Online probate application

[cityboy54]

I recently applied for probate online as executor for my father's estate - my mother (his surviving spouse is the sole beneficiary)
The value for probate purposes is 454k
The Gross estate for IHT is 487k net qualifying estate for IHT is 0 (as his spouse, my mother, inherits everything) - I checked and I put 0 down as net qualifying estate for IHT
I was surprised the online application didn't ask if a surviving spouse was inheriting the estate or any questions about inherited nil rate bands etc ...pretty poor tbh compared to the PA1P paper form (but they want us to do it online..)

However HMRC have written back to me with the below - which makes no sense the estate is simple and below £3 million and being inherited by a spouse. There is no question re claiming unused nil rate band (that question isn't asked at all)
There is no IHT400 to complete for this excepted estate (which they have asked me to apply for) - is the probate service and online application just useless or am I missing something?
I even went back to do a mock online application and there are no questions re spouse inheriting or nil rate bands etc -

Application states excepted estate but gross estate between £325,000 and £650,000 and answered No to Nil rate band question
Your application states you have not submitted IHT forms to HMRC to report the value of the estate. The Gross value of the estate you have submitted is above the excepted estate limit of £325,000 and you have answered ‘No’ to the question are you claiming unused Nil rate band. You have not claimed any other exemptions.
As the gross value of the estate exceeds £325,000 and there are no exemptions to claim you will need to report the value of the estate to HMRC. Please complete an IHT400 and submit to HMRC. Form IHT400 can be downloaded from:

[cityboy54]

That should of course say the probate office have written back to me (emailed me) and not HMRC..

[AGoodman]

I'm afraid I don't know the specific questions asked - and the joy of the online system is that you can't see the questions without logging in and starting an application.

However I can only imagine that must have been somewhere that you were meant to claim the spouse exemption. Are you able to find a list of the answers you gave?

Sorry not to be more help.

[MontyLong69]

Hi. Have exactly the same 'issue'. Did you manage to resolve or have to go through the full 400 fiasco ?