How long does probate take in the UK?

The measured wait, a 5.0 week mean and a 1.3 week median

The Probate Service measures itself every quarter, and it publishes two averages that point in different directions. Across the 62,261 probate grants issued in England and Wales in January to March 2026, the mean time from application submission to grant issue was 5.0 weeks. The median was 1.3 weeks.

Both are real. The median is the ordinary case, a clean digital application back in a little over a week. The mean is dragged up by a minority of files that sit for months.

The service is also faster than it has been. Annual means peaked at 13.0 weeks in 2023, then fell to 8.6 in 2024 and 5.1 in 2025. gov.uk commits only to 12 weeks from submission, and says it can take longer where further information is needed.

The three grants, and why letters of administration take longer

Three different documents come out of the same registry, and the statistics keep them apart. A grant of probate goes to an executor named in a will. Letters of administration go to a relative where there is no will, who carries the same duties as an executor under a different title. Letters of administration with will annexed cover a will that names no executor able to apply.

Grant issued, January to March 2026	Number	Mean	Median
Grant of probate, there is a will	62,261	5.0 weeks	1.3 weeks
Letters of administration, no will	11,559	10.5 weeks	11.0 weeks
Letters of administration with will annexed	2,610	20.4 weeks	17.0 weeks
All grants of representation	76,430	6.4 weeks	1.3 weeks

An intestate estate takes roughly twice as long at the registry as an estate with a will, and the medians say that is the ordinary case, not a handful of outliers.

Stopped applications, the 16,469 that pulled the mean up

A case is stopped when the registry cannot proceed on what it has, which the Ministry of Justice defines as a dispute about who can apply or about a will, or an error identified and further information requested. Of the 62,261 probate grants issued in the quarter, 16,469 came from applications that had been stopped, and those took a mean of 13.8 weeks against 1.8 weeks for the 45,792 that were not.

A caveat is the formal version of a stop. Under rule 44 of the Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987 it runs for six months from entry, an extension has to be lodged in the last month of that period, and the registrar will not seal a grant while an effective caveat is known.

The tail shows in the open caseload. There were 42,490 probate cases open at the end of March 2026, up 19% on 35,740 a year earlier. 32,949 of them, 78%, had been open under six months, 5,715 for six to twelve months, 2,458 for one to two years and 1,368 for two years or more.

Digital against paper, 1.7 weeks against 25.9 weeks

Route and stop split the same 62,261 grants two ways.

Probate application, January to March 2026	Number	Mean	Median
Digital	58,434	4.3 weeks	1.3 weeks
Paper	3,827	15.3 weeks	5.0 weeks
Not stopped	45,792	1.8 weeks	1.1 weeks
Stopped	16,469	13.8 weeks	7.3 weeks

The combinations stretch it further. A digital application that was not stopped averaged 1.7 weeks. A paper application that was stopped averaged 25.9 weeks, with a median of 16.9.

93% of probate applications and 94% of grants issued were digital. Citizens Advice puts the online route at up to 4 weeks and a paper application at usually within 15 weeks.

Before the application, the IHT400 and the HMRC code

An excepted estate can be applied for straight away. On any other estate the full details go to HMRC first, and where tax is due payments have to start, before HMRC sends the unique code the application needs.

The account, form IHT400, must report the estate value within 12 months of the death and go in before the probate application. HMRC issues the code usually within 20 working days of receiving the form or the payment, whichever is later, and an Inheritance Tax reference number has to be obtained at least 3 weeks before any tax is paid. Where nothing is heard 14 weeks after the IHT400 goes in, no further checks will be carried out.

The money deadline runs ahead of the paperwork. Tax falls due at the end of the sixth month after the death, so a January death carries a 31 July payment date, with interest charged after it. Tax on assets that take time to sell can be spread over 10 equal annual instalments. The court fee, £526 where the estate is assessed above £5,000, falls due at submission, on top of what the estate pays a firm to do the work.

The timetable from death to distribution

Each stage is set by a different body, which is why no single number covers the whole of it. Registration comes first, within 5 days in England and Wales of the medical examiner’s office confirming it can go ahead, and gov.uk states that no financial plans should be made and no property put on the market until the grant is in hand.

