About Us

Price transparency

Sinclair Gibson LLP is committed to providing clear price and service information in line with the Solicitors Regulation Authority price transparency guidelines.

General price and service information

Our work is carried out on an hourly basis. We record time in units of five minutes. The level of our fees will depend largely on how much time we spend dealing with your case. When you instruct us, we will try to tell you the likely level of our fees. Unless we tell you otherwise, this will be an estimate only, not a fixed quotation. If you ask for a fixed quotation, we will try to provide one but it may not be possible to predict the amount of time we will need to deal with a matter. You may set an upper limit on costs which means that we will not do any work that will take our fees over this limit without your permission. If we provide a fixed quotation, this will only apply to the work we agree, in writing, at the time. If you then ask us to do extra work, we will charge you for the extra work.

We will charge you for any third party disbursments incurred in the course of your matter.

Fee earner charge rates are between £150 and £850 per hour depending on the level of experience. Please refer to your client care letter for further information. All costs are shown exclusive of VAT.

Specific price and service information

We are required to publish prices for probate work in relation to uncontested cases where all the assets are in the UK. This includes both testate and intestate and taxable and non-taxable estates.

The estimates set out below are intended to be a guide only and are exclusive of VAT at 20%. Our services are bespoke and the fees will always depend on the individual facts of each matter. We will normally provide an estimate for our fees in two stages: (1) applying for the grant of representation and (2) for the administration of the estate.

Probate work for estates worth £1 million or less will be charged on a time-costing basis but, as a guideline, the level of cost will be £25,000 (plus VAT) and disbursements to grant of probate. We will then provide an estimate for including the estate accounts, submission of IHT and administration period tax returns and associated tax and compliance work.

Disbursements are costs payable to third parties. These include (but are not limited to) the following:

1) The grant of representation application fee, which is currently £300 plus £1.50 for each additional copy of the grant requested;

2) asset valuation fees;

3) statutory notices which are usually in the region of £200-£400;

4) Land Registry search fees of £3 per title document; and

5) bankruptcy search fees which are usually £2 per search of an individual UK resident.

Costs of probate work for estates worth over £1 million or complex estates will be significantly higher than the above guideline indication, and an estimate of costs will be provided on request when the scope of the work is fully understood by our fee earners. If there is no will, or if the estate has complex property interests and/or private company shareholdings, there are likely to be additional costs that could vary significantly depending on the estate and how it is to be dealt with.

Please be aware that our probate charges will not include any necessary property transfer work, as the firm does not undertake conveyancing work, and a third party lawyer will need to be appointed to handle the work. Any estate tax planning that may arise in the course of the probate administration will be quoted for and charged separately.

Key stages

A broad summary of the steps involved to obtain a grant of representation and administer an uncontested estate with all assets in the UK is set out below:

1) meeting with the executors to take instructions and discuss the estate;

2) collate details of the assets and liabilities of the estate, which will in turn form the basis of the inheritance tax account;

3) prepare the inheritance tax account for submission to HMRC (the extent of the account and reporting required is dependent on the individual circumstances);

4) prepare the probate application for submission to the Probate Registry;

5) collect in the deceased’s assets and discharge the liabilities;

6) distribute the estate to the beneficiaries in accordance with the terms of the will (if there is one) or in accordance with the intestacy rules (if there is no will); and

7) finalise the tax position of the estate.

Timescales

If a full inheritance tax account is required, following submission of the same to HMRC, we are currently required to wait 25 working days before the grant of representation application can be prepared.

According to guidance issued by the Probate Registry, following submission of the application, it can currently take up to 16 weeks for the grant to be issued. However, this can vary due to the Probate Registry’s backlog. Typically to obtain the grant takes in the order of 6 months from filing of the inheritance tax account.

The length of time it takes to fully administer an estate is dependent upon the individual circumstances of each estate. The more complex the estate is, the longer the administration will be. On average, most estates are administered within two years of death.