Executors dealing with an estate already have plenty to manage and the cost of applying for probate is about to become a bigger part of that.
Now the standard probate application fee has jumped from £300 to £526 from 13 July – a rise of 75 per cent.
Why the increase
The Ministry of Justice has framed the rise as a cost recovery measure. Of the £226 increase, officials say the additional revenue will go towards inflation and ongoing investment in the probate service.
There is a smaller change working in the opposite direction, as the fee for requesting extra copies of probate documents alongside an application is being cut from £16 to £2.
Smaller estates feel it most
Estates worth under £5,000 will continue to pay nothing for probate. Everything above that threshold moves straight to the new £526 fee, with no tapering in between.
That flat structure means the impact is not spread evenly. An estate only just over the £5,000 mark ends up paying a much larger share of its total value in fees than a substantial estate does, which is where the real strain of this change will be felt.
Our fees are not changing
Rising government costs are one thing, but they will not be passed on through our own charges.
Whatever changes come from the Ministry of Justice, our fees for our probate service will stay exactly as they were before this announcement.
Bereavement is difficult enough without having to untangle fee changes and legal terminology at the same time.
If you are acting as an executor or supporting someone who is, please book a consultation with our specialists and we can talk you through what these changes mean in practice.