Stage	Timing	Who sets it
Register the death	5 days in England and Wales, 8 days in Scotland, 5 days in Northern Ireland	Registrar
Get an Inheritance Tax reference number	At least 3 weeks before paying any tax	HMRC
Pay the Inheritance Tax	End of the sixth month after the death	HMRC
Deliver the IHT400 account	Within 12 months of the death, and before applying	HMRC
Wait for the unique code	Usually 20 working days from the form or the payment	HMRC
Grant issued	Mean 5.0 weeks, median 1.3 weeks from submission	HM Courts and Tribunals Service
Creditor notice in The Gazette	Not less than 2 months before distributing	Trustee Act 1925, section 27
Family provision claim window	6 months from representation being first taken out	Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, section 4
Executor’s year	No duty to distribute inside 12 months of the death	Administration of Estates Act 1925, section 44
Correct the estate values	When values are final or 18 months after the death, whichever is sooner	HMRC
Update the property register	Over half of non-automated updates take 16 weeks	HM Land Registry

After the grant, the creditor notice and the Land Registry queue

The grant is permission to gather in the estate, not the end of it. Section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925 lets a personal representative advertise in The Gazette and a local newspaper for claims over a period of not less than two months, and assets must not be distributed until those 2 months are up, on pain of personal liability for a debt that surfaces afterwards.

Two statutory clocks run alongside it. Section 44 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925 says a personal representative is not bound to distribute inside a year of the death, the executor’s year. Section 4 of the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 closes the family provision window six months after representation is first taken out, except with the permission of the court.

Then the property. HM Land Registry reports that over half of non-automated applications to update the register take 16 weeks, most complete in about 8 months and some take around 10 months. Legal interests are protected from the moment the application is received, and an application can be expedited where a delay would cause significant issues.

A joint owner’s death is dealt with on form DJP, while a sole owner’s title moves on forms AP1 and AS1 with the grant and form ID1, the same registry queue a transfer of equity joins.

Confirmation in Scotland

Scotland calls it confirmation, the applicant is an executor and the list of assets is an inventory, lodged with the commissary department of the sheriff court, which is the court every executry practice on the Edinburgh list files in. The regulator is the Law Society of Scotland.

The dividing line is £36,000, calculated without deducting debts. Below it the sheriff clerk prepares the inventory by appointment, which removes the bond of caution an intestate estate otherwise needs, though a solicitor-prepared inventory still needs one. Above it the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service is prohibited from assisting, and an intestate estate needs an executor-dative appointed by dative petition first, a court stage with no English equivalent. Court fees run on a bracket from 1 April 2026, nothing up to £50,000, £351 up to £250,000 and £705 above it, where England and Wales has one threshold and one fee.

No Scottish body publishes a processing time, and the Scottish Government’s civil justice statistics are paused, so there is no counterpart to the 5.0 week figure. The rule that does exist runs from a different date. Executors normally wait at least six months from the date of death before distributing, where the English clock starts when representation is taken out, and a surviving cohabitant’s claim on an intestacy must be made within six months beginning with the day the deceased died. A death is registered within 8 days rather than five.

Probate in Northern Ireland

Authority comes from the High Court through the Probate Office, and the regulator is the Law Society of Northern Ireland. A Grant of Probate issues where there is a will and Letters of Administration where there is not, and a grant is almost always needed where the deceased held around £20,000 in any one account, stocks or shares, or property held in their own name or as tenants in common.

The tax route is its own. Form IHT421 goes to HMRC with the IHT400, and HMRC completes and returns it usually within 20 working days of receiving the form or the payment, whichever is later. That returned form, not a code, is what the application needs.

Fees have a different shape as well. From 1 April 2026 there is no fee up to an assessed value of £10,000 and £326.00 above it, plus a personal application fee of £81.00 where no solicitor is acting, so an unrepresented applicant pays £407.00. A caveat costs £123.00 to enter, lasts six months and can be renewed at any time within one month of expiry. Family provision runs under Article 6 of the 1979 Northern Ireland Order, on the same six months from representation being first taken out, and a death is registered within five days.

There is no published waiting time. NICTS Judicial Statistics 2025 records 7,450 grants issued in 2025, up 2% on 7,322, and no timeliness measure for the Probate Office.