About Probate and Wills UK

Probate and Wills UK explains probate in England and Wales using the official sources: HMCTS's monthly waiting times, gov.uk's rules and fees, the law that sets the fee, and what each of 22 banks and building societies publishes about releasing money without a grant.

Why it exists

When someone dies, the person sorting out their estate usually starts with a search: how long probate takes, whether they need it, what it costs. Those answers change. The court fee rose 75% on 13 July 2026, and HMCTS's waiting times move every month, so a figure is only useful if you know when it was checked.

This site takes each figure from the organisation that publishes it, shows the date it was checked, and links to the source. The waiting time updates itself every month when HMCTS publishes new figures.

Who runs it

Probate and Wills UK is built and run by James Burfield, a senior SEO consultant based in Bath who has worked in SEO since 2000. He builds reference sites from official UK data. You can read more about him on his own site and LinkedIn.

James isn't a solicitor, so the site sticks to describing the rules, with a source for each, and says plainly when paying a solicitor is worth it. Nothing here is legal or financial advice.

Independence and money

Probate and Wills UK isn't a law firm and doesn't give legal advice. It isn't connected to HMCTS, gov.uk, any bank, or any law firm. It carries no adverts and no affiliate links. If that changes, paid links will be labelled where they appear, and they'll never change a figure or a verdict.

How the figures are checked

Every figure has a source, and a script re-reads each source to confirm the figure is still there. The full method, source by source, is on how we source and check figures, along with a dated list of corrections.

Report a mistake

If you spot something wrong or out of date, tell James through the contact form on seoburf.com. Corrections are made and logged with the date. The site can't help with individual cases: for that, contact the probate service on gov.uk or a solicitor.

Privacy: the site sets no cookies and runs no tracking.