I’m at my wits end with Newcastle and would be grateful for any advice.
I submitted an agreed application for rectification of a Will in June 2025. We had earlier this year some queries via email about the application which were answered immediately. We have called the Probate “Helpline” weekly since September. We were told last week that the helpline can’t help and we need to email to get contact with Newcastle. We have a week later get an email saying it will take four but possibly eight weeks to review our correspondence. We have made a complaint which took months for them to reply to but no resolution of our application. We have made a second complaint with currently, no response.
Other than driving from Devon to Newcastle I don’t know what else I can do to get any kind of update on this matter. Any help or tips would be appreciated.
My other gripe is that I recently submitted a paper application (the one for Probate Practitioners) and they sent the Letters of Administration to my client saying it was personally extracted!
Hi there. HMCTS have recently added an escalation form you can fill in. It did help recently with one of my matters and hopefully it will help with yours. The link to the form is under escalating probate applications.
I submitted a paper application to Newcastle in May 2025. Like you, I got so fed up with chasing the probate registry I submitted a formal complaint, which didn’t resolve the application. Then, out of the blue, the grant was issued at the end of July 2026. If that is the sort of timescale Newcastle are working to, they should be looking at June 2025 applications about now. Good luck!
I am waiting for over thirty Grants, some of them submitted as long ago as 2024. They are all in Irish-domiciled estates. In UK domiciled estates I have been receiving Grants within about three months.
I have been told by several complaints handlers at HMCTS that the ordinary “caseworkers” cannot cope with non-UK domiciled estates, so those applications have to be sent to a specialist team who have a large backlog. While I realise that some non-UK-domiciled estates may present problems, there is nothing particularly difficult about an application in an Irish-domiciled estate. The only additional document that has to be submitted is a sealed and certified copy of the Grant and of the Will (if there is one). Prior to the change to the current shambolic system, I submitted all my applications to the Oxford DPR who issued a Grant within two to three weeks. Irish-domiciled estates never presented a problem to the Oxford DPR, so I cannot understand why those applications need to be sent to a specialist team.
Thanks Rachel. The Complaint’s process is an absolute waste of time. It has no impact on how they process the work. Glad you eventually for your Grant!
I understand that there is the equivalent of two full time registrars in the country who presumably are the only people who can deal with anything “not standard”. Despite the recent increase in the Court fee I don’t think there will be an improvement in service!
From my time working in a firm in Oxford, I think I recall that Mr D’Costa, then an editor of Tristram, was the Registrar at Oxford. We were so lucky, as nothing was ever delayed there, unless the practitioner had made an error. We didn’t know how lucky we were…
Yes indeed, Mr d’Costa was the Registrar at the Oxford DPR for many years. Whenever I had an unusual case I rang him for guidance and he was always very helpful. If he wasn’t available he always returned my call. How things have changed!
I happened to ring Mr d’Costa one day some years ago and he told me that it was his last day there, as he was retiring. I was pleased to have been able to wish him well and to thank him for his great help over the years.
I cannot see how any civil servant or Minister could thought that changing to the current system would bring any benefit.
The really annoying issue about all this is that the Probate Service is showing on its website that Grants are generally issued within twelve weeks. There is no mention there of Grants in non-UK-domiciled estates taking significantly longer.
I am regularly receiving emails or telephone calls from solicitors in Ireland telling me that their personal representative clients have looked at the official website and cannot understand why the application in ”their” estate is taking so long. The personal representatives are blaming me for the delay which is of course completely outside my control.
I have taken to directing clients to the HMCTS’ own statistics (MI) which are published quarterly. HMCTS management information - June 2026 - GOV.UK (tables 5, 6 & 7 on the excel spreadsheet) which shows that although the ‘successful’ online application timescale is reducing, the timescales for paper applications increased and the backlog is increasing too.
I involved my client’s MP after complaints were ignored, the Registrar had made an incorrect declaration and the request for a meeting with the Registrar was knocked back. The grant was issued within a week or two of the MPs involvement (after 12 months).