Although the recent data from the previous month revealed a generous improvement, the waiting time for probate applications has slightly gone up in the number of weeks from submission to grant issue for all probate applications – increasing from 13.6 to 13.8, according to HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS).
For the 27,392 grants of probate issued in January, the average timeline from submission to grant was 13.8 weeks – showing an increase from December which was 13.6, according to the data.
Although the waiting time has gone up slightly, this is still the shortest waiting time since July last year, which was 13.9 weeks. After this time, the waiting time seemed to keep going up – resulting in a new waiting time record of 15.8 weeks which sparked concerns within the industry.
Of the 27,392 total number of grants issued, 23,076 were digital. For non-stopped applications, the average wait was 9.2 weeks, which shows this has stayed the same from the previous month of December. This is the shortest wait since July 2023.
For stopped digital applications, delays sat 19.4 weeks in January – a slight decrease from the previous month (19.9 weeks). This 19.4 week wait also shows the shortest wait for stopped digital applications since June of last year.
What’s more, the remaining 4,583 probate grants in January were issued via paper. The average wait between submission and grant for a paper application was 22.3 weeks, up from 20.7 in December. For stopped applications, the 27.9 week wait in January is up from the 27.6 weeks in the previous month.
