UK Probate Fees Calculator

How much does probate cost in England & Wales?

As of 13 July 2026, the HMCTS probate application fee in England & Wales is a flat £526 for any estate worth over £5,000 — up sharply from £300, a 75% increase the Ministry of Justice says reflects the true cost of running the service. There's no fee at all if the net estate is £5,000 or less.

Unlike Stamp Duty or Inheritance Tax, this fee is not a percentage of the estate — a £250,000 estate and a £2,000,000 estate pay exactly the same £526. On a £250,000 estate, applying for probate costs £526; a £3,000 estate below the threshold pays £0.

DIY vs solicitor — the real cost comparison

Every solicitor-run probate calculator you'll find shows only their own price. The comparison that actually matters: applying yourself costs the £526 official court fee and nothing else (plus your own time). Paying a solicitor for a grant-only service — where you do the estate administration but a solicitor handles the court application — typically costs £950–£1,500 + VAT on top of the court fee.

A solicitor handling the full estate administration (valuing assets, paying debts, distributing to beneficiaries) typically charges a fixed fee of £3,000–£15,000 + VAT for a straightforward estate, or a percentage of the estate value (commonly 1%–3%, up to 5% at some firms) — on a £250,000 estate that's £2,500–£7,500 + VAT, before the court fee. DIY is legally straightforward for a simple estate (one property, a will, no disputes) but the SRA's own transparency rules exist because that percentage model can get expensive fast on a large estate — always ask for a written estimate before instructing a solicitor.

The full official fee schedule (annexes most calculators skip)

Beyond the headline application fee, HMCTS charges several smaller, separate fees that rarely appear on solicitor marketing pages. Extra copies of the grant ordered at the same time as your application now cost only £2 each (a new, cheaper rate introduced alongside the July 2026 fee rise) — useful because you often need to send an original grant to several banks or asset holders simultaneously. Order more copies after you've already submitted, and each one costs £16.

A second application — for example if you initially held "power reserved" and now want to act as executor after the first grant was issued — is a flat £22, payable even on an estate under £5,000. Entering or extending a caveat (to formally pause someone else's application while a dispute is resolved) costs £4 each time. A standing search, which alerts you if a grant is issued for a named estate, is also £4. Depositing a will for safekeeping or inspecting one already held by the registry each cost £24.

On a £250,000 application with 3 extra copies ordered at the same time, the total is £532 (£526 application + £6 for the copies). A second application on the same estate value is just £22, regardless of the estate's actual value.

Scotland: Confirmation, not probate — and a much higher exemption

Scotland doesn't use "probate" at all — the equivalent process is called Confirmation, applied for through the Sheriff Court's Commissary department, and it's structured completely differently. There's no court fee whatsoever for estates up to £50,000 — ten times England & Wales's £5,000 threshold. A £40,000 Scottish estate pays £0, exactly the way a similarly sized English estate would owe £526.

Above £50,000, Confirmation becomes a two-band flat fee: £351 for estates between £50,000.01 and £250,000 (e.g. a £100,000 estate), and £705 for anything over £250,000 (e.g. a £500,000 estate) — under Sheriff Court Fees Order 2026, in force since 1 April 2026. If there's no will and no next of kin willing to act, a court-appointed executor ("dative petition") adds a further £23 on top.

Northern Ireland: a £10,000 exemption threshold

Northern Ireland runs its own Probate Office within the High Court, with a higher exemption threshold than England & Wales: no court fee if the net estate is £10,000 or less (versus £5,000 in E&W) — an £8,000 NI estate pays £0. Above that threshold, the reported flat fee from 1 April 2026 is £326 — a £50,000 estate pays £326. (This NI figure is drawn from independently corroborating secondary sources rather than a machine-readable primary NI government fee table at the time we last checked — always confirm the current figure directly with the NI Probate Office before applying.) A separate caveat fee also applies in Northern Ireland to formally stop an application.

Do you actually need probate?

Not every estate needs a grant. If everything the person owned was held jointly and passes automatically to a surviving joint owner (common for a family home owned jointly, or a joint bank account), a grant often isn't required for those specific assets. It's the assets held in the deceased's sole name that usually force the issue: property or land held solely (or as tenants in common), stocks and shares, and — the most common trigger — a sole-name bank or building society balance above that institution's own internal threshold.

There is no single national threshold — each bank sets its own. Reported thresholds commonly range from around £5,000 up to £50,000: some smaller institutions apply a £5,000–£15,000 limit, others (including several major high-street banks) go as high as £50,000. Always ask the specific bank, building society or share registrar directly — the calculator's decision guide above walks through the main triggers, but it's a starting point, not a determination.