Probate fees increase is penalising bereaved for poor service, say MPs

A PLANNED increase in probate fees should not go ahead while grieving families face months of delays to gain control of inherited money and property, ministers have been told.

The Government is set to increase fees to a flat-rate £273 for all applicants, no matter the size of the estate.

This will mean the cost of probate, which is the process of administering an estate following a person’s death, will rise from £155 for those who use a solicitor and from £215 for those who act as an individual.

The MoJ argues the £273 covers the costs of processing probate applications and will not generate any state profit.

But the plan has been criticised by Conservative backbenchers, who say it penalises grieving relatives for what is already a poor service.

John Stevenson, a Conservative MP and part-time solicitor, warned of a “very significant deterioration” in the Probate Service, stating: “I do not think it is right that members of the public and professional practitioners should be paying for a poor-quality service.”

The Ministry of Justice admitted that bereaved relatives were waiting an average of more than nine weeks for probate to be granted in cases where officials had “stopped” their application to request more documents or because they had identified alleged errors. In other cases, the average wait was around one week, officials insisted.

In a submission to a consultation on increasing the probate application fee to £273, Mr Stevenson said he agreed in principle that the price should be increased to cover the full costs. But he added: “The service itself must improve significantly.”

On Friday, Adam Lennon, the HM Courts & Tribunals Service’s deputy director, admitted that the probate service “could be improved”.

He also said it would no longer be a requirement for applicants to send a death certificate for previous executors who had died, after The Sunday Tele

graph highlighted a case of a man whose application for probate in relation to his late father had been outstanding for 11 weeks.

The Courts and Tribunal Service said more than three-quarters of probate applications were done online and took 5.3 weeks – one week quicker than a year ago.

Officials said the hike in fees would actually save the taxpayer money by making the service self-sufficient without the need for external funding.