The government has been accused of viewing the latest data on probate waiting times through ‘rose-tinted spectacles’, after the Ministry of Justice hailed progress in cutting delays.
Last week the Ministry of Justice credited 'decisive government action' for slashing average waiting times at the end of December 2024 to four weeks, compared to 12 weeks a year earlier and eight weeks at the half-year. The figures, from HM Courts & Tribunals Service, relate to digital applications.
However Suzanne Mynors, a private client partner at Russell-Cooke, said the statistics ‘somewhat smack of rose-tinted spectacles’ as there are cases remaining that have been outstanding for over a year.
According to the data, there were 2,171 cases over a year old and 1,062 cases over two years old in December 2024.
Mynors said: ‘It is the complex applications which must still be made on paper and sent in hard copy to the Probate Registry in Newcastle to be processed. They take double, if not triple, the length of time to be issued, in comparison with the digital applications. By their very nature, the complex cases are often more heartbreaking as the deceased may have died suddenly, often without a will, or perhaps there is already turmoil in the family which is compounded by grief, or there are cross-border elements, which require a paper application to be made.’
Delay also has tax implications, Mynors noted. ‘Without a grant, access to funds for inheritance tax can be very difficult. The current interest rate on unpaid inheritance tax is 7% but going up to as much as 9% from April. Interest starts to accrue from the end of the month, six months after the date of death. This can result in a huge interest sum being payable in addition to outstanding tax.’
Even though waiting times for grants of probate have dropped to four weeks for digital applications, Russell-Cooke partner Kieran Bowe said there is an additional four-week wait for an inheritance tax code. ‘These timescales represent approximately one-third of the interest-free period applied to estates,’ Bowe said.
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