How Much Does Probate Cost in the UK? (2026 Fees Explained)

The probate application fee in England and Wales is £526 where the estate is worth more than £5,000, and there is no fee at or below £5,000. Extra sealed copies of the grant cost £2 each when ordered with the application. If you do the application yourself, that court fee is usually the only cost you cannot avoid. Using a solicitor adds their charges on top, often a percentage of the estate.

The gap between those two numbers is the whole reason this question gets asked so often. Below is every cost in the process, which are genuinely unavoidable, and how to get the fee reduced if money is tight right now.

This guide covers England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own fee structures.

Those are the costs, in full, and the court fee is the same whoever prepares the application. What this estate needs — and therefore what it will cost in total — depends on its own figures. The four answers, with our own price for each.

The court fees

These are set by the government and identical whoever prepares the application.

What	Fee
Application, estate over £5,000	£526
Application, estate £5,000 or less	No fee
Extra sealed copies, ordered with the application	£2 each
Extra sealed copies, ordered later	£16 each
Second application after a grant has issued	£22

Three things worth noticing.

The fee is flat above £5,000. An estate of £30,000 and an estate of £3 million pay the same £526. The only cliff edge is at £5,000.

The copies pricing is dramatic. £2 each with the application, £16 each afterwards: an eight-fold difference. Count the organisations holding assets, order one copy per organisation plus a spare, and do it at the start. Eight copies bought with the application cost £16. The same eight bought later cost £128.

The second-application fee ignores the £5,000 exemption. GOV.UK says the £22 applies "even if the value of the estate is £5,000 or less".

Why copies matter more than they sound

Organisations will not accept a photocopy of the grant. They want a sealed copy, and many will hold it for weeks while they process the closure.

With one copy you do the organisations one at a time: bank, wait, get it back, next bank, wait. With eight you send them all in the same week. On an estate with a few accounts, a pension and a property, that is easily the difference between finishing in a month and finishing in six.

Help with Fees

If you are on a low income or certain benefits you may get the fee reduced or covered entirely.

• Apply online, or use form EX160
• If you apply for probate online you pay the full fee up front and get a refund later if the Help with Fees application succeeds
• Send your reference number with your PA1P or PA1A if applying by post, or to the help with fees team by email
• Help with Fees does not cover extra copies of the grant

The scheme exists precisely for the situation where the money is locked in the estate you cannot access yet. Using it is not something to feel awkward about.

The costs people forget

The court fee is rarely the whole bill. Budget for these.

Death certificates: tens of pounds

Each certified copy costs a fee set locally. Most estates need several, because organisations want an original or certified copy. Order them when you register the death, which is cheaper and faster than ordering later.

Property valuation: £0 to several hundred pounds

For a straightforward estate comfortably below the tax thresholds, written estimates from local estate agents are often accepted. Where the value is near a threshold, or HMRC may scrutinise it, a formal RICS "Red Book" valuation is the safer choice and typically costs a few hundred pounds. It is evidence, and it is worth it when a wrong figure would change the tax position.

Postage: £10 to £20

Tracked or signed-for, both ways. The original will cannot be replaced.

Statutory notices: roughly £200 to £300

Placing notices in The Gazette and a local newspaper gives creditors a window to come forward. It is optional, but it protects you personally: if you distribute the estate and a creditor appears afterwards, having advertised properly is a defence. On any estate where you are unsure of the full picture of debts, it is cheap insurance.

Clearing and selling: variable

House clearance, estate agent fees, insurance on an empty property. Unoccupied property insurance is a real consideration: standard buildings cover often lapses after 30 to 60 days of vacancy, and discovering that after a burst pipe is expensive.

Indicative totals, doing it yourself

Estate	Likely total cost
Small, no property, under £5,000	Death certificates and postage only
Modest, no property	£526 plus copies, certificates, postage: roughly £580
Property-owning, straightforward	£526 plus copies, certificates, valuation, notices: roughly £900 to £1,100

This is the real decision, and it deserves a straight comparison rather than a sales pitch: a solicitor, or doing it yourself with help. It is easier to make once you know which route this estate actually needs, because that is what changes the amount of work involved. The four routes, and what each costs with us.

