Sorting Probate out, what fees??

bo_drinker

Does anyone know if Solicitors charge a set amount ie a % of the estate when sorting probate out or a set fee ?

Thanks in advance.

jhe

several years ago we were quoted between £1000-£3000 plus vat depending on how straight forward the will is. i chose to do it myself. had lots of phone calls and running around to do but it worked out a lot cheaper than paying a solicitor. and wasnt as complicated as i first thought it would be dealing with a will.the solicitor i spoke to offered to just do the probate part if i didnt want him to handle everything. when applying for probate i had to go and take some i.d and swear an oath. that was about it really
should have added it was the local court house i had to swear the oath at. the probate people had a small room there and it was only me and one other peron in the room. its not at all daunting.

bryanb

I am doing a straightforward probate for my late mother. Solicitor estimates 5 hours at £200per/hour (+vat of course.) If you diy £41 for court service, About £10 to swear.Hope this helps.

zzzLazyDaisy

I have done two simple estates myself. The probate office is used to dealing with bereaved people who have no experience of probate and they will talk you through all the steps. Unless there are complications, you will be throwing money away unnecessarily by using a solicitor.

SailorSam

We had no trouble whatsoever when we recently did probate, all you have to do is get a few bits of paperwork together and complete a simple form. The probate office were very helpful and were only a phone call away.

carefullycautious

As above DIY it really is simple

ukmaggie45

bo_drinker wrote: »

Does anyone know if Solicitors charge a set amount ie a % of the estate when sorting probate out or a set fee ?

Thanks in advance.

It depends. Are they named as Executors? If so they may take a % plus a charge per hour.

We have had a complicated time with dealing with my parents' Estates - see here. Sorry it's a very long thread! :eek:

In the end we found a STEP solicitor through my parents' tax accountant. They have been dealing with the estate since, and things are finally getting sorted over 2 years later.

For us it was well worth the cost as the Deed of Variation has saved well over it, plus OH doesn't have to deal any more with the one named as co-executor with him in both parent's wills. New solicitor does it. :j The loss of severe stress makes it well worth paying our new solicitor. We pay a percentage of gross estates, think it's 1%. Plus hourly charges (measured by 6 minute breakdown) of something like £200 hour.

I know that this sounds horrendous costs, but my parents' Estates have proved to be very complicated. Despite costs it has been a Money Saving way to do things!

Some solicitors charge more percentage.

Hope this helps.

Maggie

bilboburgler

I am virtually through this process and apart from BT (who are mad) and the government advice guys (who are great on the phone but in person mad) the only people who irritate are share registrars. Read on

I have recently run into a bit of a scam which you might be interested in. I have been acting as an executor of the estate of my father. My father owned a number of shares. Once the registrars were told of his death they decided to retain any dividends until probate was granted. Fair enough you might say. Once probate is granted some registrars then pay the dividend, but charge the estate a fee of £11-£12 to cover the cost of the re-issue of the dividend.

My issue is
1) The registrar is already paid by the share company to manage this issue and it cannot be a surprise that people die
2) The dividend is re-issued as it has never been issued
3) The Registrar has benefited by the retention of the dividend for the roughly 6 months probate takes to come through
4) Since the majority of executors are lawyers and this is just a line on the divided document very few people complain.

Now I tried to estimate the value of this behaviour. If we ignore the benefit of retaining the cash and say there are 2 Million share holders and of these say the average is holding 5 shares. Let us assume that every 40 years these estates turnover due to death. Then in the six months of a probate delay this charge is worth.
5* 11.50*2,000,000/40=~£3M every year. Not bad money for doing very little.