£526, whatever the estate is worth
The grant of probate itself has one price in England and Wales: an application fee of £526 where the estate is worth more than £5,000, and no fee at all where it is £5,000 or less. Both figures are published by HM Courts and Tribunals Service on the GOV.UK probate fees page. Add £2 per sealed copy of the grant ordered with the application and you have the whole cost of the document, which for most executors comes to a little over £530.
The detail people usually expect to find, and do not, is a sliding scale. There is not one. A £6,000 estate and a £6 million estate pay the identical £526, and letters of administration, the equivalent grant where there is no valid will, cost exactly the same (see grant of probate versus letters of administration for the difference between the two). This page is general information about costs in England and Wales, not legal advice on your own estate.
What the £526 does and does not buy
The fee buys one thing: the court's decision that you are the person entitled to deal with the estate, evidenced by a sealed document that banks and HM Land Registry will accept. Three costs sit around it on the way to the grant.
- Valuing the estate first. You cannot apply until you know what the estate is worth, because the value goes on the application. This can cost nothing (informal estate agent appraisals, free date of death balances from banks) or several hundred pounds for a formal surveyor's report where inheritance tax is in play. Our guide to what a probate valuation costs takes that question from here.
- The application fee. £526, or nothing at £5,000 or under, unchanged by how you apply. The full published fee schedule, including the charges that apply in less common situations, is set out in probate court fees.
- Sealed copies. £2 each with the application, £16 each afterwards. This is the one line you genuinely control, and how many copies to order is worth deciding deliberately rather than by default.
What the fee does not buy is the administration that follows: closing accounts, selling or transferring property, settling debts, preparing estate accounts and distributing to beneficiaries. Those costs are real and often much larger, and they belong to the wider question of what probate costs in total.
Worked example: getting the grant on a £310,000 estate
Farida is the sole executor named in her late uncle's will. His estate is a leasehold flat valued at £245,000, two bank accounts holding £58,000 between them and a small share portfolio worth £7,000. There is no inheritance tax to pay and no dispute in the family. She needs the grant before the flat can be sold and the accounts closed.
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Three estate agent appraisals of the flat, date of death balances from the banks and the registrar | £0 |
| Probate application fee (estate over £5,000) | £526 |
| Five sealed copies at £2, ordered with the application (two banks, the share registrar, HM Land Registry, one spare) | £10 |
| Total to hold the grant | £536 |
Had Farida ordered only two copies and gone back for three more once the grant issued, those three would have cost £48 rather than £6. And had her uncle's estate been ten times larger, the £526 would not have moved. Only the work around it would have.
Want this checked against your specific situation?
Leave your details and a one-line summary. A probate specialist will reply within 24 hours, with no obligation.
Paying someone else to get the grant
Many firms sell a grant-only service, where a professional prepares and submits the application and any inheritance tax account, and you handle everything afterwards. Quoted prices for this are commonly observed in the range of £500 to £1,500 plus VAT, which is a market observation rather than any fixed or regulated scale, and firms in England and Wales must publish their probate pricing so you can compare before you make contact. Add VAT at 20% and the court costs, and Farida's grant would have arrived for roughly £1,100 to £2,350 in total instead of £536.
The £526 sits inside that quote as a disbursement, not on top of the professional's own charge, so the court is paid once either way. What you are buying is the drafting, the checking and someone else carrying responsibility for getting the application right first time. Our guide to probate solicitor costs breaks down the fee models in full, and the DIY probate route sets out what handling the whole thing yourself involves.
Timing, and who is actually out of pocket
Every cost described here is an expense of the estate, not of the executor. The wrinkle is sequence: the fee is due before the grant is issued, and the grant is often what unlocks the money to pay it. In practice most banks will pay the probate fee straight from the deceased's account against the invoice and the death certificate, an executor who pays personally reimburses themselves from estate funds once released, and applicants on a low income or certain benefits may qualify for Help with Fees, which is assessed on the applicant's own finances rather than the estate's.
To see the grant fee in the context of everything else an estate spends, run your figures through the probate cost calculator, or start from what probate costs on a simple estate if the estate is a straightforward one. The probate guide covers the process itself from first application to final distribution.
If the application looks harder than a flat fee and five copies, usually because inheritance tax is involved, assets sit overseas or the will is unclear, it is sensible to get a view before submitting anything. Tell us what the estate holds and we will match you with a vetted probate specialist who will look at it and tell you plainly whether a grant-only service, full administration or no help at all is the right fit.