How Long Does Probate Take in Ireland? A Realistic Timeline From Death to Distribution

Realistically, most straightforward Irish estates take 9 to 18 months from death to full distribution. The Probate Office wait is only one slice of that: as of mid-2026, personal applicants face roughly a 10–12 week appointment wait in Dublin, while solicitor lodgements are running about a month ahead. The grant itself is the middle of the journey, not the end — gathering valuations beforehand and collecting and distributing assets afterwards is where the real time goes.

"How long does probate take?" is the question every Irish executor asks first, and the honest answer is: it depends on three separate clocks running at once. There's the time you spend preparing the application, the time the Probate Office holds your file, and the time you spend after the grant turning the estate into cash and paying the right people. This guide walks through all three with a real worked example, current 2026 processing figures, and the two deadlines that quietly shape your timetable — the executor's year and the Capital Acquisitions Tax (CAT) pay-and-file date.

The short answer: three clocks, not one

People imagine probate as a single queue at the Probate Office. In practice an Irish estate moves through three distinct phases, and only the middle one is the "probate wait" most articles fixate on:

Add those up and a clean estate lands around the 9–12 month mark; anything with property to sell, a foreign asset, or a disagreement among beneficiaries drifts towards 18 months or more.

Current Probate Office processing waits (2026)

The Courts Service publishes the lodgement dates the Probate Office is currently working through, and updates them regularly. The key thing to understand is that personal applicants and solicitors sit in different queues.

Counter-intuitively, the personal-application lodgement date is more recent — but personal applicants must also wait for and attend an in-person appointment to swear the documents, which adds weeks. Solicitors lodge by post and don't queue for an appointment. For most estates, the solicitor route is the faster path to a grant once you account for the appointment delay. Always check the live figures, as they move month to month: Courts Service — Probate processing times.

The worked timeline: SA.2 → application → grant → distribution

Here is the full journey with realistic durations for a moderately complex but uncontested estate. Times overlap in practice — a good executor (or solicitor) chases valuations while waiting on other items.

Step 1 — Prepare the Statement of Affairs (Form SA.2): 4–10 weeks

Before any application, the estate's full picture has to be assembled and filed with Revenue as the Statement of Affairs (Probate) Form SA.2, submitted online through myAccount or ROS. This captures every asset, debt, the beneficiaries and their relationships. Revenue then issues a Notice of Acknowledgement (Probate) — the document the Probate Office requires before it will issue a grant. The slow part here is gathering bank balances at date of death, pension and life-policy confirmations, and especially property valuations.

Step 2 — Lodge the grant application: days, then the queue

With the SA.2 acknowledgement in hand, the application (oath/affidavit, original will, death certificate, the acknowledgement) goes to the Probate Office. If a solicitor lodges it, you join the solicitor queue; if you apply personally, you book and wait for an appointment.

Step 3 — The grant issues: ~10–15 weeks from lodgement

Once your file reaches the front of the queue and any queries are cleared, the Grant of Probate (or Letters of Administration where there's no valid will) issues, usually posted within a few weeks of the file being approved. This is the legal authority that lets you actually deal with the assets — but it is the middle of the process.

Step 4 — Collect assets, pay debts, then distribute: 2–6 months+

Now you send certified copies of the grant to each institution to release funds, sell or transfer property, settle debts and final bills, and obtain any clearances. Only when you're satisfied all liabilities and taxes are dealt with do you distribute to beneficiaries — and prudent executors hold something back until they're confident no further claims or tax demands will land.

Common delays — and how to dodge them

Missing or queried SA.2 acknowledgement

The single most common stall is lodging the grant application before Revenue has issued the Notice of Acknowledgement (Probate), or lodging it with errors that trigger a query. The Probate Office won't issue a grant without a clean acknowledgement. File the SA.2 accurately and wait for the acknowledgement before you queue.

Asset valuations

Property valuations, share holdings, pension entitlements and overseas assets all take time to pin down at the date of death — and an unrealistic property value can later be challenged by Revenue. Order valuations early; they're the long pole in the tent during Phase 1.

Contested wills and beneficiary disputes

A challenge to the will's validity, a Section 117 claim by a child, or a disagreement among beneficiaries can pause everything — sometimes for a year or more — because distribution can't safely happen while a claim is live. There's nothing you can do to "speed up" a genuine dispute; the answer is good record-keeping and not distributing prematurely.

Foreign assets and missing paperwork

An asset in another jurisdiction may need its own grant ("resealing" or a foreign probate), and a lost original will or an out-of-date death certificate detail can each add weeks.

Why the "executor's year" sets the expectation

Irish law gives executors a recognised window — the executor's year — being the 12 months from the date of death during which an executor is generally not compelled to distribute the estate. It isn't a deadline you'll be punished for missing, and complex estates routinely run beyond it. But it's the benchmark beneficiaries (and the courts) use to judge whether administration is progressing reasonably. If you're well past a year with no good reason, beneficiaries can begin to apply pressure. Treat the executor's year as the expectation for completing distribution on an ordinary estate — and document the reasons (property sale, a dispute, awaiting clearance) whenever you need longer.

How the CAT deadline runs in parallel with the probate wait

This is where Irish executors and beneficiaries trip up: the CAT clock is not the probate clock. CAT is a tax on the beneficiary, filed on Form IT38, and its deadline is driven by the valuation date — not by when the grant happens to issue.

Revenue's pay-and-file rule is fixed and worth memorising:

A beneficiary must file an IT38 once the value of benefits received within a group exceeds 80% of the relevant threshold (Group A €400,000, Group B €40,000, Group C €20,000), even if no tax is ultimately due. The rate above the threshold is 33%. Sources: Revenue — How and when do you pay and file? and Revenue — CAT group thresholds.

The practical takeaway: as soon as the grant is in sight, work out each beneficiary's valuation date and their 31 October deadline. Don't let a probate delay become a CAT surcharge.

Frequently asked questions