We have just started on this and are deciding Solicitor v ourselves. The will is very straightforward - estate left to 4 children, spouse is deceased and no assets apart from house. Solicitor told me that doing probate ourselves is an option but we could be waiting up to a year for an appointment. Also does probate have to be done by executor (yes, I think). Not sure I believe him or not - can you advise? ThanksI did probate myself last year when uncle left me the house, I was the executor. Took 3 months for probate to come through. I just paid the probate fee in the probate office. A few hundred if I remember, thats all it cost
In similar circumstances to you, as executor I appointed a solicitor to do a straightforward probate for a legal fee of €2k plus vat and outlays.We have just started on this and are deciding Solicitor v ourselves. The will is very straightforward - estate left to 4 children, spouse is deceased and no assets apart from house.
Thanks for prompt reply - very interesting note re solicitors errors!In similar circumstances to you, as executor I appointed a solicitor to do a straightforward probate for a legal fee of €2k plus vat and outlays.
If anything was not right with the application it was then the solicitors fault, not mine.
Had I done the application and something was not right, and the application was returned, the other 3 beneficiaries would have asked why I did not use a solicitor.
As one of 4 beneficiaries, it only cost me 25% of the solicitors fee and I did not then have the work or the responsibility for the probate application being correctly lodged. Money well spent in my view.
Another lesser consideration is the probate fee is double for a private application.
It did Not happen with my solicitors application, but interestingly, according to this Dail Eireann answer, up to 60% of probate applications by solicitors are returned due to errors.
https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2022-05-24/546/#:~:text=For new solicitor applications the,to solicitors due to errors
I can only speak for myself, my uncles estate was just left to me. I have an online revenue account so it was fairly straightforward. I assume if its left to 4 people, you will probably need their addresses/pps numbers when filing in revenue form. I found the process easy. Once I got the notice of acknowledgement form from the revenue, I sent this with death cert & original will along with probate documents to the probate office. I was only waiting a few months for appointment.We have just started on this and are deciding Solicitor v ourselves. The will is very straightforward - estate left to 4 children, spouse is deceased and no assets apart from house. Solicitor told me that doing probate ourselves is an option but we could be waiting up to a year for an appointment. Also does probate have to be done by executor (yes, I think). Not sure I believe him or not - can you advise? Thanks
Thanks all. I did myself, was a little longsome, but all in all very manageable. And I too found the probate officer very helpful. We had our meeting about 9 weeks after submission and then had the probate document 2 weeks after that, so it was very quick. I am glad I did myself, so thanks for the advice.
A little longer, about 14/15. But much quicker than the solicitor who advised me not to do myself!Monkey so about 12 weeks in total from start to finish?