How much are probate fees in the UK and who pays them?

Full answer

Probate fees are often confused with the much larger overall cost of administering an estate, but the court application fee itself is a relatively small, fixed cost compared with typical professional fees for handling probate. **The court application fee** Applying for a Grant of Probate (in England and Wales) requires paying a fixed fee to the Probate Registry once the estate's value exceeds a set minimum threshold, with estates below this threshold generally exempt from the fee altogether. This fee is a fixed flat amount regardless of whether the estate is worth, say, £10,001 or £2 million -- it is not calculated as a percentage of the estate's value, unlike the professional fees often charged separately. **Who is responsible for paying the fee** The probate application fee, along with other administration costs (such as valuations, Inheritance Tax if due, and any professional fees), is normally paid out of the estate itself, typically from the deceased's bank accounts once access is granted, or sometimes advanced by the executor personally in the short term and reimbursed once estate funds become accessible. **Solicitor and probate specialist fees -- usually the bigger cost** Many people confuse the fixed court fee with the cost of using a solicitor or professional probate service to actually administer the estate (gathering assets, paying debts, calculating and paying any Inheritance Tax, distributing to beneficiaries, and dealing with the legal paperwork). These professional fees are usually charged either as a percentage of the estate's value (commonly in the low single-digit percentages) or on an hourly-rate basis, and can run into thousands of pounds for even a moderately complex estate -- far exceeding the flat court application fee itself. **DIY probate as an alternative** Executors are not required to use a solicitor and can apply for probate themselves (often called 'DIY probate'), only paying the fixed court fee plus any incidental costs (such as property valuations or Inheritance Tax due), which can significantly reduce the overall cost of administering a simple, straightforward estate -- though this requires the executor to have time, confidence with paperwork, and a reasonably simple estate without complex tax or legal issues. **Additional costs beyond the application fee** Beyond the probate application fee itself, other common costs of estate administration include extra copies of the Grant of Probate (a small fee per additional copy, useful for dealing with multiple asset holders simultaneously), property valuation fees, estate agent and legal fees on selling any property, and, where applicable, Inheritance Tax itself, which must generally be paid (or arrangements made) before probate is granted in many cases. **Worked example** An estate worth £350,000 requires a Grant of Probate. The executor pays the fixed Probate Registry application fee (a modest fixed amount, regardless of the estate's size), plus a small additional fee for extra sealed copies of the grant to send to several banks and pension providers simultaneously. If the executor instead instructs a solicitor to handle the full estate administration, the solicitor's fee (perhaps calculated as a percentage of the estate or an hourly rate) is likely to be many times larger than the court application fee itself. **Practical tip** Before assuming you need to use a solicitor for the whole probate process, check whether a more limited 'grant only' service (where a solicitor just helps with the application itself, leaving the executor to handle the rest of the administration) might suffice for a simpler estate, potentially saving a substantial amount compared with full-service probate administration.

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