How much does probate cost in the UK? Court fees, solicitor charges and the cheaper routes

How much does probate cost in the UK?

In England and Wales the one cost nobody avoids is the court's application fee, which is £526 if the estate is worth more than £5,000 and nothing at all if it is worth £5,000 or less. Everything else depends on whether you apply yourself or pay a professional, and on how much of the work you hand over, because getting the grant is a much smaller job than administering the whole estate and firms price the two very differently.

It helps to separate the fixed costs that every estate meets, which are modest, from the professional fees that only some estates take on, which can be large. Our guide to what probate is explains when a grant is needed in the first place, and if it turns out that it is not, most of the costs below fall away.

What is the probate application fee in 2026?

The fee for applying for probate, or for letters of administration when there is no will, is £526 for an estate valued at more than £5,000, with no fee for an estate of £5,000 or less. It rose from £300 on 13 July 2026 under the Court and Tribunal Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2026, which is an increase of about three-quarters.

The same change cut the price of extra official copies of the grant ordered with the application to £2 each, whilst copies ordered after you have applied still cost £16 each. Copies had cost £1.50 until November 2025, when the price rose to £16, so the reduced up-front price is worth using. Banks, building societies, pension providers and share registrars will often want to see the grant, and because a copy ordered at the start costs an eighth of one ordered later, it makes sense to count the organisations before you apply.

GOV.UK's probate fees page explains that help with fees may be available to people on low incomes or certain benefits, although it never covers extra copies, and that online applicants pay the full fee when they apply and receive a refund later if help is granted.

What do solicitors charge for probate?

Solicitors and other probate practitioners usually charge by a fixed fee, by an estimate built on hourly rates, or occasionally by a percentage of the estate, and the method can matter almost as much as the firm. The most useful recent evidence comes from the Legal Services Board's survey of legal service prices, carried out between September and November 2024 and published in June 2025, which asked firms to price an estate worth £310,000 with a valid, uncontested will, quoting their fees before VAT and disbursements.

• Help to obtain the grant only: a median price of £1,000 and a mean of £1,334.

• Administering the estate once the grant was in place: a median and a mean of £3,570.

How the firm charged made a clear difference. For estate administration the survey found a mean of £2,960 where firms quoted a fixed fee, £3,757 where they charged by the hour and £5,835 where they gave an estimate, and across its wills, trusts and probate work, firms using fixed fees were significantly more likely than those giving estimates to say that cases rarely or never ended up costing more than the client had expected. Which? (August 2026) says most solicitors charge by the hour, that some base their charge on a percentage of the estate, and that fees start from around £5,000 for a basic estate, which is well above the survey medians and shows how widely quotes vary. A percentage charge deserves a hard look on a large but simple estate, because the value of an estate is not the same thing as the amount of work in it.

Since 6 December 2018 the Solicitors Regulation Authority's transparency rules have required firms that offer uncontested probate, where all the assets are in the UK, to publish price information on their websites, including the basis of their charges, what is and is not included, the likely disbursements and whether VAT is included. That makes it practical to compare a few firms before you choose one, and our guide to probate solicitors and estate administration services covers what to ask beyond the price.

What other costs come on top of probate fees?

VAT at the standard rate of 20% is added to a VAT-registered firm's fees, so the median grant-only price of £1,000 in the Legal Services Board survey becomes £1,200 once VAT is included. Beyond that come disbursements, which are payments made to third parties as the work goes along, and these arise whether you use a solicitor or not.

• A deceased estates notice in The Gazette: £96.55 plus VAT if you submit it through the Gazette's own webform or template, or £131.70 plus VAT by other methods, under the Gazette price list in force since 1 January 2026. The notice, placed under section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925, gives creditors two months to come forward and protects the executor from claims that surface after the estate has been shared out.

• Bankruptcy searches: a search of the Land Charges register for bankruptcy entries against a named person costs £6 per name on HM Land Registry's portal, and it shows whether a beneficiary has a bankruptcy entry before money is paid to them.

• Land Registry copies: a copy of a title register or title plan downloaded online costs £7 each, which is useful when you need to confirm how a property was owned, whilst an official copy that can be used as proof of ownership costs £11 each by post.

• Valuations: a property valuation, and valuations of items such as jewellery or art, are priced by whoever provides them. Our guide on how to value an estate for probate explains when a formal valuation is worth paying for.

Who pays for probate?

