How long after a person dies does probate need to be started by?

A question about : How long after a person dies does probate need to be started by?

Hi, my sister has always helped my parents manage their finances. Our father died 4 years ago and I presumed probate had been sorted. Our mother died several months ago and my sister doesn't think she sorted probate for our dad at the time of his death as everything was going to our mum.

I'm going with her next week to see someone she has already appointed and just want to be clear before I go how straight forward this would be to sort out. The estate is really only the property they owned and a couple of bank accounts. My sister says the person she has appointed has mentioned a potential fee of Ј6k-Ј7k

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Best answers:

• I would estimate on a simple estate about 4 hours x3 to sort out.
  Plenty of waiting between, but it is not that taxing.
  Thats some hourly rate at Ј7k !
• When Mum died, all the accounts were in joint names with Dad and the house was owned as 'joint tenants' so there was no need to get probate to deal with her estate.
  Has your Dad left a will?
• Did either parent have a will? If so, who is the executor?
• Hi, many thanks for your quick responses. They both left wills leaving the estate to each other and then to us children and they were tenants in common. The executor is my sister but I think she is a bit out of her depth hence my going with her next week to support her.
  Is there any reason not sorting probate at the time of my dads death four years ago that could complicate this process?
• If they were tenants in common then your father had an estate (his portion of the house) which needs administering/executing.
  If they were in a joint tenancy that would not have been necessary.
  it is not a major issue but needs sorting before the property can be transferred.
• Thanks RAS, that's hugely reassuring. So my sister who is executor to both wills just needs to do them in order which makes perfect sense. I had hoped it would be fairly straightforward but wanted be forearmed before meeting the "specialist" next week.
• OP if your mother's estate is over Ј650K (including house) you need to consider IHT liabilities and this needs to be sorted with HMRC within 6 months. It did not matter when your father died as there would be no IHT to pay if it all went to your mother. If this applies it will get sorted as part of probate but is a reason not to delay as interest could be charged after that period..
• Ј6-7k for a straight forward estate is ridiculously expensive.
  I am currently executing my late Aunt's estate jointly with her appointed solicitor for an estate close to Ј800000.This involves numerous bank accounts,shares,pensions,investment accounts and property (now sold).
  The solicitor has estimated the total costs to wind up her affairs to be around Ј3k including vat up to a maximum of Ј3.5K.I would of tackled this myself but as I am full time carer to my disabled husband I did not want the stress of sorting out the inheritance tax etc. and am happy that the figures quoted are very reasonable.
  Have to say so far the solicitor has been brilliant and expect probate to be granted within the next couple of weeks.
• It's going to be roughly Ј450k so won't be liable for IHT as I understand it.
  Thanks to you kind people I'm more certain of the position and not likely to be hoodwinked. However, I'm still allowing for misunderstanding, so I won't go in with an automatic assumption of guilt regarding the advisor.
• It is a lot of money for what sounds like a pretty simple form filling job, but not unusual for a solicitor to charge that much.
  It is common for them to charge for their time plus a % of the estate value (usually 1%-2%) so on a Ј450k estate it would be easy to see fees rise to Ј6-7k.
  Probate can be quite simple to do yourself, but if you are going to use a solicitor, don't be afraid to haggle on the fees.
• will they be able to use the higher iht limit? I thought that was for couples?
• Can I just echo TonyMMM's post that a fee charge is often a percentage of the value of the estate, and not necessarily reflective of the actual amount of work involved.
  This is lucrative business for banks and lawyers, so don't be afraid to get several quotes or even try to sort it yourself.
  (Just an example here, but when my father-in-law died, the bank acted as executor and didn't charge as he was a retired bank manager. We asked how much it would have cost an 'ordinary' customer and were told Ј7000. Astonishing.)
• As TonyMMM has said some solicitors work on a percentage fee rather than charging by the hour for the work involved or indeed a combination of both.
  My aunt appointed myself and her solicitor as joint executors so I had no choice but to work with this particular firm.Fortunately she charges only for the time taken to administer the estate and no percentage fee is involved.I have been kept fully informed of costs throughout the whole process and the final figure is much less than anticipated at the outset.
• That quote now makes sense if they base it on a % of the estate rather than actual effort. Seems to me there is scope for probate specialists to rip off the unwary.
  I'll make sure to haggle and if necessary find an alternative dependent on what my sister has already agreed.
  Thanks once again for all your help on this.