Guides and resources
Where do these figures come from, and when were they last checked?
Every figure on this site that can change over time is listed on this page with its source and how often that source is revised. Every page also carries a review date and a review cycle, both shown below. Where a number is Augusta's own rather than published by someone else, it is labelled as ours.
Probate figures move. Inheritance tax thresholds change at fiscal events, Ministry of Justice probate statistics are revised quarterly, and fees are reset without much notice. A page confidently quoting last year's number is worse than one that quotes none, so this is the record of what we quote and when we last read it.
The record
What does this page show?
Two things, both generated from the pages themselves rather than written here.
The first is every figure on the site that will go out of date, each one with the page it appears on, the source it came from, and how often that source is revised. The second is when each page was last read, and how often we read it.
Neither list is maintained by hand. They are built from the same records our build uses to flag a page as due for review, which means this page cannot claim a check that did not happen.
Which figures on this site can change?
6 pages quote a figure that will move over time. Each one is listed below with its source and how often that source is revised, so you can check it yourself rather than take ours.
- the grant of representation application fee is £300, with sealed copies at £1.50 each
GOV.UK, revised at fee reviews
- a Land Registry official register and title plan cost £7 each
HM Land Registry fee scale
- capital gains tax on residential property gains is 24%, above a £3,000 annual allowance
GOV.UK, revised at fiscal events
- a UK Property CGT return is due within 60 days of completion
GOV.UK, statutory deadline
- inheritance tax is due six months after the end of the month of death
GOV.UK, statutory deadline
- Class F council tax exemption runs up to six months after the grant
GOV.UK; the exemption is administered locally, so confirm with the council
- standard buildings insurance usually voids after 30 to 60 days unoccupied
Augusta's own observation across purchases; confirm with the insurer in every case
- the nil-rate band is £325,000, frozen until at least April 2030
GOV.UK, revised at fiscal events
- the residence nil-rate band is £175,000 where a home passes to direct descendants
GOV.UK, revised at fiscal events
- the residence nil-rate band tapers above an estate value of £2,000,000
GOV.UK, revised at fiscal events
- inheritance tax is charged at 40% above the threshold, or 36% where 10% of the net estate passes to charity
GOV.UK, revised at fiscal events
- most pensions sit outside the estate for inheritance tax until April 2027
GOV.UK, revised at fiscal events
- about one in four agreed UK property sales falls through before completion
TwentyEA national fall-through rate, 23.7% for Q1 2026, down from 24.0% the previous quarter. Refreshed quarterly. Cited here via a secondary report dated 21 May 2026, replace with TwentyEA's own release when available.
- mean wait for a grant of probate is approximately 5 weeks
MoJ Family Court and Probate statistics, quarterly
- probate typically completes in 6 to 12 months for a typical estate
GOV.UK guidance, revised irregularly
- approximately 1 in 10 properties on the UK market is a probate sale
Today's Wills & Probate, published Dec 2023. ACCEPTED BY KRISH 2026-08-16 as the source to cite. It attributes the figure to industry estimates rather than a primary dataset, probate sales are not separately recorded, so no primary source exists, which is why the page presents it as indicative rather than precise. Not an open task.
- probate typically takes 6 to 12 months for a straightforward estate
MoJ Family Court and Probate statistics, quarterly
- 200+ families helped as at 17 August 2026
Augusta's own count of families helped, as at 17 August 2026. Reviewed quarterly.
- a written offer within 48 hours
Augusta's own figure, published in the Executor's Checklist, Edition 2026 v1.0. Reviewed quarterly.
- completion in 14 to 28 days from the grant
Augusta's own figure, measured from the grant of probate and published in the Executor's Checklist, Edition 2026 v1.0. Reviewed quarterly.
When was each page last checked?
Every page carries a review date and a cycle. Pages quoting statistics are read more often than evergreen explainers, because their sources move more often.
How we choose sources
Which sources does Augusta rely on?
GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk first, for anything about the law, probate procedure or tax. Ministry of Justice statistics for anything about how long probate is taking. Where no official source publishes a figure, how long a sale takes in practice, what a property is worth in its current condition, the number is Augusta’s own and is labelled that way above.
Some figures have no authoritative source at all. Probate sales are not separately recorded in the UK, so nobody publishes a hard count of them; where we quote an industry estimate we say that it is one, and say who estimated it. That matters more than the number.
Corrections
What happens when a figure turns out to be wrong?
We change it, and the review date on that page changes with it, which moves the page in the log above. There is no separate corrections notice, because a probate figure that is out of date is not an interesting historical record, it is a number an executor might act on.
Where a change is significant enough that someone administering an estate would need to act on it, we write it up as well. Those are in probate property updates.
If you think something here is wrong, tell us. A source we have missed is more useful to us than a polite silence.
Read next
Where can you read the guides themselves?
The figures above are only useful in context. The guides and tools for inherited property set out what each one means for an estate, and the probate property FAQ answers the questions that come up most often.
No obligation
Would you rather just ask someone?
Tell us the postcode and where you have got to. We will explain what applies to this estate, including the parts where the honest answer is that nobody can predict the timing.
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