Probate fees in 2021

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suicra05

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My aunt died and I am executor of her will. Her solicitor has given me outline of his fees to organise probate. The total estate may be worth 425k which includes a property and savings. His fee for Probate is 4700 which includes professional fee for extraction of Grant 3500, vat, probate fees 350. Is that reasonable?

There is a house to be sold for approx 360k and he is charging 2k professional fees plus vat. Is that the going rate? The property is in Dublin.

There are 10 people who will equally inherit from this will so I want to make sure all is above board.
 
It sounds very straightforward so you can do it all yourself other than the conveyance of the house.

suicra05 said:
Her solicitor
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If you don't want to do it yourself, you can use any solicitor you like.

No need to use her solicitor. So if you have your own solicitor who is efficient, ask them for a quote.

Brendan
 
Based on the limited facts presented, it does not sound very straightforward. The chances of a 10-beneficiary administration being very straightforward are small.

I think that it would be extremely foolish to do the probate yourself.

You will save yourself (give or take) €400. It will definitely take a few days of your time and it may expose you to needless risk.

Unless you are retired or unemployed and looking for a way to fill up your days this make no financial sense for you.

Perhaps if the other 9 beneficiaries are all resident in Ireland, all close to you and all -without exception -supportive of your decision to go DIY, I might take a different view.

Also, the quoted fee is competitive. By all means seek another quote if you wish - but the quoted fee certainly does not put you even remotely close to being under any legal or moral duty to seek a lower fee elsewhere.
 
Hi Brendan.

OP appears to be in for one tenth of the estate - I was talking specifically about the benefit to him\her.

One tenth of the quoted €4700 is €470.

Slightly higher probate office fees and 'shoe leather' costs will drop the saving somewhat - hence my guesstimate of €400

As it is an Aunt I am guessing that some of the ten are siblings and some are cousins/uncles/aunts.

Unless all are close knit, I would not recommend a DIY probate for OP in such circumstances. If there is any delay or error he\she runs risk of being pilloried for not using a solicitor.

No troublesome beneficiary is likely to be placated by being told "I'm doing it this way to save you €400"
 
2 years ago the solicitor who held the will quoted me a legal fee of €7k for probate and a legal fee of €7k for house sale, plus VAT and outlays on each.

I shopped around and ended up paying a very reasonable legal fee of €2k for probate and €2k legal fee for house sale, plus VAT and outlays on each. Your Aunt’s solicitor is definitely in the reasonable bracket.

Myself and my co-executor went with a solicitor for the reasons outlined by Mob and have no regrets.
 
MOB said:
Hi Brendan.

OP appears to be in for one tenth of the estate - I was talking specifically about the benefit to him\her.

One tenth of the quoted €4700 is €470.

Slightly higher probate office fees and 'shoe leather' costs will drop the saving somewhat - hence my guesstimate of €400

As it is an Aunt I am guessing that some of the ten are siblings and some are cousins/uncles/aunts.

Unless all are close knit, I would not recommend a DIY probate for OP in such circumstances. If there is any delay or error he\she runs risk of being pilloried for not using a solicitor.

No troublesome beneficiary is likely to be placated by being told "I'm doing it this way to save you €400"
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That's very interesting and can see the problems that might arise. At the end of the day it makes a lot of sense to use the solicitor in this case, and the money is there, no arguments and peace of mind for the executor.
 
1) If it's a straightforward will with all the beneficiaries in agreement, presumably no one should pay a fee of €4,000 or, for that matter, €7,000 to a solicitor to do it. In practice, one of the family members is going to have to go through all the paperwork anyway.

2) If there is some dispute, again I would argue that you should not use a solicitor. Imagine if twoforone's solicitor who thought they could get away with €14k was the Executor and there was a dispute! €100 per phone call. €50 for each email received. €100 for each email sent. €20 for automated responses.

You might strike it lucky and get a competent solicitor at a reasonable fee. But you are vulnerable to being charged excessive fees and not being in any position to doing anything about it. And the solicitor will calculate "Well, if I overcharge by €10k , it's only €1k each, so none of them will be bothered to challenge it."

Brendan
 
MOB said:
Based on the limited facts presented, it does not sound very straightforward. The chances of a 10-beneficiary administration being very straightforward are small.

I think that it would be extremely foolish to do the probate yourself.

You will save yourself (give or take) €400. It will definitely take a few days of your time and it may expose you to needless risk.

Unless you are retired or unemployed and looking for a way to fill up your days this make no financial sense for you.

Perhaps if the other 9 beneficiaries are all resident in Ireland, all close to you and all -without exception -supportive of your decision to go DIY, I might take a different view.

Also, the quoted fee is competitive. By all means seek another quote if you wish - but the quoted fee certainly does not put you even remotely close to being under any legal or moral duty to seek a lower fee elsewhere.
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I'd take that same approach. If the bill is going to be split 10 ways, it is not that much money.

If the OP does the probate themselves, they will be the only one spending any time on it, so the other beneficiaries will spend no money and no time, while the OP will spend 100% of the time required to complete probate. Outsource and get someone else.

By all means, phone around to get a price, but the cost per person isn't that much.
 
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