issue. Plan on 8-16 weeks rather than the average, because the average is pulled down by the large majority of applications that go through without a hitch, and you do not know in advance which side of that line you are on.
Can probate be done in 3 months?: Getting the grant within three months is realistic for a straightforward estate. Completing the whole administration in three months is not, in most cases, and would usually be unwise even where it is technically possible. The obstacle is not paperwork but the six-month claims window that runs from the date of the grant. An executor who distributes everything at three months has no protection if a 1975 Act claim arrives at month five, and executors are personally liable for mistakes. Where the estate is small, uncontroversial and going to a single beneficiary who is also the executor, moving faster carries less practical risk - but that is a judgement about your own exposure, not a general rule.
Do I have to wait 6 months before distributing the estate?: There is no rule that forbids distributing earlier, but there is a very good reason to wait. The Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 gives certain people - spouses, former spouses, children, cohabitants and dependants - six months from the date of the grant to bring a claim that reasonable financial provision was not made for them. If you distribute the estate and a valid claim then succeeds, the money has gone but the liability has not, and as executor you may have to make up the shortfall personally. Waiting until the window closes is the conventional protection. Many executors make an interim distribution earlier, holding back a reserve that comfortably covers any foreseeable claim.
How long does probate take if there is a house to sell?: Expect 9-18 months for the full administration. You cannot complete a sale before the grant is issued, so the property timeline starts where the grant timeline ends. Marketing, finding a buyer and completing a chain typically adds three to nine months on top of the 8-16 weeks for the grant, and probate properties often need work, which narrows the pool of buyers who can get a mortgage. You can shorten the overall timeline by getting the property valued and on the market early - marketing before the grant is fine, it is only completion that has to wait - and by ordering extra sealed copies of the grant with the application at £2 each so the conveyancer is not waiting on a copy.
When should I chase HMCTS about my probate application?: HMCTS asks that you do not contact the Probate Service until 16 weeks have passed since you submitted your application, or 8 weeks since you responded to a request for more information or documents. Chasing earlier does not move you up the queue and adds to the correspondence load that slows everyone down. When you do chase, have your application reference to hand, and check first whether you have had a "stop" notice you may have missed - stops are often communicated by post or through the online portal rather than by phone. If you applied on paper, allow longer before chasing, as paper applications consistently take longer than digital ones.
Does inheritance tax delay probate?: Yes, and it is one of the most reliable sources of delay. Where inheritance tax is due, it generally has to be paid before the grant is issued, and HMRC needs around 20 working days to process form IHT400 before HMCTS can move forward. That creates the circularity every first-time executor runs into: you need the estate's money to pay the tax, but you need the grant to get at the money. Two mechanisms help. The HMRC direct payment scheme lets banks and building societies release funds directly to HMRC to pay the tax before the grant is issued. And IHT attributable to property can be paid in ten annual instalments, so you only need the first instalment up front rather than the whole bill.
How much does the probate application itself cost?: The court fee is £526 for estates over £5,000, with no fee at £5,000 or less. That fee rose from £300 on 13 July 2026, so a good many pages still quote the old figure. Extra sealed copies of the grant cost £2 each if you order them with the application, but £16 each afterwards - order generously up front, because you will need one for each bank, registrar and conveyancer, and requesting them later costs eight times as much and adds a wait. Statutory advertisements in the London Gazette and a local newspaper, which protect you against unknown creditors, typically cost £200-£300. See our probate cost calculator for the full picture including professional fees.

This is general information, not legal advice

Every estate is different, and the timings on this page are typical ranges rather than promises - a single unresponsive institution, an unexpected asset or a contested will can move any of them by months. The figures reflect the position in England and Wales as at July 2026; Scotland and Northern Ireland operate separate systems with different procedures and timescales. Court fees and HMRC processing times change.

Executors are personally liable for mistakes, including distributing an estate too early. If the estate involves inheritance tax, a business, foreign assets, a possible claim against the estate, or beneficiaries who are minors, take advice from a solicitor or a member of STEP before you act rather than after. Nothing here is a substitute for that. See our disclaimer for more.

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