Probate Fee Calculator

A grant of probate, or letters of administration where there is no will, is the document that gives you legal authority to deal with someone's estate. In England and Wales the application fee is £526 for any estate valued above £5,000, and estates at or below £5,000 pay nothing. Extra sealed copies of the grant cost £2 each if you order them with the application, or £16 each if you order them afterwards, under the fees in force from 6 July 2026. The government dropped its 2019 proposal for tiered fees of up to £6,000, so the charge is flat and does not scale with the size of the estate. Scotland (confirmation) and Northern Ireland have their own rules and fees.

The £5,000 test uses the net value of the estate passing under the grant, as shown in the inheritance tax figures, so debts such as a mortgage on the house are deducted first. For the application you need an estimate covering everything the person owned: property, savings, investments and personal possessions. Paying it falls to the executor or administrator, usually out of estate funds rather than their own pocket. Whether you need a grant at all is a separate question. It is generally required once any single asset holds more than somewhere between £15,000 and £50,000, since each bank sets its own threshold, and also where property is held in a sole name or investments sit outside an ISA. Jointly owned property passing by survivorship and genuinely small estates often need nothing.

Applications go through gov.uk/applying-for-probate, and the online route is quicker than paper. GOV.UK says you will usually get probate within 12 weeks of submitting an online application, and paper applications take longer. Before starting, gather the original will, the death certificate, an inventory of the estate and the relevant inheritance tax forms. Probate itself is the process of proving the will is valid, settling debts and taxes, and distributing what is left to the beneficiaries, so the grant marks the beginning of the work rather than the end of it.

Doing probate yourself costs nothing beyond the £526 fee and your own time, which realistically means 20 to 50 hours of paperwork, correspondence and chasing. A solicitor will charge 1% to 5% of the estate value on top of the fee, so a £500k estate at 2% comes to £10,000. Paying that makes sense for complex estates, disputes over inheritance tax, several properties, business or foreign assets, and contentious or missing wills. A single property with some savings and no tax to pay is well within reach of a careful executor.

Inheritance tax has to be paid, or at least arranged, before the grant is issued, which creates an awkward problem of timing, because the money is usually locked inside the estate you cannot yet touch. Above the nil-rate band of £325,000, plus the residence nil-rate band of £175,000 where it applies, the rate is 40% on the excess. Three routes get around it. HMRC can give a grant on credit and accept payment later from the estate, the Direct Payment Scheme lets banks pay the tax straight from the deceased's accounts, and a short-term bridging loan can be taken against the estate. Estates in that territory are worth taking specialist advice on.