Probate Fees

newjersey

I'm asking for some advice on behalf of my boyfriend, his father died some months ago ( mother died 3 yes previously) he was made sole executor and a beneficiary along with his sister. There is a small house (paid) and small amount of cash in his bank account. He asked his solicitor about costs for doing probate and she wouldn't give a fixed fee and stated it was £150 per hour.. Probate has been done, as far as I can tell all straight forward and any contact with solicitor kept to bare minimum.
Now he has received the bill, it comes to just over £2,000. It's broken down as 19 hours at £150 and 52 correspondence at £15 each. He assumed that the £150 per hour included any work spent on it, is it correct thàt an additional £15 for every piece of correspondence should be added, should that not already be in the hourly rate. This has caused the bill to be double of what he had expected. At no time did she say it would be £ 150 PLUS additional costs. Does he have any grounds to query this ? Thank you for any advice given.

newjersey

I'm so sorry I made a mistake on the number of hours at £150 it should read as - 6 hours !! NOT 19.

Tom99

I would expect a quote per hour to include all other costs except 3rd party costs unless stated otherwise.

newjersey

Thank you, yes that's what we also thought, there was an extra £200 for probate court fees which he expects, is that what you mean by 3rd party costs ? He's not sure on how to approach this as he did specifically ask about costs at the start and was specifically quoted " £150 per hour " Never was extra for " correspondence " mentioned.

Yorkshireman99

newjersey wrote: »

Thank you, yes that's what we also thought, there was an extra £200 for probate court fees which he expects, is that what you mean by 3rd party costs ? He's not sure on how to approach this as he did specifically ask about costs at the start and was specifically quoted " £150 per hour " Never was extra for " correspondence " mentioned.

£150 perhour is very low as is £15 per correspondence. 3rd party costs also known as disbursement’s are costs incurred for search’s or the like. The fee being asked really I a bargain!

getmore4less

6hours is not a lot of time, £150 a decent rate.

52 correspondence seems a lot for a simple estate, 3-4 per institution is often sufficient.

what was happening to the house that can generate a lot so usually best(cheaper) for the beneficiaries to deal with all those letters and get the accounts closed especially if keeping the property.

Tom99

The quotes I had for some advice on probate were from £180 to £235 per hour plus VAT so £150 is cheap.

One solicitor wanted to spend between 2 to 5 hours just to investigate a single question I had, not to actually do any work, so again 6 hours does not seem long at all.

newjersey

Thanks everyone, for the new to all this the bill seemed on the high side but going by the comments here it obviously wasn't, no idea what the 52 correspondence entailed.

TonyMMM

Many solicitors also add an additional charge of 1-2% of the estate value , so it does sound like the cost is quite low in comparison to many who choose not to do probate themselves...

Yorkshireman99

TonyMMM wrote: »

Many solicitors also add an additional charge of 1-2% of the estate value , so it does sound like the cost is quite low in comparison to many who choose not to do probate themselves...

Anything other than a charge for work done at an hourly rate +VAT plus costs incurred is suspect. Charging a percentage is to be avoided at all costs.