Reply With QuoteIt’s definitely doable, if you can spare the time and are organised, I did it for my mums estate, very straightforward and split with my sister. Very small
Estate though.
I sadly lost my mother a few months ago and now time has allowed the dust to settle we now have the issue of probate to attend to. It’s a fairly straight forward will with mothers estate split 4 equal ways between me & my siblings. We have had a quote from the company that dealt with her will and it’s come in at £6K, they say it’s about 80 hrs work all told. However my sister seems to think probate is something that can be dealt with by ourselves and she has asked me to take the probate on with her to complete.
So my question is, have any of you ever sorted your own probate? And is it fairly straight forward or are we biting off a bit more than we think?
It’s definitely doable, if you can spare the time and are organised, I did it for my mums estate, very straightforward and split with my sister. Very small
Estate though.
Cheers..
Jase
Thanks Jason, it’s a very small estate as well and we believe it should be straight forward.Originally Posted by JasonM
What sort of hrs did you spend roughly? 80hrs? Any pitfalls you came across worth mentioning?
No where near 80 hours, no, I can’t think of anything offhand, it was 8 years ago but it wasn’t onerous, make lists and tick them off, keep good records in a folder.
I guess you’re the executor?
There are lots on online guides and advice.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/fa...de-to-probate/
Cheers..
Jase
I'm sorry to hear you have lost your mother.
As for taking on her estate, I handled my mother-in-law's probate rather than employ a solicitor. I downloaded a checklist off the web - this one I think https://www.which.co.uk/money/wills-and-probate/probate (there are loads)
I did it in fits and starts and it wasn't particularly difficult - more time consuming at first. Some parties were easier to deal with than others but banks usually have a special phone line for executors to use and they can be very helpful.
I've just received Grant of Probate as executor of my recently late mum's estate. It was a fairly straightforward estate with myself and my sister, and our respective children, as beneficiaries under the will. The advice for probate on Gov.uk was quite comprehensive and, just for belt and braces, I bought the DIY pack from https://www.diyprobateforms.co.uk/ for £29. It has all the advice and sample letters I needed to contact all parties and it gave me the confidence to do it myself. I received the grant within 5 weeks without hitch which was pleasing. I could have probably done it just off the gov.uk website in hindsight but for the price it was worth it. First stop though is gov.uk. It is do-able and it saved me £3000 on a relatively modest estate.
Total cost £215 to the Probate Service + £29 for the DIY guide.
Last edited by Dunce; 21st September 2020 at 20:28. Reason: the children are respective and not mine and my sister's oo-er
Sorry for your loss, I lost my father in January and completed probable myself. It’s very easy to complete the estate assessment yourSelf online and apply for probate.
It cost less than £300 total and I would estimate took a total of of 6 hours absolute max.
Please accept my condolences for your loss.
Probate isn't a difficult process, mostly form completion and from the sound of it as the estate is being split equally between siblings who get on, there shouldn't be any issues.
From memory the most expensive part of the process was getting copies of the death certificate (get more than you think you will need, some people will accept a copy, others insist on an original) and getting an affidavit sworn, but certainly nowhere near 80 hours of work.
My condolences on your loss and having to deal with these matters at such a raw time is never good.
However it is not a hard or complicated process and as has been said by others there is a lot of free help on line. The Govt Probate Office are very approachable as well.
Unfortunately I have had to do it 3 times now and all have gone smoothly even one which was intestate.
Best of luck.
Sorry to hear about your mum.
I recently did this for my grandmother with a relatively small estate and took approx 10 hours max I’d estimate, definitely nowhere near 80 hrs anyway.
Good luck
Dan
Sorry to here about your loss OP.
I’ll buck the trend here and give a different POV though. Whilst I’ve never dealt with probate, I’m probably going to have to deal with my Mother’s estate in the future and while £5,000 or so is a decent amount, split 4 ways (as ours would be), the saving to myself makes it less worthwhile and I’ll be inclined to let a solicitor deal with it.
I did the probate for my father a few years ago. Not a small estate but there was no Inheritance Tax to pay. I found it pretty straightforward- probably only took be a days work to sort out.
Sorry for your loss.
I did it myself 6 years ago for my father. Cost if I remember was £200/£300.
Just a few hours form filling, when I got stuck on a few questions the phone helpline was superb.
Just house and couple of banks though so quite simple.
Was initially quoted £2000 by solicitor.
I did the probate for my mother's estate a couple of years ago.
The main thing of course is to sort the tax out - and if the estate owes any tax it is payable before probate is granted.
I have three siblings but we agreed I would be sole signatory which makes life a lot simpler once probate is granted as you only need one signature to resolve things.
Although not a huge estate there were a few complexities as she held some shares so needed to get those valued etc. Also, I had her flat, which she owned outright, contents and jewellery professionally valued as I thought this added credibility to the tax return. It all went through smoothly so hopefully that helped.
I wouldn't think I spent 80 hours on it but certainly occupied my evenings for a few weeks. All an all it was a bit of work but not insurmountable and definitely worth doing versus paying £6k for it.
Thank you for all taking the time to offer your condolences & replies regarding probate.
Its seems the general consensus is what we have been told by friends & family members.
It’s not really all about the cost as said divided between 4 its not a huge amount, me & my
sister are hoping to take over the house as BTL property for pension reasons further down
the line. This obviously involves a monetary value to the 2 other siblings who just want things
sorted as painlessly as possible and they will not contest anything to do with the house.
We were looking at completing all the probate, conveyances etc as part of the package.
I will certainly be following up some of the useful leads you guys have mentioned it’s very much
appreciated at this time, thank you.
If you decide to go the solicitors route PM me as a good customer of mine are probate specialists and they have dealt with stuff for friends before without being crazy expensive.
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