Probate DIY or specialist???

yell0wr0se

Hi, I need advice about whether to go down the specialist solicitor route (been quoted a flat rate fee of £800) or go down the DIY route.
I have no legal expertise myself and work very long hours. I think the probate should be straight forward but not sure what to do.
Any advice would be welcome
Thank you

DigForVictory

It depends on if we're talking a substantial & complex estate or largely known & straightforward stuff.
In all honesty you could farm it all out but why? When you can instead farm out the stuff you find too puzzling, or too contentious. Not only have you access to the MSE hive-mind here, there are shelves of books in the library - absolutely worth having a pop yourself.

A side thought is of course, how young are you? As if under 50, you may as well have a swing at doing this yourself as you'll be able to guide reassure & coax others from your own experience when their turn comes up.

Dave_T_UK

I did this about a year ago, like you I have no legal expertise, but found it quite simple to do, go to this site. https://www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inheritance/applying-for-a-grant-of-representation and download the documents.
Just complete them to the best of your knowledge and submit them.
it'll cost you £215 for the probate costs and then about £10 to go to a solicitor to swear an oath.
My father in law passed on the 11th Jan and probate was granted on 28th Feb so all went quite quickly.

Keep_pedalling

How complicated is the estate? Any property or equities involved?

nom_de_plume

At £800 I'm guessing it's a very simple estate. Was that quote plus disbursements?

You don't need any legal knowledge, just the ability to do a bit of form filling, letter writing and book keeping. Most of what you need to do can be done at any time day or night with the possible exceptions of any personal visits such as to banks, solicitors, etc. but you'd likely have to do most of these either way.

CHlHlRO

Once I got my head around it, it was easy. Probate helpline, plus the guide and hive mind on here were very helpful.

Mojisola

yell0wr0se wrote: »

Hi, I need advice about whether to go down the specialist solicitor route (been quoted a flat rate fee of £800) or go down the DIY route.

I have no legal expertise myself and work very long hours.

It can't be a large or complicated estate if that's the total figure the solicitor will charge.

Although you're working long hours, you will have to do quite a bit of the work, gathering the information the solicitor will need - it may be just as simple to carry on and complete the forms yourself.

There's no rush to get it done so at least have a look at the paperwork before deciding.

FreeBear

nom_de_plume wrote: »

At £800 I'm guessing it's a very simple estate.

I'd guess that the Bereavement Advice Centre signposted the OP to Simplify and they quoted the £800 fee. If that is the case, read some of the reviews on the web, and then run as fast as you can from them.

As long as the estate falls under the inheritance tax threshold, and it doesn't involve any complex investments or trusts, you can take your time to DIY it. Assuming you have all the papers to hand (bank balances, stocks & shares, etc), it will only take a couple of hours or so to fill in the forms - You'd need to get all the financial docs together for this "specialist", so will have done the bulk of the legwork already.

On the other hand, if the estate is insolvent, don't touch it or try to get this "specialist" to do anything. Best to leave it to the vultures circling (otherwise known as the creditors).

Margot123

Just £800?

My guess is that would be for the application only.
I would expect full administration to cost a lot more than that.

With a fairly simple estate, I'd go for the DIY option as it will be quicker and you will know exactly what is happening. Solicitors don't have any urgency to administer and you'd spend as much time chasing them as you would doing the work yourself (and paying for the privilege).

Larac

Must admit, my brother is doing DIY for Mum's estate. The positive is that at least we know where we are in the process! We have shared things around, like I manage the dealings with the Estate Agents, DWP repayments and the utilities and he deals with chasing up the banks. I think if we had involved a solicitor we would be chasing up the solicitor for information!

Owain_Moneysaver

nom_de_plume wrote: »

At £800 I'm guessing it's a very simple estate.

Or it's a flat rate of £800 per hour.

:mad: