Probate fees

Asdr

Hi my father died recently he left a will ,his only asset a small leasehold flat to be sold a divided between myself and two sisters.I called the Co op and agreed to let them do the probate they are charging me £5000 for that service which I'm told is steep.They then asked if I wanted them to sell the flat through a company called move with us .I looked them up not Good reviews so I told the Co op we would sell the flat ourselves.The Co op said if we want to sell it we will have to pay two lots of conveyancing fees one lot of £780 to the Co op and another fee to estate agent we choose ? This means I have to stay with the Co op and pay over £10000 for probate and sale of my dads flat which is worth appx £175000 is this correct ? I wish I had never gone to the Co op.

AnotherJoe

Its not steep its outrageous.

Bobziz

£5k for probate sounds about £4k too much. What exactly are they doing ? Estate agent fees and conveyancing should be around £3k.

topsy73

My husband died recently and left a will...I did probate myself costing £222 having been advised by my solicitor it would be £1050 for them to do it...

4leafclover_2

They charged us even more, and I think I spent longer on it than they did, but there are still problems and stress due to their involvement.  So relieved I wouldn't agree to them selling the house.

naedanger

Asdr said:

Hi my father died recently he left a will ,his only asset a small leasehold flat to be sold a divided between myself and two sisters.I called the Co op and agreed to let them do the probate they are charging me £5000 for that service which I'm told is steep.They then asked if I wanted them to sell the flat through a company called move with us .I looked them up not Good reviews so I told the Co op we would sell the flat ourselves.The Co op said if we want to sell it we will have to pay two lots of conveyancing fees one lot of £780 to the Co op and another fee to estate agent we choose ? This means I have to stay with the Co op and pay over £10000 for probate and sale of my dads flat which is worth appx £175000 is this correct ? I wish I had never gone to the Co op.

I am no expert but I am not sure you need two lots of conveyancing fees. I wonder if the first lot of conveyancing is to put the property into the names of the beneficiaries. However if it is, I didn't think that was necessary if you are planning on selling the property. I though, quite possibly wrongly, the flat could be sold (with the property still in your late father's name) and then just one lot of conveyancing would be needed to put the property into the new owner's name. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will give a definitive response.

Also why do you need to stay with the coop? Just ask them to provide the agreed probate and go elsewhere of your choosing.

I also think £5,000 if very steep if there was only one asset. Did they provide any breakdown for this amount? What sort of things have they been doing?