Justice committee requests raising of threshold for Probate fees

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.