House sales collapse as year-long delays hit probate applications

House sales are falling though as bereaved families face year-long waits for legal “probate” documents held up in a Civil Service backlog.

Families have been left waiting up to 11 months for a grant of probate – the crucial legal document required to sell the home or assets of a dead person, lawyers have warned.

The average waiting time for a grant has soared, year on year, from nine weeks to 15, according to official statistics. Lawyers said the documents should be turned around within a month of application.

Delays can cause serious financial hardship for families, leaving them unable to access funds to pay urgent bills. Banks will often release funds ahead of probate up to a certain threshold, usually £50,000, however a house cannot be sold until probate is granted.

Long waiting times can also prevent the sale of the deceased's house, increasing the risk of families paying interest on inheritance tax payments.

The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners ( Step) has blamed the delays on inexperienced staff.

The professional body said the loss of senior staff at probate registries had coincided with an increase in errors and contributed to delays for complex cases. It said there had been a rise “in the number of grants issued with spelling mistakes and missing information, such as the name of one of the executors”.

Submitting evidence to a justice committee inquiry, the trade body urged the HM Courts & Tribunals Service ( HMCTS) to outsource complicated cases to experienced law firms in order to reduce the backlog.

Emily Deane, of Step, said: “Practitioners are telling us that house sales are falling through due to probate delays. People are taking out loans to pay for inheritance tax which is due before probate is granted. Immediate action is needed now.”

Inheritance tax must be paid within six months of the date of death. If the executor is reliant on the sale of a house to cover the cost, they may have to pay the bill in instalments with interest. The interest HMRC charges on late payments of tax has risen in line with the Bank Rate to hit 7.75pc.

The justice committee launched an inquiry into probate delays last November.

In response, Step surveyed probate practitioners and found that all had seen house sales cancelled because of the delays. Also, 67pc said applications were stopped because of errors made by the probate registry.

A spokesman for HMCTS said: “We have hired and trained more staff to deliver sustained improvements for applicants, with a record 28,000 grants issued in October and the vast majority of applications being processed in 12 weeks on average.’’