What Solicitor Should Charge For Uncomplicated Probate

[lukeskywalker]

Just wondering what a solicitor should charge for probate. Looking for a fixed fee, south Dublin or city centre. Its quite uncomplicated. House in joint names already, and accounts held by one parent need to be transferred to the other parent who is the sole beneficiary (1-3 accounts / investments with 8 financial institutions/ have documentation). There are no debts. Parents solicitor has house deeds and will but has a history of being pricy.

 

[mf1]

You could do it yourself?

Or google Cheap Probate Solicitors Ireland and ask the featured ones for a quote?

mf

 

[Thirsty]

Nothing is ever quite as uncomplicated as it seems, but DIY probate is possible.

There's quite a good thread on this board about it.

You need to be pretty organised and good with paperwork & detail. If that makes your blood run cold, get someone else to do it.

 

[cbreeze]

If you are doing a personal application you can get a pack from the Probate Office which is quite clear on what you need to do. This forum is also very helpful. Also you will have to compare the cost a solicitor might charge with the Probate Fee for a Personal Applicant which is scaled based on the value of the estate. For estates valued at €300,000 the fee is €606 and for every additional €31,250 a fee of €24 is charged. Smaller estates attract lower fees. Fees are payable at the interview stage - should the Probate Office accept the application for consideration. They have the right to require applicants to use a solicitor.

 

[noproblem]

You should ask the solicitor what he will charge you to take out probate. If you're not happy with the cost, just go to another solicitor and do likewise. I did on two occasions.

 

[Peanuts20]

Do you need probate? If the house is in joint names it will pass to the surviving person. Same applies with joint accounts, there is paperwork but banks are very helpful in sorting that out. When my dad died, his will passed everything to my Mam. There was no need for probate because they had wills in place. Only complicated thing was transferring some shares which took a while but that was down to Computershare being useless but we sorted it ourselves over a few months.

 

[RedOnion]

There was no need for probate because they had wills in place.

The existence of a will doesn't remove the need for probate. In your example the joint ownership dealt with most aspects, and the remaining estate was probably small enough to be dealt with without probate.

In OPs case, if bank accounts contain more than 25k, banks will insist on seeing grant if probate before transferring. Some banks set a lower threshold.

 

[twofor1]

Here’s my recent experience looking for a probate and house sale solicitor;

I am one of two executors for a deceased relative. Though it is a simple enough estate, for other reasons it was decided to use a solicitor for probate.

5 solicitors were asked to quote to do probate and house sale.

The assets are a house and a single bank account, nothing else of any value. Other than an amount owed for Fair Deal there are no debts, tax issues or known complications.

There is no mortgage on the house, there are title deeds, vesting cert etc, no known complications here either.

There is a will leaving everything divided equally between 4 adult children, all are resident here.

The first to quote was my relations solicitor who had the will, he quoted €7K plus vat plus outlays for probate, and €6.5K plus vat plus outlays for house sale.

Another quoted €3K plus vat plus outlays for probate and €3.5K plus vat plus outlays for house sale.

Another quoted €6K in total for probate and house sale plus vat plus outlays.

Another who is a bit further away but was recommended quoted, €2K plus vat plus outlays for probate, and €1.95K plus vat plus outlays for house sale.

One was to call back with a price but never did.

Disregarding vat and outlays, and assuming no complications, the legal fee to do probate and house sale from the 4 who quoted was €13.5K, €6.5K, €6K, and €3.9K.

 

[mf1]

So four quotes, one very high, one low and two at similar levels.

For what its worth, as a Sole Practitioner, I'd be coming in at around 4k for the Probate and 2K for the sale of the house. Both fees plus VAT.

I'd guess that the very high quote was on the optimistic basis that they'd get the Probate because they had the Will- and that's never a given.

Equally, the low quote was from someone probably angling for the business- whether they could deliver a good service would be the real question.

Overall, there is always the matter of the service that will be provided - not every client cares that much until the whole process drags on forever and the client is sick and tired of the whole thing.

The best advice I'd give anyone looking for a fee quote from a solicitor is to get a personal recommendation about each and every one of those solicitors.

There is always the thorny issue of the impossible client - they're not all Askaboutmoney readers and , personally, I've declined work from people I know, or suspect to be, just plain dang awkward.

And what a client regards as a really simple matter is usually coming from a position of great optimism unsullied by any knowledge of what is involved!

And, finally, as has been pointed out on more than one occasion, it is perfectly possible for a lay person to extract a Grant of Probate themselves.

Cutting out the middleman who'd like to be paid for their time, expertise and overheads.

mf

 

[polarbear]

The difficult part of the Probate is gathering all the information/documents. Once you have these, and there are no creditors, you can apply for the Probate yourself. Revenue.ie have plenty of info on their website on how to do it yourself. Download the form, see what's required and give it a go! The Probate Office will assist you also, or advice you to go to a solicitor, if they think you need one. Shop around, there are some solicitors in Dublin who charge a fair price for their services.

 

[DirectDevil]

+1 above.

As an executor I did the probate for an estate worth around €650 K gross by way of personal application.
If you are good and careful with paperwork it is fairly easy.
Your only costs will be the stamp duty and a bit of photocopying.
I found the Probate Office very helpful - but they do not give you legal advice.

That said, remember two points ;
1. If you are uncertain about your ability to make a personal probate application leave it to a solicitor.
2. In any event the Probate Office can, as of right, direct that a personal application is to be continued by a solicitor.

Probably more importantly, I would always have the conveyancing done by a solicitor to ensure that it is done properly and professionally.

 

[Desimomo07]

I've recently just completed the Personal Application route, along with my uncle for my late mother's Will. It was a straight forward estate worth just under €300k. The CA24 form looks very intimidating, but with simple estates, a lot of the required data is straight forward. It does help to be well organised with paperwork. The form had to be downloaded and completed as a soft copy.

When the application was completed and the affidavit was being sworn, the solicitor who was swearing the form said to us that those using the personal application route tend to be dealt with faster by the Probate Office than those through a solicitor. From the date of lodging the application to when we had our interview, it took about 14 weeks.

From my experience, the personal application route is fairly easy for simple estates and saved us about €5k in legals.

 

[Steven Barrett]

That said, remember two points ;
1. If you are uncertain about your ability to make a personal probate application leave it to a solicitor.
2. In any event the Probate Office can, as of right, direct that a personal application is to be continued by a solicitor.

Can I add to that
3. If you would prefer to outsource it to someone else to do all the heavy lifting for you

 

[twofor1]

Here’s my recent experience looking for a probate and house sale solicitor.............

An update on this that some might be interested in.

The main reason for using a solicitor was the actual cost to us is only 25% each of the solicitor’s fee. Myself and my co-executor are both happy to pay this modest amount rather than taking on the time-consuming job of having to research and then submit a private application, possibly making mistakes.

Other lessor factors were both the application fee payable to the probate office and the wait time for grant to be issued are double for a private application.

In this case, after reviewing everything the solicitor identified two issues that needed to be resolved before lodging the probate application, even with research we would not have recognised either of these issues. One we were able to resolve, the other required legal input from the solicitor and was then quickly resolved. No doubt these issues would have resulted in a substantial delay and legal fees anyway had a private application been made.

In our very straight forward and uncomplicated probate application, employing a solicitor was definitely the way to go. Probate application now successfully lodged, allowing for Christmas holidays our solicitor expects grant to be issued towards end of February.