Roughly a year, and the court is the quick part
For a straightforward estate in England and Wales, expect around 9 to 12 months from the date of death to the final payment reaching beneficiaries, and around £550 to £900 in outlays if the executor does the work personally. Those two numbers behave very differently. The cost is largely fixed and knowable in week one, because the court application fee is a flat £526 for any estate over £5,000 per GOV.UK's probate fees guidance, whether the estate is £60,000 or £6 million. The timetable is not knowable in week one, and almost none of it is spent waiting for the probate registry.
That last point surprises people. In the Ministry of Justice's Family Court Statistics Quarterly for January to March 2026, the most recent published quarter, a grant of probate took a mean of 5 weeks from submission to issue, with a median of one week, and GOV.UK tells applicants to expect the grant "within 12 weeks of submitting your application". So if an estate takes a year, roughly eleven months of that happened somewhere other than the court. This page is general information rather than legal or financial advice, and it covers England and Wales.
The money side is covered in detail elsewhere: the complete fee schedule sits in how much do probate court fees cost, and the full line by line receipt in how much does DIY probate cost. This page is about the clock, and about the places where the clock quietly starts charging you.
Stage by stage, with the price attached
Here is a realistic timetable for an estate that needs a grant, with the spend that lands at each stage. Durations overlap in practice, which is the single most useful thing to know about them.
| Stage | Typical duration | What it costs here |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Register the death, secure the estate | 1 to 4 weeks | Extra death certificates, a few pounds each |
| 2. Gather information and value the estate | 1 to 3 months | £0 to £600 or more for professional valuations |
| 3. Inheritance tax account, where a full IHT400 is needed | Adds 1 to 3 months | The tax itself, due by the end of the sixth month |
| 4. Prepare and submit the application | Days, once the papers are ready | £526, plus £2 per sealed copy ordered now |
| 5. Wait for the grant | Mean 5 weeks (Jan to Mar 2026); GOV.UK says usually within 12 | Nothing |
| 6. Collect assets, sell property, settle debts | 3 to 9 months, longer with a sale | Agent, conveyancing, empty property running costs |
| 7. Section 27 creditor notice (run alongside stages 2 to 6) | Minimum 2 months from publication | £96.55 plus VAT in The Gazette |
| 8. Distribute and close | 2 to 6 weeks | £16 for each sealed copy you forgot to order |
For the fuller treatment of the stages themselves, including how the route changes without a will, see how long does probate take. What follows is the part that decides whether your estate lands at nine months or nineteen.
What actually adds the months
- The inheritance tax gate. Where the estate needs a full IHT400, you cannot apply for the grant until HMRC has issued a unique code, and GOV.UK says you will usually get it "within 20 working days of them receiving your IHT400 form or Inheritance Tax payment, whichever is later". Note the last three words. If you send the form promptly but cannot raise the tax for six weeks, the clock starts on the payment.
- A stopped application. This is the biggest swing in the court stage and it is the one an applicant controls. In January to March 2026, stopped probate grants took 13.8 weeks on average to issue, against 1.8 weeks for those that were not stopped. A name that does not match the will, a figure that will not reconcile with the tax forms, or a missing original document is worth three months.
- No will, or an awkward one. In the same quarter, letters of administration where there was no will averaged 10.5 weeks, and letters of administration with a will annexed (used where a will exists but no executor can act) averaged 20.4 weeks, against 5.0 weeks for a straightforward grant of probate.
- A property that has to sell. The grant arrives long before the buyer does. An estate cannot be wound up until its largest asset becomes money, and a chain collapse in month eight resets that part of the timetable completely.
- Beneficiaries who cannot be found, or will not reply. Every beneficiary needs identifying, and most need to supply identification documents and bank details before anything can be paid. One relative abroad who takes three months to answer emails holds up the final distribution for everyone else.
- The two month creditor notice. A section 27 notice must give claimants at least two months to come forward before it is safe to distribute. That is a floor, not a queue position, which is exactly why it should be published early.
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Where waiting turns into money
Court fees are indifferent to time. Almost nothing else is. Once the end of the sixth month after the death passes, HMRC charges interest on unpaid inheritance tax, so slow valuations have a direct price. An empty property carries insurance on a specialist unoccupied policy, council tax once any exemption expires, standing charges and basic upkeep, which together can run to several hundred pounds a month for as long as the sale drags. And where professional help is charged by the hour rather than as a fixed quote, elapsed time and cost move together, which is the strongest practical argument for asking for a fixed fee before instructing anyone.
The reverse also holds, and it is worth saying plainly: spending a little early usually buys time back. A proper probate valuation at £200 to £600 is cheaper than an HMRC challenge to an estate agent's guess a year later, and six sealed copies ordered with the application cost £12 rather than the £96 the same six cost afterwards, while letting you deal with six institutions simultaneously instead of posting one original around the country.
The realistic ways to shorten it
Request date of death valuations in the first fortnight rather than waiting for everything else to settle, because they are the long pole. Apply online, as 82.6% of applicants did in the latest quarter. Reconcile the inheritance tax figures against the probate application before you submit, since avoiding a stop is worth more than any other single action. Publish the section 27 notice early so its two months run alongside the valuations rather than after them. Order more sealed copies than you think you need. And market the property before the grant lands, so that only completion, not the search for a buyer, is waiting on the court.
To see how these choices play out on your own estate, our probate timeline estimator turns four questions about the will, the tax position, the assets and the application method into a stage by stage timetable in about two minutes. The wider process is mapped in our probate guide. If your estate has an IHT400, a business, overseas assets or a beneficiary nobody can reach, those are the situations where the calendar tends to run away from executors, and we can introduce you to a probate specialist who will tell you at the outset which parts are worth handing over and which you can comfortably keep.