Probate of Will

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dodo

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Just wondering with CV19 ,My dad made a Will which is with solicitor years ago and he has 2 of his sons as executives. He wants to avoid his estate paying the eg 2% solicitor fees. So before he contacts the solicitor he wants to know if he tells solicitor that his sons will do the probate etc thus avoiding solicitor fees. He also thinking of transferring the house as an option while he is alive to 2 sons. Value of house around 500k. Advice be appreciated. Before he contacts solicitor he wants an idea of his options.Just for the record I not one of sons been left the house.
 
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Hopefully this situation is many years away, but when your father dies, the executors write to the solicitor and ask them to release the will to them . It is then up to the executors to decide whether to use a solicitor and negotiate a price.

It is the executors decision at the time. Your father does not have and shouldn’t do anything now.

Also, if he gives the house to them now, he’ll have to pay CGT if the house has increased in value since he bought it .

Your father should not give away his house. There is no reason to. I hope he’s living in it for years. He shouldn’t be worrying about these things . His kids can deal with it all when the time comes
 
Agreed he should not be thinking of this but he is and others just say to him not to be worrying but that is him so he asks me as I can try find these things out for him. He is in sound mind and in his 80's and I know him so well that he appreciates knowing full facts. Why would he have to pay CGT on his own home? He bought in house 1970's so it has increased alot.
 
Sorry , my mistake . No CGT on the family home. If you dispose of any other asset while alive, there is a potential CGT liability which there wouldn’t be after death .

Here is my advice
Giving away his home is not a good idea . Tell him not to. There is no tax advantage to him or the beneficiaries of the will and it is a lot of work and grief that he doesn’t need. Also it’s his home, he should not give it away .

If he wants to leave his estate to his children and that is what his will says then there is no need for him to do anything . The executors will do it all when the time comes .
 
dodo said:
My dad made a Will which is with solicitor years ago and he has 2 of his sons as executives. He wants to avoid his estate paying the eg 2% solicitor fees.
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Tell your Dad the executors will do it themselves when the time comes or will shop around solicitors and do much better than 2%. If he had nothing other than the house, @ 2% the legal fee for probate would be €10K plus VAT, that's wild.

I recently had a straightforward probate granted through a solicitor. A house and bank account, no complications. The legal fee was €2K plus VAT.

The solicitor who held the will wanted €7K plus VAT.
 
OP's father should review what the original will actually says. If he does not have a copy he can simply ask the solicitor for a copy. As in he is thinking he might review it and all that.

If the will says nothing about the solicitor or their firm being specifically appointed to handle the probate when the time comes then, as the other posters have said, the executors can do it themselves or appoint any solicitor they like.

The OP's father can equally just make another will , at any time, with any solicitor, to put his mind at rest.

And the days of any solicitor charging a percentage of the value of the estate to do a Probate are pretty much gone- when so many people have so much access to so much information and shop around for everything.

mf
 
I recently completed a personal application for my late father's estate for a fraction of what it would cost me if I had instructed a solicitor. From interview to grant of probate took 48 hours. The Probate Officer I was dealing with told me that some solicitors were now charging up to 3% of the value of the estate. I was also told that applications lodged by solicitors now take much longer to resolve than personal applications. If an estate is not complicated, say a house and a few bank accounts, then personal application is the way to go.
 
Don't forget that the Probate fees for personal applications are double those of going through a solicitor
 
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