Most answers to this question quote GOV.UK’s 12 weeks. The Ministry of Justice publishes what actually happened, quarterly, and the real picture is both better and worse than that: a median of one week, and around five months if you need the wrong document.
Before the clock starts at all, it is worth checking whether the estate needs probate. Our do I need probate page covers the cases where it is not needed and what the fee is when it is.
What GOV.UK promises, and what the figures show
GOV.UK states you will usually get probate within 12 weeks of submitting your application, and that it can take longer if you need to provide additional information. The published figures for April to June 2026 put the mean at 5 weeks and the median at 1 week, so 12 weeks is an outer estimate rather than a typical wait.
The gap between mean and median is the whole story. A median of one week means half of all grants were issued in a week or less, while a minority of slow cases dragged the average up to five (Family Court Statistics Quarterly, Ministry of Justice, checked 11 October 2026).
For the majority, digital applications that were not stopped, about 71% of all probate grants, the mean was under 2 weeks from submission, and under a week from the point all documents were received (Family Court Tables, Table 23, checked 26 October 2026).
Which document you need decides how long you wait
Three documents exist and they are not equally quick. A grant of probate averaged 5 weeks. Letters of administration averaged 10 weeks. Letters of administration with a will annexed averaged 22 weeks, which is around five months for the same underlying job.
| Document | When it applies | Mean, Apr–Jun 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Grant of probate | The person left a will naming an executor who can act | 5 weeks |
| Letters of administration | The person left no will | 10 weeks |
| Letters of administration with will annexed | There is a will, but it names no executor or the executor cannot apply | 22 weeks |
Source: Family Court Statistics Quarterly, Table 23 (Ministry of Justice, checked 11 October 2026). Which one you need is decided by the will, not by you.
Our guide to letters of administration covers who can apply when there is no will, and the order the law puts them in.
Being stopped is what costs you months
An application is “stopped” when the registry cannot go on without something more — a dispute about who can apply, a problem with the will, or an error that needs further information. It is the single largest thing separating a fast case from a slow one.
Stopped applications took 14 weeks on average in April to June 2026. Applications that were not stopped took 2 weeks (Family Court Statistics Quarterly, checked 11 October 2026).
That is twelve extra weeks. The Ministry of Justice gives examples of why a case is stopped, such as a dispute over who can apply, a problem with the will, or an error needing more information (Family Court Statistics Quarterly, checked 1 November 2026) — so it is worth more care before submitting than after.
There is a minimum wait nobody can shorten
Even a perfect application cannot be granted immediately. Rule 6.2 of the Non-Contentious Probate Rules sets a floor: letters of administration cannot be issued within 14 days of the death, and a grant of probate or letters of administration with a will annexed cannot be issued within 7 days of it.
So the clock has a built-in start that has nothing to do with the backlog or with how quickly you apply (Probate reform evaluation data summary, Ministry of Justice, March 2026, checked 10 September 2026).
The queue is growing, even as the averages hold
The averages have been steady, but the caseload behind them has not. There were 47,003 open probate cases at the end of June 2026, up 19% from 39,357 a year earlier. Of those, 76% had been open for less than six months.
That combination is worth reading carefully. 76% of the open caseload had been open for under six months, and 61% of it is grants of probate, the fastest of the three routes (Family Court Statistics Quarterly, checked 11 October 2026).
There is a caveat in the government’s own evaluation, though. It found that falling average durations were driven by newer, simpler cases being processed quickly, while older cases formed a larger share of what remained open (Probate reform evaluation data summary, Ministry of Justice, March 2026, checked 10 September 2026).
How to check where yours has got to
If you applied online, sign in to the probate service to track it. If you applied by post, GOV.UK says you should receive a letter or email within 12 weeks, and that if nothing arrives you can contact the Courts and Tribunals Service Centre.
The number is 0300 303 0648, open Monday to Friday, 9am to 1pm and closed on bank holidays, with webchat and an email address at contactprobate@justice.gov.uk (GOV.UK, Applying for probate: after you've applied, checked 1 November 2026).
Those are short hours: four a day, five days a week, and the line has closed by lunchtime. Worth putting in the diary rather than remembering at three in the afternoon.
Getting the grant is not the same as finishing probate
The figures on this page measure one thing: how long the registry takes to issue the document after you apply. What you get at the end of it is a document that lets you start dealing with the estate (GOV.UK, Applying for probate: after you've applied, checked 1 November 2026) — the start of the work, not the end of it.
That distinction matters when somebody tells you probate took them a year. Two different things go by the name: the grant, which is what these figures measure, and the administration of the whole estate, of which the grant is one early step.
When these figures change
The Ministry of Justice publishes these figures quarterly, roughly three months after each quarter ends. The April to June 2026 release appeared on 24 September 2026 (Family Court Statistics Quarterly, checked 11 October 2026), and the next, covering July to September 2026, is due around the end of December.
We re-check this page against each release rather than leaving figures to age quietly. The date at the top is the date we last confirmed them, not the date the page was written.