Today’s Wills and Probate caught up with the Probate Office to get an update on the mandatory roll out of online applications since the beginning of November.
Last month we gave an insight into the probate office a couple of weeks before it was officially made mandatory for probate professionals to submit probate forms online.
This week, Stephen Burgess at HMCTS told Today’s Wills and Probate that the mandatory submission of probate forms online had been a success, from the point of view of digital applications which had increased as expected.
HMCTS confirmed an extension to the grace period in the last few days saying “There was an initial grace period until 30 November 2020 when paper applications will still be accepted to give professional users time to prepare, this has since been extended to 11 January 2021 for to allow firms to resolve any outstanding issues with their application for a HMCTS Fee Account and/or to register for MyHMCTS and set up users within their firm. After 11 January 2021 all applications except the confirmed exceptions must be submitted using the online service. Users who have or can register are urged to continue to use the online service in the intervening period.”
Stephen confirmed the Probate Office have seen a large number of organisations register and start to use the online probate service, with more than double the amount of users on the system now in comparison to when the mandation was announced and double the number of digital applications being received. However, with the end of the grace period imminent, it has become apparent that a small number of users require more time to allow firms to resolve any outstanding issues with their application for a HMCTS Fee Account and/or to register for MyHMCTS and set up users within their firm. Those have or can register are urged to continue to use the online service for all of the application types available.
The Probate office will continue to accept paper firms up to 11th January 2021, but the proportion of work and frequency of paper applications is significantly less.
Stephen told Today’s Wills and Probate that Probate practitioners can submit paper applications that are exempt from using MyHMCTS, these are what as known as’confirmed exceptions’.
MyHMCTS cannot accept probate grant applications in all cases. In these cases, you must apply using the paper form:
- for a second grant for the same estate
- where the person entitled has been convicted of murder or manslaughter of the deceased or has otherwise forfeited the right to apply
- in respect of a foreign will
- accompanied by an application to prove a copy of the will
- where all those entitled are deceased, to any of their legal personal representatives
- accompanied by an application for rectification or fiat copy of the will for joinder of administrator, under rule 25
- two or more persons are entitled in the same degree, under rule 27 (3) to (8)
- where the deceased died domiciled outside England and Wales, under rule 30, except a grant under rule 30 (3)(b)
- to attorneys, under rule 31
- to trust corporations and other corporate bodies, under rule 36
- related to resealing under Colonial Probates Acts 1892 and 1927, under rule 39
- for administration under discretionary powers of court section 116, under rule 52
If none of these conditions apply, then you must use MyHMCTS.
Practitioners can continue to make applications for grants of letters of administration and letters of administration with will annexed either via the online process or the traditional method of applying via paper. Detailed criteria and when you should apply using paper applications for Letters of administration and Letters of administration with will annexed can be found here.
Legal professionals who deal with probate can help streamline applications for the future by setting up a MyHMCTS account and continue to follow the ‘5 Steps to a successful Probate application‘, which is aimed at professional users and providing them with guidance to help prevent applications being stopped.
And finally, when communicating with the Probate office going forward, practitioners should utilise the benefits of the online system, where professionals can track and find out updates on their cases without having to contact the CTSC.
The Probate office ask that you use these features but also do not call them to check on progress within 6 weeks of them receiving the will from you.
There is a published FAQ for practitioners about the new paper forms and digital applications. This has many ways to contact HMCTS depending on what the query is or feedback the service is about.
Today’s Wills and Probate will update you before Christmas on further progress made on the mandatory roll out of online probate applications.
One Response
What planet is he on? There is nothing that has been a success about moving the probate process to a digital platform at this point in time which is why the we had an initial grace period that has again been extended and users are reporting numerous issues that should have been resolved before the system was even launched.
A digital system that still requires the IHT205 and Will (and sometimes other documents) to be submitted physically is not a digital platform at all!
Grants used to be issued in 2 weeks when using the old paper system. Now you’re not even supposed to chase for six weeks. Can someone explain to me how this is progress?