Like the rest of the incoming government in the wake of Labour’s general election victory, new Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Shabana Mahmood, will have found an unenviably stacked in-tray awaiting her in Whitehall.
One of the tasks on her to-do list will no doubt be to fix ongoing problems with probate applications and grants. Growing concerns over severe delays in probate administration led to the Parliamentary Justice Committee opening an enquiry in November 2023.
Probate is the legal process by which the courts approve a deceased person’s will before their wishes can be carried out. It requires whoever is named as executor in a will to make an application for a grant of probate, which is these days done via the GOV UK website.
Probate is required before beneficiaries named in a will can access assets left to them, or before next of kin can claim assets where there is no will. Although not required in all cases, probate is usually necessary when property forms part of the deceased’s estate and there is no surviving joint owner.
Guidelines state that probate applications should usually be settled in anything between one to three months, depending on the complexity of the estate involved. But over the past two years and more, there have been widespread reports of applications taking up to a year to settle, causing distress and frustration among relatives, as well as practical challenges such as cancelled property sales and intended beneficiaries facing financial hardship.
No quick fixes
Reasons cited for the delays range from the more widespread backlogs experienced by the HM Courts & Tribunals Service in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, to under-resourcing of the Probate Registries, the local offices that ultimately process applications and issue grants of probate.
In response to a request for evidence from the Justice Committee, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) carried out a survey of its members to document their experiences. The most common reason practitioners gave for why they have seen probate applications delayed was clerical errors at probate registries (68%), followed by a shortage of senior staff to review applications (61%). 94% of respondents wanted to see the government appoint more registrars.
There are unlikely to be quick fixes to these issues, no matter how high up the priority list they are for the new Justice Minister. And in the meantime, people still need questions of estates and inheritance settled.
So what can you do in practical terms to minimise delays?
Mitigate delays with professional help
While the government promotes its online probate application service as a cost-free alternative to hiring a solicitor to handle matters for you, in the current climate it would seem prudent to let an experienced professional who knows the ins and outs of the system take control. And especially so if you are seeking probate for a large and/or complex estate.
One thing to consider if this is the case is whether you might be best served by hiring a firm of chartered accountants that is licensed to provide probate services. The accountancy trade body ICAEW has been approved as a regulator of probate services since 2014, allowing its members to deal with probate applications directly as well as deal with the financial side of estate settlements.
The benefit of hiring accountancy specialists if you are applying for probate on a large estate is that they will be able to get estate accounts in order first. The better prepared the records are when submitted to the probate registries, the better the chance you have of your application progressing with minimal delays.
Contact the Jones Harris team today to find out more.