To deal with a person’s estate it is usually necessary to obtain a Grant of Probate where the estate exceeds £50,000 in value and it may be required for smaller estates in some circumstances. The current fee payable to obtain the Grant of Probate is £155 if the application is made through a solicitor, or £215 if made personally.

The Government is proposing to increase the fee to obtain a Grant of Probate substantially for estates worth more than £50,000. The proposed new fees mean that an estate worth between £50,000 and £300,000 would pay £300, an estate worth between £300,000 and £500,000 would pay £1,000 and an estate worth between £500,000 and £1,000,000 would pay £4,000. The fees above that rise to a maximum of £20,000 for an estate worth more than £2,000,000. The work involved for the Court Service to process an application for a Grant of Probate is the same whatever the value of the estate.

At present the costs of running the Probate service are covered by the fees currently payable. However, the Government are proposing these fee increases so that they will raise additional revenue to cover the costs of running other Court services, so the Probate fees will subsidise those Court services.

The Government carried out a consultation exercise and the vast majority of responses opposed the proposed increased fees on the grounds that increases ofthat amount were unnecessary to fund the service provided and amounted to another form of taxation.

We believe that the proposed increases are unfair and could lead to hardship for people at a difficult time. If you agree please sign the petition to reconsider these proposals following the link below:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/188175

We need 100,000 signatures to get the proposals debated in Parliament.

Otherwise they are almost certain to be approved.