Examining the probate fee increase

Why the increase?

When the increase was announced last year, the Government gave three main reasons as to why they believed that they were justified:

• 1. The cost of providing the probate service has increased since the previous fees were set and as such it cost more to run than it was generating in fees. The shortfall was in effect being compensated by the public which is contrary to Government policy that while the Government cannot profit from its services it should not make a loss on them. We have seen similar fee increases for other Government services, such as the Land Registry, who increased their fees from 31 January 2022. By increasing the fee it should allow the probate service to be largely self-funding.
• 2. By replacing the previous two-tiered application fee structure with a single flat fee regardless of who makes the application, it was hoped that that it would make the application process simpler to use and more transparent.
• 3. The fee increase is expected to raise around an additional £23m-25m per year for HM Courts and Tribunals Service. A well-resourced courts and tribunals system will help protect access to justice.

Probate fee rise under scrutiny

In theory, the increase sounds promising, but some concerns have been raised. The Law Society have shown their support for the overall aim of raising fees, which is to create a simpler and more stream lined process. However, they have questioned the timing of the increase in light of the ongoing delays with the probate service due to COVID-19 which are yet to be rectified.

The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) have also raised concerns as to whether a single flat fee might discourage individuals from using professional advisors. Using a professional advisor reduces the likelihood of errors in applications and give the probate registry reassurance that complex cases have been dealt with correctly. If the fee increase leads to more personal applications the probate registry could see an increase in errors in applications that they would need to spend time dealing with which in turn could lead to further delays and offset some of the benefit of the extra funding.

If you need straight forward legal advice on probate and the administration of estates, contact one of our specialist lawyers.