Searching records
The grant-year trap
Written and reviewed by our experienced team. Last verified against gov.uk on 26 July 2026. ProbateCheck is an independent service, not a law firm.
Probate records are filed under the year the grant of probate was issued, not the year the person died. Because probate takes around 12 to 16 weeks, a death late in one year is very often granted, and therefore indexed, in the following year. Searching only the year of death is the single most common reason a search wrongly returns nothing.
A worked example
Someone dies in November 2024. The executor applies for probate, which takes three to four months, so the grant is issued in February or March 2025. The record is filed under 2025, the grant year, and appears online around two weeks after that. Anyone searching only 2024, the year of death, finds nothing and wrongly concludes there is no will.
How to avoid it
- Always search the year of death and the following year.
- For a death in the last three months of a year, check the year after that too, because grants can slip into the second calendar year.
- Combine this with name variations, the other big cause of a false blank.
We check every relevant year for you
Our £29 managed search runs across the grant year and adjacent years automatically, alongside every name variation, so a record filed a year later than you expect does not slip through.
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We search every name variation across the correct index years, obtain the grant and the will, lodge a standing search if no grant exists yet, and explain it all in plain English. Government fees included.
Start with a free checkFrequently asked questions
Why are probate records filed under the grant year?+
Probate records are indexed by the date the grant of probate was issued, which is when the record is created, not the date of death. Because probate takes months, the grant year is often the year after the death.
How many years should I search?+
Search the year of death and the following year as a minimum. For a death late in the year, check the year after that as well, since grants can be issued in the second calendar year.