The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has launched a consultation setting out proposals for increasing the fee payable for an application for a grant of probate which is expected to raise an additional £250m a year to contribute to court operational costs
Under the new sliding scale, the current fees will be hiked from the £215 fee for estates worth more than £5,000 or £155 fee if the application is made by a solicitor.
The proposed fee regime will move from a flat to a banded fee approach, proportionate to, and rising with, the value of the estate, and at the same time will increase the value of the estate below which no fee is payable from £5,000 to £50,000.
At present, applications for grants of probate are set at £155 when a grant of probate is sought by a solicitor and £215 when the application is made by an individual. This higher fee for ‘personal’ applicants reflects some of the additional administrative work that must be done by the Probate Service when dealing with applications made by individuals.
The plan is to move to an online service to speed up applications. This would remove the need to visit a court or a firm of solicitors to swear oaths or lodge papers, so the vast majority of applications for grant of probate will be capable of being completed entirely online.
The design stage of the new Probate Service will start in April 2016 and should be completed in April 2017. Work is already underway to get a clear understanding of what Probate Service users want and need as we develop the new service.
Proposed fee structure
| Value of estate (before inheritance tax) | Proportion of estates in England and Wales | Proposed fee |
| Up to £50,000 or exempt from grant of probate | 57% | £0 |
| Exceeds £50,000 but does not exceed £300,000 | 27% | £300 |
| Exceeds £300,000 but does not exceed £500,000 | 10% | £1,000 |
| Exceeds £500,000 but does not exceed £1m | 5% | £4,000 |
| Exceeds £1m but does not exceed £1.6m | 1% | £8,000 |
| Exceeds £1.6m but does not exceed £2m | 0.20% | £12,000 |
| Above £2m | 0.40% | £20,000 |
The consultation also outlines how new probate costs would work alongside the latest inheritance tax (IHT) reforms due to come into force in April 2017.
In the 2015 Summer Budget, the government announced that it plans to introduce an additional nil rate band of up to £175,000 when a residence is passed on death to direct descendants (children, step-children, and grandchildren). This will be phased in from April 2017 and any unused proportion can be transferable to a spouse or civil partner.
Together with the existing threshold of £325,000, this means that many individuals will have an effective IHT threshold of £500,000 (or up to £1m for many surviving spouses and civil partners) by 2020-21.
The government is also considering whether grant of probate applications should be excluded from the fee remissions scheme and is seeking views on this issue.
In England and Wales , the probate system deals with around £81bn of assets each year through transferring ownership of, and in many cases liquidating, assets.
Not all estates need to go through probate. In England and Wales, only around 50% of deaths lead to an application for a grant of probate.
The closing date for feedback is 1 April 2016.
The consultation document, Court Fees | Consultation on proposals to reform fees for grants of probate is available here