Should/could we handle probate ourselves?

[ElectiveAffinities]

My dear mum, my only surviving parent, has passed away. My sibling and I are the executors of her will, which was amended last year when she moved to another firm of solicitors, so it's up to date and no surprises are contained within it.

The estate is very, very simple. As an OAP her only money was a current bank account with a modest balance. No stocks, shares, other investments. Her only asset was her house, which she owned and is below the IHT threshold. It has been left to me and DSis.

I've been a bit spooked by a person from a funeral helpline (a free 'we're here to assist you' type thing where they ring you up) trying to flog me their own probate service for a fixed fee, and warning me against letting solicitors do it because of spiralling hourly costs and the dangers of them assuming no legal liability or taking on admin of the estate.

I'm considering doing the probate myself but is this a mad idea? Has anyone successfully done this? How difficult/daunting is it for the averagely well-equipped person and what might be the pitfalls?

Apologies for the long post.....still a bit shell-shocked.

Sorry for your loss , if you search, there are a few threads recently mentioning this. I think you can apply yourself online. I am currently in the same boat with my Mum but as I'm abroad a solicitor is doing it and has said it will take about 12-18 months!!!! (because of Covid delays) mine is also straightforward, I'm an only child, the will leaves everything to me.

Hi. So sorry to hear your sad news. My mother died I was sole beneficiary and although she had a house I did probate myself. Paperwork was fine and the helpline was brilliant. I rang about 6 times and they were great.

Its easy if you use the online forms. The help guides for the clerical forms alone took a rainforest to print but online was done really quick. I even did the land registry forms myself after 6 weeks, 3 phone calls and a you tube video.

I'm so sorry for your loss. Both my parents died this year, and I did their IHT submissions and probate myself. Even though they both had ISAs, bank accounts, some shares, a house etc, it was incredibly easy to do once I had all the bits of paper with the figures on, and had an estate agent round to do a probate valuation.
They died at the end of March and April, and by July I had probate for both of them - and tbh could have done dads earlier if I'd not been focussing on mum for the month after.
For the IHT and probate its all online for that value and if you aren't using transfers of allowances, and it really does step you through it point by point. Took me a couple of hours to fill in, and wasn't stressful

We did it ourselves, DH watched a YouTube video and read a few online guides. Everything was straight forward enough.

Sorry to hear about your Mum. As she had such a simple estate you should be able to do it all yourselves - we did my dad's and it was fine, even for someone with no experience. There's lots of information online.

The family and friend's estates that have gone through solicitors have been nightmares - huge fees on even the simplest estates, most charging a % rather than a fixed fee, and needing to be chased up for months.

Sorry for your loss. I did probate on both my parents' estates - both very straightforward.

It takes more time than you think, but if you have all the documentation (bank accounts and statements, savings accounts, any financial accounts at all) then it certainly isn't difficult.

The IHT form was also more straightforward than I was expecting, although long-winded as you would expect.

Solicitors will charge a small fortune for something that any lay person can manage (unless the estate is complex) and probably take ages!

It's relatively straight forward. I process simple probate cases for people who don't want to do it and most realise quickly they could have done it so take over (I charge an initial fee then per hour for work). All you need is a decent computer/internet confidence and all the paperwork (that's far harder!)

Yes it's very simple to do . I did my mums , house, a few investments , 3 or 4 bank / building societies accounts, but it's very doable .

Sadly we've done it recently for dm and dmil, both with houses, shares and savings. It's easy, the forms are long but not difficult. The helpline is good.

I definitely would do it. I completed probate for my late mother's estate 18 months ago. It took me 3 weeks to submit the application which was tight but I was trying to avoid a rise in probate fees. It is an admin task - collecting and collating information and can be a bit time consuming. There is no legal knowledge required. As long as you are organised and keep records it is straightforward. My mother's application was probably more complicated than yours but still straightforward and a solictor would have charged many thousands. I understand there are delays in receiving the grant of probate (several months) once you have submitted your application partly due to Covid but also due to changes in HMCTS. Applying via a solicitor won't be any quicker they have to go through the same process. There is lots of info online. Most banks/pension providers have dedicated bereavement teams who are usually very helpful. I found the Money Saving Expert probate forum useful.
Completing the application was a positive way of dealing with my grief and a welcome distraction.

