HM Courts and Tribunals Service

3. Mr E says HMCTS failed to acknowledge or respond to applications he sent in January, March, and April 2025.

4. He says because HMCTS failed to contact him he has suffered frustration.

5. By bringing his complaint to us Mr E would like HMCTS to make service improvements.

6. Mr E’s brother-in-law died in France in June 2024, he offered to help his sister sort out formalities in the UK. He sent applications for letters of administration (PA12) to HMCTS on January, March and April 2025.

7. Mr E wrote to HMCTS on 21 April to say he had posted three applications the third of which was sent by tracked post that had been delivered on 14 April. He asked for a response considering it had been working on his application since January.

8. HMCTS acknowledged receipt of Mr E’s letter which it classed as a complaint on 13 May. It wrote to him again on 27 May asking him what documents he had sent.

9. Mr E wrote back on 29 May including that he had sent PA12’s in January and March as well as his application in April and he wished to lodge a formal complaint.

12. Before we decide if we should conduct a detailed investigation of a complaint, we look at whether there are signs the event complained about had a negative effect which the organisation has not put right. Having done so we have found HMCTS has already done enough to put right the frustration caused by its delay in responding to Mr E’s application.

13. Mr E says none of the applications were returned and he did not receive an acknowledgement of receipt from HMCTS. He also says if anything was wrong with the applications HMCTS should have informed him.

14. In its responses to his complaint HMCTS said there was no probate case for him on the management system because it requires applicants to submit a PA1A or PA1P to open one. PA12 is a supplementary form. As there was no case, it put the PA12’s in the unreferenced queue which is processed in date order. HMCTS said that having spoken to the probate team next steps he could take were to send in either the PA1P or PA1A with supporting documents including a PA12 form. He would also need to pay a fee. It also recommended he seek legal advice to ensure the relevant payment and documents were sent.

15. HMCTS’ website does not specify the time it takes to deal with correspondence; however, it says applicants can expect an email or letter after submitting a paper application. In early January 2025 HMCTS was taking 16 weeks to process probate applications from 20 January this reduced to 12 weeks.

16. Mr E could have expected HMCTS to have processed his application by 5 May had it been properly submitted. It does not appear reasonable for him to wait longer than that to receive a response to his correspondence.

17. There is an indication something has gone wrong here.

18. HMCTS begun its investigation into what happened to the applications he had sent soon after Mr E provided additional information.

19. HMCTS’ first response to Mr E’s complaint is dated 30 May. This is the first time he would have received any communication about his applications.

20. We can see the delay in receiving communication about his applications caused Mr E frustration. We are sorry to hear this happened.

21. The response included an update on the situation and advice on what he needed to do. Had HMCTS responded sooner it could have allowed him to decide what to do earlier.

22. We are sorry to hear he suffered frustration and a delay in receiving communications about his probate application as a result.

23. HMCTS acknowledged and apologised for not explaining what was happening with Mr E’s application sooner recognising that the experience must have been frustrating and confusing. It also passed his concerns on to the Change and Communications team who are responsible for tailoring communication approaches to the needs and concerns of service users amongst other duties.

24. The Change and Communications team are working with the Probate Service to reduce the number of applications which fall into the exceptions queue. The Probate Service have dedicated resources to work through this to improve timeliness and communications with applicants to make them aware which documents they need to submit when making their applications.

25. Our principles say public bodies should ensure that all feedback and lessons learnt from complaints contribute to service improvements.

26. In recognition of the poor service it provided Mr E, the Probate Service passed his complaint on to the Change and Communications team illustrating its commitment to service improvement. It appears it has learnt from what happened with Mr E’s case and has taken action to avoid similar incidents happening in the future in line with our principles. We think HMCTS’ actions put right the frustration it caused Mr E. As there is no unremedied injustice there is nothing more we or HMCTS should do with this complaint.

1. We have carefully considered Mr E’s complaint about HMCTS. We are sorry to hear he suffered frustration after he submitted probate applications to HMCTS.

2. We have decided HMCTS has already done enough to put right the impact of these events on Mr E.