Solicitor’s Probate & Conveyancing Fees – Are these reasonable?

I'm still none the wiser about why a non-solicitor can not transfer a property title. I personally know of one executor who did this and, of course, it was a simple case. That's why he didn't use a solicitor.

There's a lot of speculation about 'inadvertent' this and 'messing up' that and people being people and changing their minds and of course that's why it helps to have a third party to referee and use their expertise to find a solution. But, in the OP's case, if there is a 100% clear path into the OP's ownership (as proven by the Probate Office) then where is the risk that someone down the line will question the OP's ownership and render the property difficult to sell?
 
>There's probably a good reason that no non-solicitor has set up a business offering conveyancing services without legal expertise.

The good reason is that the solicitors would lock that person up in court with frivolous lawsuits for ever.

I had to ring a district court about a licensing issue and they could not tell me what a certain procedure was. They only said to talk to a solicitor. When I asked if they were compelling me to use a solicitor for a pro-forma procedure they said they weren't (only a judge can do that). Turns out they never had to explain the procedure and they lazily assume that everyone will happily pay thousands of euros to someone to do some clerical work that they characterized as 'litigation' (it's not. not at all). In the end we had to use a solicitor because of this passive aggressive resistance but strictly speaking I didn't need one.
 
>You think they give a toss if a unqualified person gets the property transfer wrong?

Did I say they would give a toss? If they OK it then it's a simple case. If the unqualified person gets it wrong then it's wrong, same as if a qualified person got it wrong (it happens). But the unqualified person might get it right. Depends on the person.

>Probate office is only concerned with proving the validity of the will. After that it's up to the Executor

Agreed and in the OP's case the executor can sell the property and pay the beneficiaries. Selling the property to themselves based on a valuation that the Probate Office accepted seems like a very simple case and the beneficiaries have no grounds to object. A transfer based on that is hardly going to be questionable but if you wouldn't buy such a property then that's fine.
 
>Probate office are not "OK-ing" anything except the validity of the will!

I said I agreed with that. Nobody disputes that.

You asked who decides if a case is simple (obviously subjective) and I said if the Probate Office OKs your case (without questions or requiring a solicitor) then you probably have a simple case. If the Land Registry OKs your transfer (they reject 15% each year) then it's probably simple. I, like the OP, then wonder what is it exactly you are paying a solicitor for.
 
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