My mum had a very similar sounding estate to your mums and I got a solicitor to handle probate, it only cost around £500 I think.

Probably depends on what you’re doing with the house. My mother used a solicitor to deal with my grandfathers will and to help act on their behalf to sell the house. There wasn’t much else in the estate, cost her around £2000 in total and it took around 6 months due to delays with the house sale but this came out of the proceeds of the estate.

So sorry for your loss OP.

My DH has been an executor for his family on a number of occasions and has always done it himself. If the estate is not too complicated then you could definitely do it yourself.

It does take a lot longer than you'd expect, which I see previous posters have already said!

I've done it myself, twice. The first time, it was very quick, easy and straightforward. The second time things were a bit more complicated, and the process was much more time-consuming, but there were no major problems.

I'd say definitely try doing it yourself if you want to save the cost.

I agree with previous posters. I have obtained probate for both my mum and my dad and recently helped my cousin with obtaining probate for her father. In the circumstances you describe it would be very easy indeed. Though the forms are long, whole sections will be inapplicable in your circumstances and can be skipped through. The government website is very helpful and it is very easy to do the whole thing online. I am always staggered at the costs of using a solicitor for what is basically a form-filling exercise. Be aware though that there are quite long delays in the probate office at the moment I believe.

Thank you to everyone for the replies. That all sounds very achievable. DM's estate is almost pathetically simple and other than her current bank account (which contains an amount way below the level at which probate is required, I've already been told) there are literally no bank/building society accounts or savings, investments etc etc. So it's really just the house.

(Just to add, though, in case the above sounds horribly bleak, that she wasn't penniless or neglected....she was contented to live on her pension and we were a close and loving family who spent a lot of time with her. We'll miss her so much )

Another one saying it’s fine to do yourself. I did my mums several years ago. Few simple bank accounts, house to sell. No will so it was letters of administration but exactly the same as probate. One top tip that you may not think of Tesco transferred my mums clubcard points to my account. I used them to contribute to a season ticket for a nearby attraction. Lovely to go there with the kids and say thank you to grannie. You can also get a refund on unused months of TV licence fee.

Just joining in the general chorus to reassure you that it is a largely administrative task easily within the capability of any adult minded to do it themselves. DIY also means that you really do understand the process in a way which for me is just not possible if someone like a solicitor just explains what they do.

There are some things that you need to know. Lots of advice on line and by all means post questions here too. Often when I found myself stuck, just formulating the question to ask here was enough to get me unstuck again.

https://www.gov.uk/applying-for-probate

The size of estate matters a lot. DMiL left less than £15k in cash, which the bank was happy to hand over on production of the death certificate. That estate was the simplest to complete. Others were more complicated but we still gathered all the elements of the estate together.

We have used solicitors as required for property transfers and where trusts have been involved.

I found it helpful to keep small paper based 'log book' in which I note everything. So helpful to look back whenever necessary and feel that I get a complete break whenever I close the log book.

All the best.

I work in probate and we "accidentally" submitted an application when trying out their new online system. It came back in a week! Paper applications are currently taking eight weeks.

I have just done my late mother’s probate application online. It took 2 weeks to get the certificate through. Really easy, similar circumstances to yours.

Just catching up and thank you to the posters who've added comments since my last post. DM's bank account contains a very similar amount to the one you mention, Finally.

Very interesting about applying online, thank you. I think that's a good avenue to pursue.

My mother died in February and named me as sole executor. Ive done a few estates before and didn't hesitate to take this on. I had probate by April and pretty much all sorted within weeks apart from the house sale which is dragging on as the chain has collapsed. A solicitor wouldn't have prevented that.
I echo what @FinallyHere says about keeping a detailed log of letters and phone calls.