Probate application fees to rise 75% to £526

Executors and administrators applying for a Grant of Probate in England and Wales will pay significantly more from next month, as the Ministry of Justice confirms a 75% increase to the standard probate application fee - from £300 to £526.

The change, announced by the Ministry of Justice and HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) on 19 June 2026, forms part of a wider package of court and tribunal fee updates due to come into force on 13 July 2026, subject to parliamentary approval. It is set out in law through the Court and Tribunal Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2026, which amends the Non-Contentious Probate Fees Order 2004.

What's changing, and why

The government's stated rationale is cost recovery. According to the official announcement, the increase "recovers the cost of an ever-improving service, and the new cost accounts for rising inflation as well as investment in delivering an efficient and modern service." Unlike many of the other fee changes announced in the same package - which apply inflationary uplifts of 2.6% or, in some cases, around 34% to bring older fees in line with accumulated inflation - the probate fee rise is a standalone increase specific to probate applications, and it is considerably larger in percentage terms than anything else in the announcement.

The £526 fee applies to applications for a grant (or resealing of a grant) where the estate is valued above £5,000 - in other words, the vast majority of applications that go through the probate registry. Smaller estates below that threshold remain exempt from the application fee altogether, and the Help with Fees remissions scheme continues to be available for applicants who cannot afford to pay.

Alongside the headline increase, the government has introduced one change that should reduce costs for most applicants: additional copies of the grant. Currently, anyone ordering extra sealed or certified copies of the grant of probate pays £16 per copy, regardless of when they order them. From 13 July, that fee is being split in two. Copies ordered at the same time as the probate application itself will cost just £2 each - a reduction the government says "will better reflect the cost of that service." Copies requested separately, after the initial application has already been made, will continue to cost £16 each. In practice, this rewards executors who plan ahead and order all the copies they expect to need - for banks, HMRC, pension providers, and other institutions - at the point of application, rather than going back to the registry later.

Other probate-related fees are also rising modestly under the same instrument: the fee for a duplicate or subsequent grant increases from £21 to £22, caveats and standing searches rise from £3 to £4, and deposit or inspection of a will at the registry rises from £23 to £24. These are broadly in line with general inflationary adjustments applied elsewhere in the fee schedule.

The case for concern

For many bereaved families, a 75% jump in a single court fee is hard to justify, whatever the accounting rationale behind it. The probate application fee is not scaled to the value of the estate - a small, straightforward estate just above the £5,000 exemption threshold pays exactly the same £526 as a multi-million-pound estate. Critics of court fee increases have long argued that flat fees of this kind fall hardest on modest estates, where a jump from £300 to £526 represents a meaningfully larger proportional bite out of what beneficiaries ultimately inherit.

The timing will also draw scrutiny. Probate applicants are typically administering an estate at one of the most difficult points in a family's life, often while also managing funeral costs, ongoing property expenses, and the practical burden of closing accounts and settling debts - frequently before they have access to the deceased's own funds to cover any of it. A substantial, non-negotiable increase to a court fee lands squarely in the middle of that period.

There is also a broader pattern worth noting. Court and tribunal fees across England and Wales have increasingly been recalibrated toward full cost recovery in recent years, and probate is not the first area to see fees rise well ahead of general inflation. Some solicitors and consumer advocates argue that framing these increases purely in terms of "investment in an efficient and modern service" sits uneasily alongside widely reported experiences of a probate service that, for many applicants, still does not feel efficient or modern.

The case for reform

That last point cuts both ways, and it is central to understanding why the government may feel emboldened to raise fees rather than resist doing so. Complaints about the probate process are not new. Executors - many of them acting without legal training, often for the first time in their lives — have for several years reported waiting considerably longer than the official guidance suggests for what should be routine applications to be processed. While HMCTS guidance continues to suggest straightforward digital applications can complete within a matter of weeks, professionals working in the sector regularly report that estates with any complexity, or any need for HMRC correspondence, routinely take much longer, leaving beneficiaries waiting on inheritances, property sales stalled, and mounting costs accruing on estates that cannot yet be settled.

Viewed through that lens, the government's argument — that the extra revenue funds "investment in delivering an efficient and modern service", has some real force. A probate registry that is properly resourced, with faster digital processing and fewer of the delays that have frustrated executors in recent years, is something many applicants would likely welcome, even at a higher price, provided the investment translates into a genuinely faster and more reliable service. The reduced £2 fee for copies ordered alongside an application is also a small but genuine improvement: it removes a minor but real friction point for executors who need multiple certified copies to deal with several institutions at once, and it more accurately reflects the marginal cost of producing an extra copy at the point of processing rather than treating it as a separate transaction.

What executors should do before 13 July

For anyone currently preparing a probate application, the practical takeaway is straightforward: applications submitted and paid for before 13 July 2026 will be charged at the current £300 rate. Executors who are close to ready, and who can reasonably complete their application before the deadline, may wish to prioritise doing so to avoid the increase.

For those applying after the change takes effect, the main planning point is around copies. Because the discounted £2 copy fee only applies to copies ordered at the same time as the original application, executors should think carefully in advance about how many sealed or certified copies of the grant they are likely to need, typically one for each bank, building society, pension provider, or other institution holding assets, and request them all upfront, rather than risk paying the full £16 per copy later.

Whether the fee increase ultimately proves justified will depend less on the announcement itself and more on what happens next: whether waiting times for probate applications genuinely improve over the coming months, and whether executors experience a service that feels, in practice, like it matches the price now being charged for it.

A fixed cost, whatever else changes

Court fees are only one line in the overall cost of administering an estate, and as this announcement shows, they can rise sharply with a few weeks' notice. If you're acting as executor, it's worth knowing that not every cost in the process has to move under you like that.

EstateCopilot charges a single, fixed fee that stays the same for the lifetime of the estate administration - however long the process takes, and whatever happens to court fees, HMCTS processing times, or anything else outside your control. It walks you through the whole journey, from your first tasks after the death through to final distribution, generates the probate forms for you, and calculates any inheritance tax due, all for one upfront price with no hourly billing and no surprises later.

See how EstateCopilot works

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Sources:

• Court and tribunal fees: updates from July 2026: Ministry of Justice / HM Courts & Tribunals Service, published 19 June 2026
• The Court and Tribunal Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2026, Article 3: legislation.gov.uk