Legal Cost of Probate

Retailer

As the executor of a will I have been researching probate quite a lot over the past few weeks.

The only answer I haven't been able to get is in relation to fees.

The estate in question is valued at roughly €1.5m, however I have most if not all of the documentation done myself, neatly organised and filed. I have all documents in relation to property, bank accounts, property valuation etc in one folder.

when ringing around solicitors for quotes initially, none of them would give me a quote until I told them the value of the estate. All of those quotes were in the region of €14,000 to €25,000 + VAT (the fact that they are all quoting me ex-VAT is another issue in itself as I'm a consumer not a business). In each case I told them that I had all documentation already ready to go etc.

Anyway, I subsequently rang back 4 of these solicitors with exactly the same details, except I told them the value of the estate was approximately €150,000.

The quotes were now between €2,000 and €4200 + VAT.

Can someone please explain to me why the significant difference simply because of the value of the estate?

I'm genuinely interested and would love to have it explained to me.

Thanks

chopser

Retailer wrote: »

As the executor of a will I have been researching probate quite a lot over the past few weeks.

The only answer I haven't been able to get is in relation to fees.

The estate in question is valued at roughly €1.5m, however I have most if not all of the documentation done myself, neatly organised and filed. I have all documents in relation to property, bank accounts, property valuation etc in one folder.

when ringing around solicitors for quotes initially, none of them would give me a quote until I told them the value of the estate. All of those quotes were in the region of €14,000 to €25,000 + VAT (the fact that they are all quoting me ex-VAT is another issue in itself as I'm a consumer not a business). In each case I told them that I had all documentation already ready to go etc.

Anyway, I subsequently rang back 4 of these solicitors with exactly the same details, except I told them the value of the estate was approximately €150,000.

The quotes were now between €2,000 and €4200 + VAT.

Can someone please explain to me why the significant difference simply because of the value of the estate?

I'm genuinely interested and would love to have it explained to me.

Thanks

Some firms still do Probate based on the value of the Estate. A lot of general practice firms in the country side and Dublin I'm sure, would have a more fixed fee regardless of what the estate is worth as the work doesn't really change.

Are all the firms you are calling in Dublin?

coylemj

Do the probate yourself, it sounds like you've most of the work done anyway. When the time comes and you get the grant of probate, you can engage a solicitor to transfer deeds though if specific property has been left to individual people, it's not absolutely necessary to get the deeds transferred until they need to (1) sell the property or (2) raise a loan using the property as security. If property has been left to multiple people so it needs to be sold, you get the grant of probate, then engage an auctioneer and solicitor (for the sale of the property only), sell the property by public auction and split the money.

It's standard practice for estate agents and (in the case of probate) solicitors to charge a % of the value of the assets.

Retailer

chopser wrote: »

Are all the firms you are calling in Dublin?

Yes. really just because I myself am based in Dublin.

coylemj wrote: »

Do the probate yourself, it sounds like you've most of the work done anyway. When the time comes and you get the grant of probate, you can engage a solicitor to transfer deeds though if specific property has been left to individual people, it's not absolutely necessary to get the deeds transferred until they need to (1) sell the property or (2) raise a loan using the property as security. If property has been left to multiple people so it needs to be sold, you get the grant of probate, then engage an auctioneer and solicitor (for the sale of the property only), sell the property by public auction and split the money.

It's standard practice for estate agents and (in the case of probate) solicitors to charge a % of the value of the assets.

Thanks for this.I have toyed with the idea of doing it myself and had a look at the forms etc. As I am the executor I really just want to get it right for all the people involved and am happy to pay a solicitor to do the work. I just don't want to pay a percentage simply because it's the norm when the workload (in my opinion of course) would be much the same as for an estate with a lower value.

I suppose I've only phoned 4 places out of hundreds, but I was getting a little disheartened with each phone call! Two of these places advertise on their webswite 'their standard fixed probate fee' as being €2100+VAT yet when I rang them first I got a quote of €16,000 and €17,000 + VAT.

When I rang them the second time with the lesser value, they quoted me €2400 and €2300 + VAT.

I suppose I'll just keep ringing around

Thanks a lot for the replies!