Comfort & expertise

Our Fees

We understand that coping with the death of a person can bring a mixture of emotions and the legal side of dealing with a person’s death can often be overwhelming and confusing. Having compassionate, experienced legal advice can make this difficult situation much easier on you and your loved ones.

Grant of probate

Probate is the legal right granted to a person (or more than one person) to deal with someone else’s property, money and possessions after they die. This is also sometimes referred to as dealing with someone’s estate.

It can be a particularly difficult time following someone’s death. However our experienced team is able to assist you with the probate process, reducing the administrative burden and advising sensitively on decisions which need to be made when managing an estate. At Martin Kaye Solicitors, we are aware that the probate process comes at a time of grief and high emotion, and that most people aren’t aware of the processes and legal requirements involved.

We will give you a clear time frame of how long the process should take and will keep you and any beneficiaries updated. You will be able to contact a member of our team when you have any questions by telephone, email or in person.

What does it cost for you to help me obtain a grant of probate?

Fixed fee – obtaining a Grant of Probate

Our fixed fee for dealing with obtaining a Grant of Probate starts at £995 + VAT at 20%, plus a court fee of £300. This is purely for making the application on your behalf and does not include dealing with any of the estate assets. We can help you through this difficult process by obtaining the Grant of Probate on your behalf. You can then proceed to administer the estate yourself.

Our fixed costs for providing this service are:

Estate	Cost	Probate Court Fee
Non-taxable estate – obtaining a Grant of Probate where there is no inheritance tax payable and no claim for transferrable nil rate band or transferrable main residence nil rate band.	£995 + VAT at 20%	£300
Non-taxable estate claiming an additional nil rate band allowance – obtaining a Grant of Representation where there is no inheritance tax but where there is a need to claim the transferrable nil rate band.	£1,200 + VAT at 20%	£300
Taxable estate – obtaining a Grant of Representation where there is inheritance tax payable but where there is no claim for the transferrable nil rate band or transferrable main residence nil rate band Obtaining a Grant of Representation where there is inheritance tax payable and where there is a claim for the transferrable nil rate band and/or transferrable main residence nil rate band	£1,500 + VAT at 20% £1750 + VAT at 20%	£300 £300

Our obtaining a Grant Of Probate application service relies purely on the information you provide. We do not make our own investigations as to values or accuracy. The prices stated above do not include court fees and would not include any additional work required, such as steps required to prove lost or damaged Wills. Our lawyers are able and willing to provide you with a price for any additional work you require.

Disbursements

Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as court fees. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smooth process. The following disbursements will be incurred in addition to our fixed fee:

Probate registry court fee: £300

Copy Grant of Probate: £1.50 per copy

Bankruptcy searches per beneficiary (England & Wales): £2 per name

Bankruptcy search for any non domicile beneficiary: variable

Where applicable VAT is charged at 20% or the rate set at the time by the UK Government.

As part of the fixed fee, we will:

Provide you with a dedicated and experienced lawyer to work on your matter
Identify the legally appointed executors, administrators and beneficiaries
Accurately identify the type of Probate application you will require
Obtain relevant documents required to make the application
Complete the Probate application and relevant HMRC forms
Make payment of the Inheritance Tax due to HMRC, should this be required
Make the application to the Probate Court on your behalf
Obtain the Probate and send this to you

Hourly rates

In addition to fixed fee, we also offer charging at an hourly rate, whereby you will be charged for each hour of work undertaken. The hourly rate applicable will depend on the practitioner dealing with your matter. Our current hourly rates for practitioners dealing with estate administration matters is £250.00 per hour plus VAT at 20%, you will be informed who is dealing with your matter and their level of experience can be found in the people section of our website. To deal with the administration of the estate, costs will vary and the exact cost will depend on the individual circumstances of the matter. For example, if there is one beneficiary and no property, costs will be at the lower end of the range. If there are multiple beneficiaries, a property and multiple bank accounts, costs will be at the higher end. Probate fees will also typically increase, depending on the number of bank accounts, shares and based on the number and value of any property.

Below is an example scenario:

There is a valid will
There is no more than one property
There are no more than three bank or building society accounts
There are no other intangible assets
There are no more than four beneficiaries
There are no disputes between beneficiaries on division of assets. If disputes arise, this is likely to lead to an increase in costs
There is no inheritance tax payable and the executors do not need to submit a full account to HMRC
There are no claims made against the estate

If there is additional work, we would agree any additional fees with you.

Can you fully administer the estate on my behalf?

Yes. Once you have a grant of probate our expert team can also administer the estate on your behalf.

What work would you do on my behalf?

The services we would help you with will depend on the circumstances but they can include;

contacting banks or other holders of financial assets to release funds to you
selling investments or properties that form part of the estate
contacting the beneficiaries of the estate
preparing accounts for the estate and taking forward the distribution of the estate’s assets

Key milestones

With every transaction there are key milestones, which may vary according to individual circumstances. They may be as follows:

Applying for a Grant of Probate
Obtaining Grant of Probate
Settling liabilities
Collecting funds ready for distribution
Distributing funds
Producing estate accounts

Complicating factors

The following are examples of factors that may lead to the need for additional work on our part and consequently, a higher charge:

There is no valid will
One or more of the appointed executors have died or refused to act
There is more than one property
There are more than five bank or building society accounts
There are other intangible assets
There are more than five beneficiaries
Any beneficiary lacks capacity under the Mental Health Act, or is a minor
There are disputes between beneficiaries on the division of assets
The will creates a trust
There are missing beneficiaries
There is inheritance tax payable and the executors need to submit a full account to HMRC
There are claims made against the estate or disputes as to the validity of the will

Inheritance Tax

There are various factors that will affect any Inheritance Tax that is due on an estate, including the size of the estate and any measures that were put in place by the deceased to limit the estates tax liability.

At this stage, Martin Kaye Solicitors do not believe that it would be sensible to attempt to provide an estimate of any tax that may be payable. We would advise you to contact us to obtain advice in relation to your specific circumstances or to look on the HMRC website to calculate how much Inheritance Tax which may be due. The calculators can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hmrc-tools-and-calculators#inheritance-tax-and-bereavement/

Exclusions

Where there is likely to be any additional cost, we will make sure that you are informed of this at the earliest opportunity and a clear estimate of those extra costs will be provided.

Additional services that will require the assistance of a third party at an additional cost include:

Tax advice
Valuations for property, savings, investments and other assets

Time scales

On average, probate and the estate administration for a typical estate will take between six to eighteen months. Generally, the time taken to obtain the Grant of Probate will take between four to eight months, depending on how quickly third parties provide the information required and how quickly the Probate Registry issue the Grant. The collection of the estate and distribution of the assets follows, which can take between four to twelve months.

You will be provided with timescales and updates throughout the administration and more complicated estates may take longer than this to finalise.

Once our application has been submitted to the court we are advised it can take up to sixteen weeks to process and not to contact them during this period, unless it is to respond to a query from them.

What work would you be doing for me?

Our expert team will represent you during every step. This includes;

meeting with you – either in through video call or in person – to discuss you matter in detail
advising you about to identify the type of application you need
preparing and submitting the documents you need, including the application to the Probate Court and any HM Revenue & Customs inheritance tax forms
monitoring those applications, chasing where required, and handling enquires that may be received back
supplying the grant of probate to you

For more information, please contact Jemma Blake who is a Solicitor or June Noto who is a Legal Assistant on 01952 525927 or jemmablake@martinkaye.co.uk or junenoto@martinkaye.co.uk.