How long does probate take in Ontario?

Updated 2026-08-16 · 6 minute read · checked against official Ontario sources

The honest answer: anywhere from a few weeks to several months, and it depends mostly on two things — which courthouse, and whether your application is right the first time. Nobody can promise you a date. Here’s what actually determines your wait.

The clock has four parts

Your preparation time. Gathering the will, the death certificate, and date-of-death values for everything. For organized estates: days. For scattered ones: weeks. You control this part.
The notice period. Small estates must wait at least 30 days after sending the application to beneficiaries. Standard applications have no fixed wait — serve, then file. You control the start of this clock.
The court’s queue. The part everyone asks about and nobody controls. Volumes differ sharply by courthouse: big-city estates offices (Toronto, Brampton, Newmarket) carry the heaviest loads and historically the longest queues — often measured in months. Smaller centres are frequently faster. Seasons matter too.
Anything the court finds wrong. The silent killer — see below.

Why applications bounce (and what a bounce costs)

Court staff check applications in detail. Common reasons they send one back:

A name that doesn’t match between the will, the death certificate, and the forms
Tax math off by a rounding step
Missing proof of service, or a small-estate filing inside the 30-day window
A missing affidavit of execution for the will
The wrong form version, or a missed signature or commissioning

A bounce doesn’t just cost the fix — you typically rejoin the queue. In a busy courthouse, one small error can turn a two-month wait into five or six. This is the one part of the timeline that’s entirely preventable, and it’s the part our software is built around: every answer checked against the court’s rules before you file.

Rough honest expectations

Situation	Reasonable expectation
Small estate, quiet courthouse, clean filing	A few weeks to ~2 months after filing
Standard estate, busy courthouse, clean filing	Commonly 2–6 months after filing
Any estate, bounced filing	Add months, not days
Contested anything	A different world — see a lawyer

Treat these as weather, not promises: courts publish no service-time guarantees, and loads change.

While you wait

You have authority from the will itself (the certificate proves it; it doesn’t create it), so you can and should: secure property, keep insurance in force, gather records, open an estate account when the bank permits, and keep beneficiaries informed. What you generally can’t do until the certificate arrives: sell real estate or collect assets whose holders demand the certificate.

The takeaway

You can’t speed up the court. You can make sure you only stand in the queue once — complete forms, exact names, right math, notices on time. That’s the whole game.

Sources

Apply for probate of an estate (ontario.ca)
The 30-day small-estate rule: Rules of Civil Procedure, r. 74.1.03
Administering estates (ontario.ca)

All sources checked 14 July 2026.

When you are ready

Need to apply for probate? We can build the whole package.

Court staff send applications back over small slips — and a bounce can cost months. You answer plain questions; the software does the rest. Free to start — no account, no email, no card.

$199 or $449

+ HST · $199 for small estates, $449 for others. The free questions tell you which.

We fill every form for you

Answer plain questions. The software fills the official court forms for your application, works out the tax, and writes filing steps for your courthouse.

Start the free fit check

Free to start. You only pay at the end, if your estate qualifies.

Filling the forms yourself instead? For $79 + HST, the automated Package Check looks at your facts before you file.

And everything free here stays free — the guides, the tax calculator, all of it. No email needed.

After probate, one report is still owed — the Estate Information Return. For $49 + HST we get it ready from your answers. Included free in every package.

This guide is legal information, not legal advice. For advice about your specific situation, consult a lawyer licensed in Ontario.