What a solicitor costs, and what you get

Solicitors generally charge in one of three ways:

1. Hourly rate. Common rates run from around £150 to £350+ an hour depending on the firm and region.
2. Percentage of the estate. Often quoted around 1% to 5% of the estate value, sometimes with an additional hourly element. On a £400,000 estate, 2% is £8,000.
3. Fixed fee, for a defined piece of work such as a grant-only application.

The important distinction is grant-only versus full administration:

• Grant-only means they obtain the grant and you do the rest: contacting banks, gathering assets, paying debts, distributing. Often a fixed fee in the hundreds to low thousands.
• Full administration means they do everything. This is where percentage fees produce eye-watering numbers.

Firms are required to publish price information for probate work, so you can compare before you enquire. Always ask whether the quote includes VAT and disbursements, and always ask specifically what happens if the estate turns out to be more complicated than expected.

GOV.UK's own framing is worth repeating: applying yourself "can be cheaper than paying a probate practitioner (such as a solicitor) to apply for you".

Probate fees and Inheritance Tax are different things

These get conflated constantly, and they are unrelated.

	Probate fee	Inheritance Tax
Paid to	HMCTS (the court)	HMRC (the tax authority)
Amount	£526 flat, over £5,000	40% above the threshold
Who pays it	Almost every applicant	A small minority of estates
When	With the application	Generally by the end of the sixth month after death

Inheritance Tax is normally not due where the estate is below the £325,000 threshold, or where everything above that passes to a spouse, civil partner or charity. Where a home passes to children or grandchildren the threshold can rise to £500,000. Most estates pay no Inheritance Tax and still pay the £526.

If tax is due, note the timing problem: it is generally payable by the end of the sixth month after the death, and you normally need to have started paying before the grant is issued. That, and the fact that the money is often locked in the estate until the grant arrives, is one of the strongest arguments for professional help when tax is payable.

Who pays, and when

The fee comes out of the estate, but the estate is usually inaccessible until the grant arrives, which is the thing the fee is for.

Three ways round it:

1. The executor pays and reclaims. Most common. Keep the receipt.
2. The bank pays HMCTS directly. Many banks will release funds specifically for the probate fee, and for funeral costs and Inheritance Tax, before the grant is issued. Ask; it is a standard request.
3. Help with Fees, if you qualify.

Five ways to keep the cost down

1. Check whether you need probate at all. If everything was jointly held, you may need nothing. See do you need probate.
2. Order the copies with the application. £2 rather than £16.
3. Apply online. Same fee, processed faster than post.
4. Get grant-only help if you want help. Paying for the hard part while doing the letter-writing yourself is often the best value on a straightforward estate.
5. Check Help with Fees before you pay.

Three estates, three bills

The abstract question "how much does probate cost" has no single answer, so here are three concrete ones. All use the current court fees; the non-court figures are indicative.

A widower's estate, everything jointly held. House owned as joint tenants, joint current account, a small sole-name savings account the bank released on an indemnity.

Court fee	None: no grant needed
Death certificates	A few copies
Total	Under £100

A modest estate with a property. Sole-name house, two bank accounts, a pension, one beneficiary.

Application fee	£526
Six sealed copies at £2	£12
Death certificates	Around £50
Estate agent valuations	Free
Postage, tracked both ways	Around £20
Total, doing it yourself	Around £610
The same estate, full solicitor administration at 2% of £350,000	£7,000 plus VAT and disbursements

An estate with tax to pay. Above the thresholds, gifts in the last seven years, an IHT400 required.

Application fee	£526
Sealed copies	£16 or so
RICS valuation	A few hundred pounds
Statutory notices	Around £250
Professional help with the IHT400	Genuinely worth paying for
Inheritance Tax itself	Whatever is due, and it is not a "cost of probate"

The pattern: the court fee barely moves, the professional fee moves enormously, and the point at which paying a professional becomes good value is driven by complexity rather than by the size of the estate.

The costs that are not fees

Two expenses catch executors out because they are nobody's line item.

