Wills and probate

To ensure everything you have worked for is left to loved ones and settled efficiently, we can prepare a professional will suited to your own particular needs.

We are registered with Certainty, keeping wills safe forever.

We encourage all our clients to register their wills with Certainty. If your will was ever deemed lost or never written your loved ones and benefactors are exposed to potential financial loss and additional stress. With Certainty you know that your will is: 

Safeguard your will with Swaby Clarke & Norris Solicitors.

Even if a person has died leaving a valid will, it is sometimes necessary to obtain a Grant of Probate (most frequently where very valuable assets are involved like a house or interest in land) in order to obtain proof from the court that the will was valid in all respects.

If someone has died without making a will then it is usually necessary to apply to the Probate Court for a Grant of Letters of Administration since no one would have any authority to deal with the estate without a Grant where there is no will.

We can help you apply for a Grant, thus allowing you to administer an estate. Please contact our office for more information.

In order to make the process faster for you, we have provided explanatory notes for you to download and forms to complete before visiting our offices. These can be found here.

Our charges for a standard straightforward Will for one person are £250.00 plus VAT. If a couple wish to make “Mirror Wills”, our charges will be £350.00 plus VAT for the two Wills (not for each). It is unusual for there to be any disbursements incurred in connection with the preparation of a Will.

Unlike with residential conveyancing, it is impossible to provide an average cost for administering estate because every estate is so different from every other estate. However, once the matter has progressed slightly and we have a better understanding of the size of the estate and the amount of assets and debts involved, we will be willing to provide an estimate of the likely eventual costs at that stage. Regrettably, it is not possible to provide this information until we have enough information upon which the estimate can be based. The final charges for the administration of an estate are based upon three main elements: -

(a) The cost to the firm of the work carried out. This is based upon the following charging rates:

• £25.00 for every email or letter sent.
• £15.00 for every email or letter received.
  
• £25.00 for every telephone call made or received (longer telephone conversations will be charged at the following hourly rate).
  
• £250.00 per hour for time otherwise spent on the file.
  

(b) The value to the client of the work. This is expressed as a percentage off the net value of the estate namely 0.5% of the value of any property or properties involved and 1% of the net value of the rest of the estate.

(c) An additional element for the complexity of the matter. If the administration becomes extremely complicated this will of course involve additional work to be calculated in accordance with factor (a) above but where extra research or expertise is required, it may be necessary to include an additional charge which will not exceed one third of the costs calculated in accordance with paragraph (a) above. We must emphasise that if the matter is relatively straightforward with little complexity, there will be no additional charge under this element.

All of the costs mentioned above are of course subject to VAT at the prevailing rate applicable (currently 20%). The costs mentioned above are quoted net of VAT so this must be added into the calculations).

The average cost for a very simple estate would normally be between £2,000 & £3,000 plus V.A.T. & disbursements;

The average cost for an estate of medium complexity would normally be between £3,000 & £10,000 plus V.A.T. & disbursements;

A more complex estate is likely to cost at least £6,000 (but may even exceed £10,000) plus V.A.T. & disbursements.

Please bear in mind that all of the probate & administration work will be carried out by Mr. Swaby will be carried out by our Mr. Swaby, who is a fully qualified, senior solicitor with over 40 years’ local experience of this sort of work and the above charges reflect that level of seniority and experience.

The “disbursements” to be charged are payments to third parties so this firm has no control over the amounts but you would usually expect to have to pay the same disbursements whichever firm you instruct to undertake the work. If the estate is above the threshold for Inheritance Tax and there are not sufficient reliefs available, then Inheritance Tax will of course be payable on the estate. The only other likely disbursement would be fees (currently £273.00 in most cases plus £1.50 for each official copy of the Grant which is required – we would normally obtain one copy for each creditor &/or debtor that requires sight of the Grant) paid to the Probate Court when applying for a Grant. Neither of these is subject to V.A.T.

Because (as mentioned above) every probate matter is unique, some take a lot longer than others. We would expect a normal probate matter to take somewhere between 6 & 18 months: an average of about 12 months is normal. These time scales are affected the by speed with which third parties reply to our correspondence and most delays ae caused by the slowness of others to reply and supply the information we need to proceed with matters on your behalf.

If there are any disputes or other problems, these would not only increase the costs but could also cause significant delays.