Why does Probate take so long?

M

MrEarl

Registered User
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2,765
Hello,

Can someone please explain to me why probate takes so long to complete?

I honestly dont see what the big difficulty is, but I'm clearly missing something.

Thanks.
 
Is the question how long does it take for the probate office or how long does it take an executor to distribute the estate?
 
Or how long does it take to get all the relevant paper work?

Trace the beneficiaries?

Get tax settled with Revenue?

Deal with warring executors?

Sell property (s)?
 
In my experience, delays can occur for a number of reasons
  • The checks a solicitor has to do to ensure all the assets are gathered in. The more chaotic the deceased person's estate is, the longer that can take and there is a dependency on response times from Financial Institutions
  • Probate offices in Dublin don't seem to have enough staff and/or are working in an inefficient manner. Dublin seems significantly bad. Cork less so.
  • Speed and efficiency of your solicitor. I lost 6 weeks the last time I did this because a junior staff member had not forwarded on a mail
  • Logistics, especially if there are more then one executor (just getting people together to sign and witness forms for example)
  • Tax clearance cert, if needed at the end, can take around 6 weeks to get turned around
All of that is "happy path", assume no disputes or rows between executors, no tax issues, all forms filled out correctly etc etc
 
Solicitors working on many cases at the same time, they respond to emails and letters as fast as they can but you are in a queue. So they review something, send you an email or letter with a query, it may take you several days to answer, then you wait until they get around to your answer which may raise another query, rinse and repeat.

Then some people are just bananas. My BIL told us he could not give the executor his pps number (because he was a beneficiary) as he was still grieving the death of his parent and it was too soon to ask. The same guy a few months later was querying the delays as he wanted his money.
 
This October 2022 IT article says solicitor errors and lack of probate staff are contributing to delays. It’s behind a paywall, here’s some of it;

‘’An error rate of up to 60 per cent by solicitors in probate applications and a lack of staff in probate offices are contributing to delays in issuing probate grants, causing anxiety for house buyers and sellers.’’

''An approximate four-month wait for a grant of probate from the Dublin probate office, which deals with half of applications nationally, applies only to error-free applications with a considerably longer waiting time when applications contain errors.''

‘’The current waiting time has “increased dramatically” for reasons including the loss of experienced staff, a problem throughout the public service and affecting probate offices since early this year.’’

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-la...error rate of up,for house buyers and sellers.
 
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