Unfortunately, we are experiencing long delays in getting grants of probate.

We understand that there are logistical difficulties for the Probate Offices with staff working from home, on top of a backlog of cases from when the probate office was digitising its service.

Just before the lockdown, the probate application process was changed. Previously all applications were made by paper. There was a change over the period, at the end of which all applications had to be made online. Inevitably with this new online system, came problems to iron out, and there were various administration errors and communication issues.

During the transition period, paper applications were allowed, and several solicitors continued to make them, particularly where our clients had already signed the paper-based version of the application, or we would have had to ask them to sign a new set of documents.

Unfortunately, the probate offices have had serious challenges dealing with the paper versions received in the cross over the period, which happened to coincide with lockdown, and some applications have even been lost.

In a recent article by Kate Palmer in the Times, she explains vividly, how this can cause a lot of distress for executors of estates and beneficiaries, particularly where a property sale is at stake.

Rest assured that we at Purely Probate are dealing with probate applications and we will take the strain of ringing (and ringing again) the probate office, and will not let up until we get that Grant.