Reasonable Solicitor/Intestate costs

ViktorOnopko

Hi all,

My mother-in-law sadly passed away two weeks ago, she left no will. My partner is her only Daughter and she's long divorced so we don't expect too many issues with my partner being the recipient of the estate.

We are seeing a solicitor tomorrow who's been recommended by numerous people and in conversations so far they've indicated they can let us know what parts of the process we can manage to reduce costs.

Thing is, I don't have ANY idea what a reasonable cost could be in terms of getting their support in working through this process. How do I know what's reasonable versus what could be deemed as overly expensive?

The fact they've come recommended gives me some faith that we won't be taken for a ride but I need some guidance.

Thanks

Mojisola

With just one beneficiary, why don't you do the work yourselves?

ViktorOnopko

We have a meeting with them tomorrow because we don't know where to start etc. Hoping to do most of the work ourselves but intiially after guidance.

martinthebandit

https://www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inheritance

It is really very simple and, as long as your ok with a bit of form filling, quite easy.

Yorkshireman99

ViktorOnopko wrote: »

We have a meeting with them tomorrow because we don't know where to start etc. Hoping to do most of the work ourselves but intiially after guidance.

You don't need to use a solcitor. Cancel the nmeeting and DIY. Lots of help here when you need it.. Read the Stickies at the start of this forum first.

ViktorOnopko

Hi,

Ok - thanks for the input. The meeting tomorrow is FOC if we don't use their services afterwards so it could still be valuable.

Will get reading. A number of links in the top ReadMe discussion are broken, I don't know who the admin is for this forum.

getmore4less

Go to the appointment, if you feel comfortable you have someone to call on for any hard bits if there are any.

Even if you DIY you need to swear the oath so that can be done with them, any house involved you may want to use them for that as well.


If straightforward the relatives end up doing most of the legwork anyway.

Emsierose

What are the assets involved in the estate?

That will give an idea to what sort of charge would be 'reasonable'.

Overall, different firms have different ways of pricing, i.e. percentage, hourly, fixed fee, etc.

ViktorOnopko

The total estate is probably in the region of £550-650k with 60% of that property.

Yorkshireman99

One thing you must do is get a valuation of the property by. RICS or similar qualified surveyor. HMR&C will probably involve the District Valuer and the surveyor will negaotiate a value. Estate agents asking prices can be very misleading. A solicitor will charge you a lot for probate probably £15 K.

Alter_ego

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

One thing you must do is get a valuation of the property by. RICS or similar qualified surveyor. HMR&C will probably involve the District Valuer and the surveyor will negaotiate a value. Estate agents asking prices can be very misleading. A solicitor will charge you a lot for probate probably £15 K.

I'm sure you're right if the estate is anywhere near the Inheritance tax threshold. But I did one recently and an estate agent valuation/estimate was accepted without question. (100k under threshold)