How easy is it to arrange probate without a solicitor?

all_is_well_2

Sadley my Father passed away in January. My sister and I are the executors to the estate. The solicitor that my Father used will undertake the probate procedure for £500.

Is this a reasonable fee??

Is probate easy to do, and could we do it ourselves?

We have got all the valuations from his savings / investments and a house valuation already. So are we just paying the solicitor to fill out some forms

Any thoughts would be gratefully recieved

jamjar,

I am sorry to hear about your dad, I lost mine at the end of December. I decided that I would do the probate as my brother an I were executors, but he doesn't live near me. If you telephone the probate office they will send you the forms. They are fairly straightforward, but I needed to phone them about a couple of points. They were really helpful on the phone. They sent me an appointment for 6 weeks later, which literally took 7 minutes (last Thursday). Then they will send me the official grants of probate, which need to be sent to the banks and building societies.
Don't pay a solicitor to do this, you could do it yourself easily.
You can download the forms, but I ended up with the wrong instructions. Just phone the office, then you know you have the right ones.
You can always ask me if you are stuck!

Tizzi

Sorry to hear of your father's death.

Regarding probate - I agree with Jamjar. My husband is the executor for his mother's will, and we've done the probate ourselves. We haven't had our appointment with the Probate service yet, though, so can't tell you about that part.

The forms didn't really seem much more confusing than a passport or vehicle licence application. We just sat down with the instructions and worked our way methodically through the forms.

However, his mum's will was very straightforward and it's a small estate. If you have a similar situation, and from your post it sounds like you might have, then I think paying a solicitor to fill in the forms for you is just throwing money away, really.

all_is_well_2

Thanks for your advice.
The estate is sizeable, but under inheritance tax...... if it were over does this affect the probate .... or is all that just down to the tax man ?
He had savings and investments, but we are pretty sure we have the correct valuations of all his assetts. Would the solicitor look for anything else that we have missed ?
I think we should get the forms and have a look

Tizzi

I have a feeling that different forms are required for the Inland Revenue if it's over the inheritance tax threshold, but can't say for sure.

We got the contact info for our local Probate Registry from this website http://www.probate1.com/office.html and phoned our local office for the forms and info.

We also used this website, which you might have already come across: http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/wills.htm

Our local probate office were actually very helpful indeed, and well worth phoning.