Your own time. A straightforward estate is perhaps 20 to 40 hours spread over months: letters, phone calls, waiting on hold, the property, the accounts. That is not a reason to avoid doing it yourself, but it is worth knowing before you start, particularly if you are also working and grieving.

Money you front personally. Executors commonly pay for death certificates, the court fee, postage, and sometimes the funeral before the estate is accessible. That money is reclaimable from the estate, but you need it available first. Keep every receipt: those reimbursements belong in the estate accounts, and beneficiaries are entitled to see them.

Why the fee is £526 and not a percentage

Worth knowing, because it shapes what to expect. Probate fees were the subject of a long argument: proposals in 2017 and 2019 would have replaced the flat fee with a banded scale rising to £6,000 for the largest estates. Those proposals were withdrawn after they were widely characterised as a stealth tax on bereavement.

What survives is a flat fee intended to reflect the cost of the service rather than the value of the estate. The practical consequence is that the court stage costs the same for a £30,000 estate and a £3 million one, so the proportional cost of probate is much higher for a small estate. That, more than anything else, is why doing it yourself matters most at the bottom end of the range.

Frequently asked questions

How much is the probate fee in England and Wales?

The application fee is £526 if the value of the estate is over £5,000, and there is no fee if the estate is £5,000 or less. The fee is the same whether you apply online or by post, and it does not scale with the size of the estate.

How much do extra copies of the grant cost?

Extra sealed copies cost £2 each if you order them when you submit the application, and £16 each if you order them afterwards. Ordering enough at the start is the single easiest saving in the whole process.

Can I get help paying the probate fee?

Yes. If you are on a low income or certain benefits you may be able to get help with the probate fee and other court fees. You can apply online or use form EX160. Help with Fees does not cover the cost of extra copies of the grant.

How much do solicitors charge for probate?

Solicitors commonly charge either an hourly rate or a percentage of the estate's value, and firms must publish their price information. A percentage-based fee on a property-owning estate frequently runs into thousands of pounds, which is why GOV.UK notes that applying yourself can be cheaper.

Who pays the probate fee?

The fee is paid from the estate, but in practice the executor often pays it up front and reclaims it once the grant releases the funds. Some banks will release money directly to HMCTS for the fee before the grant is issued, so it is worth asking.

Is there a fee to apply for probate a second time?

Yes. If probate has already been granted and a second application is needed, for example by an executor who had power reserved on the first application, the fee is £22. That fee applies even if the estate is worth £5,000 or less.

Does the probate fee depend on the size of the estate?

Only at the £5,000 line. Above £5,000 the fee is a flat £526 whether the estate is worth £30,000 or £3 million. Proposals for a banded fee scaling with estate value were made in the past but the current fee is flat.

Is Inheritance Tax part of the probate cost?

No, they are separate. The probate fee is a court fee paid to HMCTS. Inheritance Tax is a tax paid to HMRC and is only due if the estate exceeds the thresholds. Most estates pay no Inheritance Tax at all but still pay the probate fee.

Now you know every cost in the process and where each one goes. The only remaining question is which of them apply to this estate, which depends on its figures rather than on anything general. See what this estate needs, and what it would cost.

Sources

Court fees and Help with Fees checked 17 September 2026:

• GOV.UK, Applying for probate: Fees — £526, the £5,000 threshold, £2 and £16 copies, £22 second application, Help with Fees and EX160
• GOV.UK, Applying for probate: Apply for probate — applying yourself can be cheaper than a practitioner
• GOV.UK, How Inheritance Tax works — £325,000 threshold, 40% rate, £500,000 where a home passes to descendants
• GOV.UK, Pay your Inheritance Tax bill — the six-month deadline and paying before the grant

Solicitors' charges are indicative market ranges, not official figures: always get a written quote. Court fees change; check GOV.UK before you pay.

Related guides

• IHT205 or IHT400? Which Inheritance Tax form you actually need
• How to apply for probate without a solicitor
• How long does probate take?
• Do you actually need probate?
• What is an excepted estate?
• How to value an estate for probate