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UK estate figures › Probate waiting times

Probate · current waiting times

4.3 weeksaverage wait on an online application · HMCTS, data to end May 2026

Applications made on paper averaged around 16 weeks over the same period. The gap between those two numbers is mostly one thing: whether the case gets stopped for missing information.

Checked against HMCTS's published update on 2026-08-20
§1What it means

The average is short. The tail is long.

A straightforward online application is now cleared in a matter of weeks, not months. That is a genuine and recent change: the same service was averaging around three months at the end of 2023, and the recovery is real rather than presentational.

But an average conceals the shape of the distribution, and here the shape is the story. On HMCTS's own evaluation data, the longest tenth of cases ran past 208 days at the worst of the backlog, and still took 126 days for cases received in the first quarter of 2025. Half the applicants are through in about a week. Some are still waiting after four months.

Which half you land in is largely decided before you submit. A complete application that is never stopped moves quickly; one that is stopped for a missing document does not — and that single variable does more to your timeline than the size or complexity of the estate.

By channel
Applied onlineaverage wait · data to end May 20264.3 weeks
Applied on paperaverage over the same period~16 weeks
Stopped at least onceof all applications · 32% online, 38% on paper34%
Applications made onlineup from 16% in 201980%
§2The number behind the wait

A third of applications are stopped at least once.

A stop is HMCTS telling you it cannot go on without something from you. It is the single most useful figure on this page, because it is the one you can do something about before you file — and it is almost never published alongside the waiting times it explains.

When one happens, it typically happens early — around 20 days after submission — and the case then waits on you, not on the registry.

34%
of all applications
stopped at least once
46%
of unrepresented applicants
against 26% where a professional filed
38%
of paper applications
against 32% of those filed online
a quarter
of all stops
relate to inheritance tax

Source: HMCTS — Probate Reform Evaluation Data Summary, 24 March 2026 ↗ · Table 7 and §4.5.1, covering applications from Q3 2019 to Q2 2025. Read 2026-08-20.

§3The measures, side by side

Five published figures. None of them wrong. All of them different.

The reason no two websites agree on how long this takes is that they are quoting different measures without saying so. Here is each one with what it actually counts, so you can tell which applies to you.

The two figures most often mistaken for each other are the last two. “Usually within 12 weeks” is a service expectation, not a statistic — it describes what applicants are told to plan for, and it has not moved as performance improved. The measured figures moved a great deal.

§4Common questions

Waiting times, answered.

Applications made online averaged 4.3 weeks on the most recent HMCTS figures, covering data to end May 2026. Applications made on paper averaged around 16 weeks.

Those are averages across every case, and the spread behind them is wide. The single biggest determinant is not the size of the estate but whether the application is stopped for missing information.
Two things compound. Paper cases cannot be worked on until every original supporting document has arrived by post, so the clock includes time HMCTS spends waiting rather than processing.

They are also a self-selecting group: cases that cannot be filed online are often the atypical ones — a lost or damaged will, a foreign domicile, an unusual appointment — which need a smaller pool of specialist staff. The stop rate on paper is higher too, at 38% against 32% for digital.
A stop means HMCTS cannot progress the case until you supply something — most often a document, a clarification, or a corrected figure.

It is not a rejection and it does not put you at the back of a queue, but it does move the case out of the fast path. On the most recent quarterly statistics, stopped cases took 14 weeks on average against 2 weeks for cases that were never stopped.
34% of applications are stopped at least once, on HMCTS's own evaluation data covering Q3 2019 to Q2 2025.

Representation is the sharpest split in the figures: 46% of applications from unrepresented applicants are stopped, against 26% of those made through a legal professional. Around a quarter of all stops relate to inheritance tax.
Because they measure different things, and almost nobody says which. The GOV.UK guidance figure is an expectation given to applicants, not a measurement. The quarterly justice statistics measure grants actually issued in a period. The HMCTS stakeholder figures split by application channel.

A mean and a median also diverge sharply here: a small number of very long cases drags the average well above the middle case. Any page quoting one number for how long this takes is picking one of at least four measures without telling you which.
Yes. HMCTS asks that you request a case progression update first and allow at least 10 working days for a reply, and 6 weeks after you have supplied information it asked for.

Trade press reported in August 2026 that HMCTS had introduced an escalation route for cases still unresolved after 12 weeks. Check the current guidance on GOV.UK before relying on any particular route, as the service changes these arrangements without much notice.
§5Related next steps

Informational, not advice. These figures are HMCTS's and they move — confirm the current position on GOV.UK before relying on them. Checked 2026-08-20.

Cite this figure: Valoren, “Probate Waiting Times,” https://valoren.uk/figures/probate-wait-times (verified 20 Aug 2026).

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