Probate Pricing

Here at Dutton Gregory, 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.

What Sets Us Apart

Our aim is to offer compassionate, experienced legal advice, to support you and your loved ones through this difficult time.

We have an experienced team who can assist you with every aspect of the probate process, reducing the administrative burden and advising sensitively on key decisions which need to be made when managing an estate. We are aware that administering an estate comes at a time of grief and high emotion, and that most people do not know the processes and legal requirements involved.

Our firm is proud to hold the Lexcel Accreditation, issued by the Law Society. This involves the firm undergoing a rigorous audit process which ensures we maintain high levels of client care.

We are here to help you through the process, by obtaining the Grant of Probate on your behalf. We also undertake the collecting and distributing of assets, giving you further peace of mind.

To receive a fully personalised quote, please complete our How Can We Help form to the right of this page, call 01202 315005 or email contact@duttongregory.co.uk

How much does our service cost?

We can help you through this difficult process by obtaining the Grant of Probate on your behalf.

For obtaining the Grant of Probate only:

We offer a fixed fee for obtaining the Grant of Probate, using the information the Personal Representatives have provided. This ranges between £1,500 plus VAT - £5,000 plus VAT (£1,800 - £6,000 including VAT) depending on whether an Inheritance Tax return is required, plus disbursements. This fee does not include checking the information provided.

Breakdown of disbursements (not all of these will be relevant to your matter):

Probate court fee of £273 plus £1.50 per office copy Grant.
£25 plus VAT (£30 including VAT) identity check
45p plus VAT (54p including VAT) per mile
£3 plus VAT (£3.60 including VAT) per Office Copy Entry from the Land Registry
£110.40 (including VAT) Post in The London Gazette – Protects against unexpected claims from unknown creditors.
£50 - £200 (depending on the region) Post in a Local Newspaper – This also helps to protect against unexpected claims.
£234 (including VAT) asset search
£58.80 - £126 (including VAT) Will Search depending on the search requested.

Provide you with a dedicated and experienced probate practitioner to work on your matter
Identify the legally appointed executors or administrators and beneficiaries
Accurately identify the type of Probate application you will require
Obtain the relevant documents required to make the application
Complete the Probate Application and the relevant HMRC forms
Make the application to the Probate Court on your behalf
Obtain the Probate and securely send copies that were requested, subject to the disbursement cost.

On average, estates that fall within this range are dealt with within 4 - 12 months. Typically, obtaining the Grant of Probate takes 16 weeks from submission of application. Letters of Administration or Intestacy do typically take longer.

Full administration costs: collating the initial information, applying for the Grant, collecting and distributing the assets

We charge on a time-spent basis in accordance with the practitioner’s hourly rate. These range from £150 plus VAT - £305 plus VAT (£180 - £366 including VAT). It is difficult to estimate the amount of time required as this depends on the complexity of the estate and the assets within the estate. On average our costs are for the full administration of the estate are £6,000 plus VAT - £15,000 plus VAT (£7,200 - £18,000 including VAT).

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.

We will handle the full process for you. Please note that these costs do not include the conveyancing for a probate property which can be dealt with separately by our property department.

Breakdown of disbursements (not all of these will be relevant to your matter):

Probate court fee of £273 plus £1.50 per office copy Grant.
£25 plus VAT (£30 including VAT) identity check
£2 plus VAT (£2.40 including VAT) per Land Charges bankruptcy search per beneficiary
45p plus VAT (54p including VAT) per mile
£3 plus VAT (£3.60 including VAT) per Office Copy Entry from the Land Registry
£110.40 (including VAT) Post in The London Gazette – Protects against unexpected claims from unknown creditors.
£50 - £200 (depending on the region) Post in a Local Newspaper – This also helps to protect against unexpected claims.
£234 (including VAT) asset search
£58.80 - £126 (including VAT) Will Search depending on the search requested.

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 smoother process.

Potential additional costs

Our costs do not include any Inheritance Tax, Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax due on the estate. Our probate practitioners will help you calculate the amount of taxes due however to give an indicator, please see HMRC’s calculator for Inheritance Tax.

If there is no Will or the estate consists of any share holdings (stocks and bonds) or international assets there is likely to be additional costs that could range significantly depending on the estate and how it is to be dealt with. We can give you a more accurate quote once we have more information.

Dealing with the sale or transfer of any property in the estate is not included.

Where the Partners of Dutton Gregory are named as Executors, we charge a value element uplift based on the size of the estate to account for the additional risk on the Partners. This is currently 0.5% plus VAT the probate value of any property and 1% plus VAT the probate value of all other assets.

How long will this take?

On average, estates that fall within this range are dealt with within 12 - 24 months. Typically, obtaining the Grant of Probate takes 16 weeks from submission of application. Letters of Administration or Intestacy do typically take longer.
If there is a property to sell, or international assets to deal with, these can increase the length of time.

Please see Applying for probate (www.gov.uk).