Monday to Friday 8.45am - 5pmScarborough 01723 364321
Whitby 01947 603465
Filey 01723 515555
Monday to Friday 8.45am - 5pmThe last thing you want to have to think about when a family member or close friend dies is sorting out their affairs. At this challenging time our team of professional lawyers is here to help with support for straightforward estates, intricate estates and everything in between. With kindness, compassion and utmost professionalism our team is here for you.
Our dedicated team of qualified Solicitors and Chartered Legal Executives are here to help at every stage and will make this process as seamless and pain free as possible.
We recognise all of our clients are individual and have different needs so we tailor our approach to meet your specific requirements.
You deserve the best and so your file will be handled by one of our qualified lawyers. Unlike other organisations we do not let unqualified staff run your file.
On your behalf we are able to deal with matters where:
We will help you with as much or as little of the process as you need and we are happy to discuss your requirements with you.
The main stages of the process are:
Our dedicated team is here to help with any questions at any stage of the process. Our team has collectively over 100 years of expertise. Our team of qualified lawyers are as follows:
Sarah-Jane Pynn – Chartered Legal Executive
Whichever lawyer deals with your file they will be supervised by our Head of Probate, Lorraine Burnett. Lorraine qualified as a Solicitor more than 20 years ago and brings a wealth of experience and in-depth knowledge to the department. Lorraine is assisted in her supervisory role by Catherine McNeill.
| For your peace of mind we are voluntarily audited by the Law Society every year as part of the Lexcel quality award designed for the legal profession and we are proud to say we have continuously held this standard for more than a decade. |  |
Our fees represent the professional and dedicated service you will receive from our team. With offices along the North Yorkshire coast you know we are always available for local appointments to meet your needs. These are some of the things our clients are saying about us:
“I have been favourably impressed by the friendly and compassionate attitude of Lorraine and her colleagues who have dealt with my parents' business and am grateful for your work.” MD
“I was very pleased and impressed in the way the above matter was dealt with by Maureen Lewis. She was very courteous and explained everything explicitly to me and she answered any questions that I put to her in a very detailed and professional manner.
Thank you for all your help and I will not hesitate to contact you again if the need arises as I know I will get excellent service.” PT
To give you an indication on the possible costs to handle an estate some illustrations are detailed below. Please bear in mind these are illustrative costs and as each estate is different these guidelines prices are likely to vary. If you would like to discuss any aspect of our service and / or costs estimates please give us a call on 01723 364321, email at info@thorpeandco.com or complete the contact form at the end of this page, we will be very happy to help with any queries.
If you would like us to obtain the Grant of Representation this typically takes between 3 and 4 hours work at £272.00 per hour (+ VAT) and normally works out to be £875.00 (+ VAT). There are factors which will impact this estimate, these are detailed below.
Our fees depend on the individual circumstances of the matter and are calculated based on both the time spent working on the matter (the time element) and the value of the estate (the value element). The value element is based on 0.5% of the gross value of any residential property and 1% of the gross value of the estate (less the value of the residential property).
If we are instructed to finalise the Estate, pay outstanding debts and distribute the remaining assets our time element is estimated to be £4,080.00 (+ VAT) based on 15 hours work at £272.00 per hour (+ VAT). This includes obtaining the Grant of Representation. As before, these estimated costs are subject to any additional work or fees as described below.
The exact cost will depend on the individual circumstances of the matter. For example, if there is one beneficiary and no property, costs will be at the lower end of the range. If there are multiple beneficiaries, a property and multiple bank accounts, costs will be at the higher end.
VAT is charged at the prevailing rate which is currently 20%.
Whichever the case we are here to handle the full process for you.
This estimate is for estates where:
There are a number of unavoidable additional charges for outside agencies to process parts the Estate and are not included in the estimated fee above. We will handle the payment of these fees on your behalf and will normally deduct them from the value of the Estate. The additional costs are:
| Probate application fee | £300.00 plus £1.50 per additional copy of the Grant, if requested at the time of the application |
| Bankrptcy search | £2.00 plus VAT of £0.40, totalling £2.40 per name searched |
| Postage Costs (if applicable) | £10.00 plus VAT of £2.00, totalling £12.00 |
Potential additional costs
If there is no Will or the estate consists of any share holdings (stocks and bonds) there is likely to be additional costs. We can give you a more accurate estimate once we have more information.
Adverts in the London Gazette and/or newspaper local to the deceased’s home to protect the Personal Representatives against any unexpected claims. If adverts are placed, they typically cost in the region of £500.00 (including VAT charged at 20%).
If any disputes arise during the administration of the Estate this is likely to lead to an increase in costs.
The sale of any property or transfer to a new owner is not included in the fees above.
How long will this take?
On average, estates that fall within this range are dealt with within 12 months. Typically, the grant of probate takes 16 weeks to issue following the application due to the current processing times at the Probate Registry. Collecting assets then follows, which can take between 2 and 6 weeks. Once this has been done, we can pay the liabilities of the estate, prepare the Estate Accounts and have them approved by the Personal Representatives and beneficiaries before being able to distribute the assets. This would normally take approximately 6-8 weeks.
Please remember the timescales are variable and often depend on the receipt of information about the deceased’s affairs and the speed with which the third party organisations respond to information and process matters.
Where Estates require communication with HMRC, who deal with tax affairs, these timescales will need to be substantially extended.
Should any disputes surface whilst we are handling the Estate this generally lengthens the overall process.
Please be aware if a property needs to be sold to finalise the Estate this can have a big impact on the timescales estimated above as the sale may take around 14 weeks to complete once a buyer has been found.
We will do everything we can to ensure everything proceeds in a timely manner.
