Probate application fees are usually calculated in one of three ways:
- As a Fixed Fee, where you are not using a solicitor, DIY services start from as little as £300 for simple estates. Though that does not include Settld’s award winning account closure service, you can expect the overall application to take around 10 hours of your time.
- As an hourly charge. You should get an estimate of how much the overall price will be before the work begins.
- As a percentage of the value of the estate, plus VAT. These charges tend to range between 1% and 2%.
You may also have to pay for court or application fees, which will make the complete cost higher, so check this at the beginning of your discussions.
Based on the market rates for Probate solicitors in the UK, you are likely to save more than £2,000 by using Settld for Probate. That’s because solicitors can charge upwards of £200 per hour for probate applications. It will take approximately ten hours for a solicitor to gather all the required documentation and then fill, check and submit the application.