The estate pays, not the executor or the family personally, and Citizens Advice confirms that legal fees can be paid from the estate. In practice the costs reduce what is left to share out, so it is the beneficiaries who carry them, which is one reason executors are wise to keep professional fees in proportion to the estate.

The court fee is due when you apply, which is before you have the grant that unlocks the person's accounts, so it is worth asking the person's bank whether it will release money from their account to pay it, since every organisation has its own rules. If you pay anything out of your own pocket, keep the receipts so it can be repaid from the estate and shown in the estate accounts. Which? notes that where a solicitor's costs seem excessive, it is possible to have them checked by the court.

How much does it cost if probate is not needed?

If no grant is needed there is no court fee at all, and the cost is mainly your time. GOV.UK says you may not need probate if the person only had savings, or if their money, shares or property were jointly owned and pass automatically to the surviving owner, although it adds that every organisation has its own rules about when it will release money without a grant.

That means you deal with each bank, building society or provider directly, using their own bereavement process, and the expense is usually limited to certified copies of documents and postage. The cost only rises again if one organisation insists on a grant, which is why it pays to ask them all before you decide.

What might probate cost on a typical estate?

Using the Legal Services Board's £310,000 estate as a guide, and today's court and Gazette fees, the totals look quite different depending on the route. These are illustrations built from published figures rather than quotes, the professional fees are 2024 prices, and they leave out valuations and searches, which vary from estate to estate.

Applying yourself: the £526 court fee, five extra copies at £2 each (£10) and a Gazette notice at £115.86 including VAT come to £651.86.

Paying a firm for the grant only: the median fee of £1,000 plus £200 VAT, added to the same court fee and disbursements, comes to £1,851.86.

Paying a firm for the grant and the administration: adding the median administration price of £3,570 plus VAT of £714 takes the total to £6,135.86, and a firm charging by the hour or on an estimate may come in higher.

How can you keep the cost of probate down?

The biggest saving is to make the application yourself, which GOV.UK notes can be cheaper than paying a probate practitioner to apply for you, and whether that suits your situation is the subject of our guide to whether you can do probate yourself. Short of that, several smaller choices add up.

• Buy only the part you need. Which? says some solicitors will agree to a division of labour, so you might pay for the grant, or for advice on one difficult asset, and handle the rest yourself.

• Ask for a fixed fee in writing. The Legal Services Board survey found fixed fees were lower than estimates in every probate scenario it tested, and less likely to overrun.

• Compare published prices. Firms covered by the SRA rules have to show their probate prices, so two or three comparisons cost nothing.

• Order copies with the application. At £2 rather than £16 each, the saving on six copies is £84.

• Keep routine correspondence in-house. A large part of estate administration is writing to banks, utilities, insurers and subscription providers, and a firm charging by the hour bills that correspondence at the same rate as its legal work.

How much is probate in Scotland and Northern Ireland?

Scotland uses confirmation rather than probate, and the court fee is set by estate value. Under the Sheriff Court Fees Order 2026, from 1 April 2026 there is no fee for an estate of up to £50,000, a fee of £351 for an estate over £50,000 and up to £250,000, and £705 above that. For a small estate, which Scottish Courts and Tribunals defines as £36,000 or less, the local sheriff clerk can complete the inventory form for you, which makes applying without a solicitor more manageable.

In Northern Ireland, the probate fee schedule from 1 April 2026 sets no fee for an estate of up to £10,000 and £326 above that, whilst a personal applicant, meaning someone applying without a solicitor, also pays an £81 personal application fee, so £407 in total.

What to do next

1. Ask each bank and provider whether they need a grant, because if none of them does, there is no court fee to pay.

2. Work out the estate's value, which sets both the court fee and any Inheritance Tax position.

3. Decide which parts you will do yourself and which, if any, you will pay for.

4. If you want help, get fixed-fee quotes from two or three firms and check what each one includes.

5. Count the organisations that will need to see the grant and order that many copies when you apply, using our step-by-step guide to applying for probate.

6. Keep a record of every cost so it can go into the estate accounts.

Whichever route you take, someone still has to tell each bank, utility, insurer and subscription provider about the death, and that work is the same whether a solicitor holds the grant or you do. Legacy Trail's free notification service contacts private-sector companies on your behalf, and if you suspect there are accounts nobody knows about, the Account Discovery Service searches for them before notifying each one, with the cost set out on our pricing page.