How Long Does Probate Take in the UK? Timelines

There is no single fixed timescale for probate in England and Wales. Straightforward estates are often wound up within around six months to a year; others take considerably longer. This guide sets out the realistic stages, typical waiting times, and the most common causes of delay.

There Is No Single Fixed Timescale

Neither HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) nor gov.uk publishes one official number that applies to every estate, because the true bottleneck is rarely the grant itself. It is how much work sits either side of it: how many assets there are, whether any of them are hard to value, whether Inheritance Tax is due, and whether the application arrives complete or generates queries. A small, simple estate with a straightforward will can be substantially wound up within about six months. An estate with a property to sell, assets abroad, or a dispute can easily run past a year. Treat any figure you see, including the ranges below, as a realistic guide rather than a guarantee.

Typical Probate Timeline

• Registering the death and gathering information: usually days to a few weeks, though tracking down every account, policy, and asset can take longer if the deceased's affairs were not well organised.
• Valuing the estate and reporting it to HMRC: typically several weeks to a few months, longer where property or unusual assets need a formal valuation.
• Paying any Inheritance Tax due: normally required by the end of the sixth month after death, and usually has to be arranged before the grant is issued, so this step can drive the overall pace.
• Submitting the probate application: once the estate has been valued and any Inheritance Tax position sorted out.
• Waiting for the grant: HMCTS commonly issues the grant of probate, or letters of administration where there is no will, within about 12 weeks of a complete application, and often within 4 to 6 weeks for a straightforward online application. Applications with queries, "stops", or missing information take longer, sometimes beyond 13 weeks, and paper applications typically take longer than online ones.
• Collecting in assets, paying debts, and distributing the estate: typically several more months after the grant, covering closing accounts, cashing in investments, settling debts and expenses, and paying out to beneficiaries.
• Overall: many straightforward estates are fully settled within 6 to 12 months from death; complex estates can take a year or more.

What Causes Delays

• Inheritance Tax. The estate's value usually has to be reported to HMRC, and tax due usually has to start being paid, before the grant is issued, which can hold up the whole process if the estate is hard to value or the tax position is unclear.
• A property to sell. Marketing and completing a sale, rather than simply transferring a property to a beneficiary, adds time that is largely outside the executor's control.
• Foreign assets. Overseas bank accounts, property, or investments often need separate valuation, translation, or a foreign grant recognised alongside the UK one.
• A claim against the estate, for example a challenge under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, or a dispute over the will's validity.
• Missing information or incomplete forms. Gaps in the application, or documents the Probate Registry cannot verify, generate "stops" and queries that pause processing until they are resolved.
• Disagreement between executors or beneficiaries, which can slow decisions even where there is no formal dispute.

The "Executor's Year"

There is no statutory deadline forcing an executor to finish the administration by a set date, but there is a long-standing convention, sometimes called the "executor's year", that beneficiaries should not generally expect to receive their inheritance before around 12 months from the date of death. It exists because a competent executor usually needs that long to identify and collect in assets, settle Inheritance Tax and other debts, deal with any claims, and only then distribute what remains with confidence that nothing has been missed. It is not a legal cut-off and plenty of simple estates finish sooner, but it sets a realistic expectation for beneficiaries and some protection for an executor who is working through a more complicated estate carefully rather than quickly.

Scotland and Northern Ireland: Different Timescales

England and Wales' probate process, and the timescales above, do not apply anywhere else in the UK. Scotland does not use probate at all: an executor applies to the Sheriff Court for Confirmation, and while the same broad drivers apply, gathering information, valuing the estate, dealing with tax, then ingathering and distributing, the court process and typical timescales differ, and a simplified route exists for small estates currently valued at £36,000 or under. See our guide to Confirmation in Scotland for how that system works and how long it typically takes. Northern Ireland uses the same grant of probate and letters of administration terminology as England and Wales, but the application goes through the Probate Office of the High Court rather than HMCTS, with its own processing times.

For the full application process and fees in England and Wales, see our guide to probate: the process. For what an executor is responsible for while all this is happening, see our guide to executor duties. If Inheritance Tax is part of what is holding up your application, see our guide to Inheritance Tax for rates, thresholds, and exemptions. For the wider picture, see our UK wills and probate hub, part of our broader guide to United Kingdom law.

This article is general information about probate timescales in England and Wales, not legal, tax, or financial advice, and the ranges given are typical rather than guaranteed. Probate is a reserved legal activity under the Legal Services Act 2007; while anyone can apply for probate themselves as an executor or administrator, only solicitors and other authorised, regulated individuals or firms may carry out probate work for reward on someone else's behalf. RecordingLaw.com does not prepare probate applications or conduct probate; for a specific estate, use the official gov.uk probate service or consult a qualified solicitor or licensed probate practitioner.