Farra is a death administration assistant for UK families. Get step-by-step guidance for registering a death, applying for probate, notifying banks, and managing bereavement admin. From essential documents to practical checklists, Farra simplifies estate paperwork and funeral-related tasks so you can focus on what matters.
This guide has not been checked against its sources
We re-checked our most-read guides against GOV.UK and the other official sources in September 2026. This one was not among them, so nobody has confirmed its figures, deadlines or process steps since it was written. Treat it as a starting point and confirm anything that matters on GOV.UK before you act on it.
GOV.UK's own guidance is that you will usually get probate within 12 weeks of submitting your application. The published statistics are faster than that: in January to March 2026 the mean time from submission to grant was 5 weeks and the median 1 week, and digital applications that were not stopped took around 2 weeks on average. Applications that are stopped for missing documents or errors took 14 weeks on average, so the best thing you can do is get the application right first time and respond quickly to any queries. These figures cover England and Wales only — Scotland uses confirmation and Northern Ireland has its own probate office, each with separate timescales.
Current probate waiting times (Q4 2025)
~5 weeks
National average
~2 weeks
Digital — no queries
~15 weeks
Digital — queried
→ Stable vs Q3 2025 — down from a peak of ~16 weeks in late 2023
Source: MoJ Family Court Statistics Quarterly, March 2026
Where are you in the process?
Jump to the section that matches your situation.
How long does probate take right now? GOV.UK's guidance is that you will usually get probate within 12 weeks of submitting your application. The published statistics are faster: in January to March 2026 the mean time from submission to grant was 5 weeks and the median 1 week, and digital applications that were not stopped took around 2 weeks. These figures are the time to grant only, and they cover England and Wales.
| Application Type | Mean wait, Jan–Mar 2026 | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Digital — not stopped | ~2 weeks | The great majority of grants; less than a week from document receipt to grant |
| All probate grants | 5 weeks (median 1 week) | 93% of applications were made digitally |
| Stopped applications | 14 weeks | Against 2 weeks for applications that were not stopped |
| Letters of administration | 20 weeks (with a will) / 11 weeks (without) | A different grant from probate — see below |
Source: Family Court Statistics Quarterly: January to March 2026, Ministry of Justice, published 25 June 2026 — the most recent release at the time of checking. Figures are mean averages unless stated, and cover the family courts of England and Wales. They measure the period from submitting the application to the grant being issued. The Ministry of Justice does not publish a separate average for paper applications, so this page does not state one.
The honest answer: much better than it was. The Ministry of Justice reported in February 2025 that average waits had fallen from twelve weeks at the end of 2023 to just over four weeks by December 2024, after a government push to clear the backlog. The mean has since settled at around 5 weeks, and the median at 1 week. 93% of applications are now made digitally. If you submit a complete online application that is not stopped, around 2 weeks is what the statistics show, and GOV.UK's published expectation is a grant within 12 weeks.
The exception is applications that get “stopped” — put on hold because something is missing or does not match. Stops add months, which is why the sections below focus on avoiding them.
The figures above show grant processing time — how long HMCTS takes to issue the grant of probate after you submit your application. But this is just one part of the complete probate process. For a full overview of every stage from death to distribution, see our complete guide to probate in the UK.
This is the stage tracked in our update table above — see the UK Bereavement Statistics hub for current fees and processing times across all bereavement admin.
Why the complete process takes longer: Even after receiving the grant of probate, executors must collect assets, sell property, pay debts, and distribute inheritances. Where a property has to be sold, the estate cannot be finished until the conveyancing is. Nobody publishes an average for this stage, and it varies far too much between estates for a single figure to mean much.
An application is “stopped” when HMCTS puts it on hold because something is missing, wrong, or does not match. Stops add months to the wait, and they remain the single biggest reason some families wait far longer than the 2-week average for an application that goes through cleanly. Common causes:
93% of applications are now made digitally. The Ministry of Justice does not publish a separate average waiting time for paper applications in its quarterly statistics, so no reliable current figure exists for them. The last official figure was in a February 2025 HMCTS announcement, which put paper applications at under 15 weeks, down from just over 22 weeks. If you are able to apply online — most personal applicants can — that is the route the published timeliness figures describe.
Estates that owe, or might owe, inheritance tax take longer:
More estates need IHT forms each year as frozen thresholds catch more families — UK IHT receipts reached £8.5bn in 2025/26.
Whilst you can't control registry processing times, these steps ensure your application doesn't get delayed:
Saves: months — stopped applications are the biggest cause of long waits
If the registry contacts you with questions:
Saves: weeks — a stopped application only restarts once you respond
Saves: Prevents application rejection and restarting the process
Online applications via GOV.UK are processed far faster than paper applications:
Saves: weeks — though the exact gap is not published
For estates that need a full IHT400 inheritance tax account, HMRC must process it before your probate application can go ahead:
Saves: weeks of avoidable stops on IHT400 estates
What NOT to do:
Less than they used to. 93% of probate applications are now made online, and online applications go into a central national queue rather than to your local registry — so within England and Wales, where the deceased lived makes little difference to how long the grant takes. Between the three UK legal systems it makes a great deal of difference.
For the full breakdown of the UK probate registries — what they do, their jurisdictions, and how to find out which one has your case — see our guide to UK probate registries.
You can't access most assets until you receive the grant of probate, but there are important tasks you can progress during the wait for the grant. Understanding what you can and can't do is covered in detail in our full UK probate process guide:
Beneficiaries often underestimate how long probate takes. Be upfront from the start, and be honest that you cannot promise a date: the grant usually arrives within 12 weeks, but the property still has to be sold, debts paid and accounts finalised, and no official figure exists for how long that takes. Regular updates (a monthly email) prevent repeated queries and relationship strain.
