What This Guide Covers
Online probate applications are now averaging around 4.3 weeks, while paper applications are taking roughly 16 weeks — nearly four times as long. If you are an executor waiting on a Grant of Probate before you can sell a property, the format you applied in makes a real difference to how long you will be waiting.
The 2026 Numbers: 4.3 Weeks Online vs 16 Weeks on Paper
HMCTS’s own reporting to accountancy and legal bodies shows a clear divide. A clean digital application with no stops is now tracking towards 5–6 weeks in the best cases, with the average online figure sitting at 4.3 weeks. Paper applications, by contrast, are averaging around 16 weeks — and that is before accounting for any additional back-and-forth if HMRC’s figures do not match what is on the form.
This is a genuine improvement on where things stood a few years ago, when average waits across the board reached around 12 weeks regardless of format. But the improvement has been almost entirely on the digital side. Caseloads also move with the calendar: HMCTS has acknowledged that volumes rise sharply between January and April each year, before easing over the summer months.
Why So Many Executors Still End Up on Paper
Nobody chooses the 16-week route on purpose. Executors end up filing on paper for reasons that feel unavoidable at the time: a solicitor’s practice that has not moved to the digital portal, an estate with a paper will that needs to be submitted alongside supporting documents, or simply not knowing the online option exists for most straightforward estates.
Where you have a choice, the online application is almost always the faster path, provided the figures on it match exactly what has already been declared to HMRC for Inheritance Tax purposes. A mismatch between the two is one of the most common reasons any application — paper or digital — gets stopped and sent to the back of the queue.
What This Means If You Need to Sell the Property
For most executors we speak to, the waiting time for probate is not an abstract inconvenience — it is a direct block on selling. You typically cannot exchange contracts on a probate property until the Grant of Probate has been issued, which means every week added to the application is a week the property sits empty, uninsured against the risks that come with vacancy, and accruing council tax once any exemption period ends.
That pressure compounds if the estate needs the sale proceeds to pay Inheritance Tax in the first place, or if beneficiaries are relying on their share to move forward with their own plans. A four-month wait on paper, against a five-week wait online, can be the difference between a manageable process and a genuinely stressful one.
Practical Steps If You’re an Executor Right Now
If you have not yet submitted the application, check whether the online route is available for your estate — most straightforward cases now qualify. Before submitting, cross-check every figure against what has already gone to HMRC on the Inheritance Tax return; a mismatch is the single most common cause of a stop, regardless of format.
If you are already partway through a paper application and the estate includes a property that needs to be sold, it is worth starting the sale preparation in parallel rather than waiting for the grant to land before you do anything. A cash buyer can agree a price, get a survey done, and have contracts ready to exchange the moment probate comes through.
We buy probate properties directly, in any condition, and we are used to working around probate timelines rather than adding to them. If you would like a free cash offer or a no-obligation chat with a probate solicitor about where your application stands, we are here seven days a week.