The justice committee has urged to the government to raise the threshold above which Probate application fees must be paid.
This committee is a cross-party selection of MPs and it is responding to the increase in the Probate application fee. It has gone up to £526, from £300, which amounts to a rise of 75%. Now the committee wants the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to balance that out by raising the payment threshold to £20,000. It currently stands at just £5,000.
What this means is that families with estates worth more than £5,000 will have to pay a fee of £526 for them to be administered. As the committee points out, this could mean paying more than 10% of an estate’s worth just in Probate fees.
Most Probate solicitors in North Wales and other parts of the country will likely agree with its assessment. The existing £5,000 minimum threshold has been the same since 1999, but at this time the Probate application fee was just £50.
Andy Slaughter is the chair of the committee. He has written to Sarah Sackman, the justice minister. According to Legal Futures, this letter says just 2% of estates come in below the threshold.
It then adds:
“In our view, if the Probate application fee is to be increased by this amount, the threshold for non-payment should be increased significantly.”
If you need help with estate Probate in North Wales, call Bennett Smith Solicitors for a quote.