Yes. This is one of the questions executors ask most, and the answer is more flexible than many people expect. You can put the property on the market, hold viewings, and even accept an offer before the grant of probate arrives. What you cannot do is exchange contracts or complete the sale — the buyer's solicitor will need to see the grant before the sale can legally go through.
In practice, many executors start marketing while the probate application is being processed, so the conveyancing and the grant arrive at roughly the same time. Just make sure the estate agent and any buyer know it is a probate sale, so expectations about timing are honest from the start. For the full picture — including capital gains tax, valuations, and empty-property insurance — see our guide to selling an inherited house.
Current waiting times are the best they have been since the series began, and the open probate caseload has fallen sharply — from over 69,000 at the end of March 2024 to around 35,500 at the end of March 2025, according to HMCTS. This is genuinely good news for families applying now.
However, two factors could push waiting times up again in the coming years:
From April 2027, unused pension funds will count as part of the taxable estate for inheritance tax. This means executors will need to coordinate with pension providers — obtaining fund valuations, including pensions in the IHT400, and working with HMRC to calculate the tax before pensions can be fully released.
Professional bodies have warned that this new coordination requirement, involving pension providers, executors, and HMRC in a multi-party process, could significantly increase the time taken to complete estates. The OBR expects tens of thousands more estates to be drawn into IHT.
See our guide on pensions and inheritance tax 2027 for the full picture.
IHT receipts reached £8.5 billion in 2025/26, driven by frozen thresholds and rising asset values. More estates require the complex IHT400 form, and HMRC is opening more compliance investigations. Both factors add time to the probate process for affected estates.
What this means for you now: If you are dealing with an estate that includes a pension, start the process early, notify pension providers as soon as possible, and consider taking professional advice — particularly for estates where the pension is large relative to the rest of the estate.
Most applications are processed within the timeframes shown above, but occasionally delays occur. Here's when and how to chase:
Be patient — HMCTS phone lines are often busy, and the line is only open for four hours a day.
Have these details ready when you contact HMCTS:
Realistically, chasing rarely speeds things up, but it can:
Be polite and understanding — registry staff are processing thousands of applications and working as quickly as they can.
GOV.UK says you will usually get probate within 12 weeks of submitting your application. The published statistics for England and Wales are faster: in January to March 2026 the mean was 5 weeks and the median 1 week, and digital applications that were not stopped took around 2 weeks. No official source publishes how long the whole administration takes from death to distribution.
The mean time from submission to grant was 5 weeks in January to March 2026, the lowest since the series began, with a median of 1 week. The Ministry of Justice reported that average waits had fallen from twelve weeks at the end of 2023 to just over four weeks by December 2024 after a push to clear the backlog. 93% of applications are now made digitally.
The biggest cause of long waits is a “stopped” application, put on hold for missing documents, errors, details that don't match the death certificate, or inheritance tax figures that don't match HMRC's records. Stops add Stopped grants took 14 weeks on average in January to March 2026, against 2 weeks for those that were not stopped. Estates needing a full IHT400 also wait for HMRC to issue the unique code needed to submit the probate application, and estate disputes add time again.
Apply online rather than on paper. Complete the forms correctly first time so the application isn't stopped, because a stopped grant took 14 weeks on average against 2 weeks for one that was not. Respond to any HMCTS queries quickly. Have all documents ready before applying: original will, death certificate, and full estate valuation. If the estate needs an IHT400, send it to HMRC early, because you cannot submit the probate application until HMRC issues you a unique code.
Wait at least 8 weeks for simple estates or 12 weeks for complex estates before chasing HMCTS. Contact them if you've responded to a query and heard nothing for 3 weeks. Call 0300 303 0648 (9am-5pm weekdays) or email contactprobate@justice.gov.uk with your reference number, deceased's details, and application date. Chasing rarely speeds processing but confirms your application hasn't been lost.
Yes. You can market the property, hold viewings, and accept an offer before the grant of probate arrives. However, you cannot exchange contracts or complete the sale until the grant is issued, as the buyer's solicitor will require it. Many executors market the property during the probate wait so the sale and the grant line up.
You can secure the property, continue valuations, notify organisations, prepare accounts, market a property for sale, and communicate with beneficiaries. You cannot close bank accounts, exchange or complete a property sale, sell shares, claim pensions, transfer ownership, or distribute inheritances until you receive the grant. An executor who distributes early is personally liable if a claim or an unpaid debt turns up afterwards.
The figures above are for the grant of probate itself. No official source publishes how long the whole administration takes from death to distribution — it depends entirely on the estate — so the stages below are the order of the work rather than a timetable.
Register the death (within 5 days), arrange the funeral, locate the will and identify the executors, secure the property, and start listing assets.
Get property and investment valuations, request date-of-death balances from banks, and total the debts. See valuing an estate for probate.
Complete the IHT account, pay any inheritance tax due, and submit the PA1P/PA1A application. If a full IHT400 is needed, you cannot submit the probate application until HMRC sends you the unique code it issues on receiving the account. See how to complete the IHT400 form.
The Probate Registry checks the application and issues the grant. Current HMCTS processing times are set out above.
Send the grant to banks and providers to release funds, claim pensions and life insurance, and sell property if needed. See notifying banks after death.
Pay debts and expenses, prepare estate accounts, distribute to beneficiaries, and close the estate. Many executors wait six months after the grant before distributing, because that is the window for claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.
Ready to start? See our step-by-step probate application guide.
Sources