You do not legally need a solicitor to apply for probate in England and Wales. You can apply yourself, directly through the government’s own service, and a large share of the grants issued every quarter go to executors who did exactly that.
The question that actually matters is whether your estate is simple enough for that to be safe. This article walks you through when doing it yourself is sensible, when it becomes a risk, and the middle option between the two.
Can you do probate without a solicitor?
Nothing in the probate process requires a solicitor or lawyer. The government’s applying for probate guidance lets an executor apply directly, online or by post. You value the estate, report it to HMRC, submit the forms, pay the application fee, and the grant is issued in your name.
So the question worth your time is narrower. It comes down to whether your particular estate is straightforward enough that doing it yourself stays simple, and for most estates it is.
When you probably don’t need help
When yours is one of those, handling it yourself is genuinely fine. You are a good candidate for DIY probate when:
- the estate is ordinary: a home, bank accounts, a pension, a few investments, nothing unusual
- there is no inheritance tax to pay, or the estate is exempt and simple to report
- there is a valid will and you are the named executor
- nobody is likely to dispute the will or contest who inherits
- you have the time and patience for forms and for chasing banks and HMRC (that last one is what people underestimate).
If that list describes your situation, apply directly and keep the professional fee in the estate. The court charges a flat application fee of £526 for estates over £5,000, and nothing at £5,000 or below. That fee, plus your own time, is the true cost of doing it yourself.
When to get help
The list flips at the point where an estate stops being ordinary. Get help if any of these apply:
- inheritance tax is due, or the estate needs a full inheritance tax account
- there is property to sell or transfer, especially the person’s home
- someone is likely to dispute the will, or a beneficiary has already raised a concern
- there are foreign assets, a business interest, or the estate is insolvent
- you cannot locate every beneficiary.
Every one of those is a point where the estate leaves the ordinary process, and where the cost of a mistake lands on you personally rather than on the estate. If you are trying to decide which professional to use, I have written separately on whether an accountant or a solicitor is the better fit.
The risk of getting probate wrong
Being an executor does not make you personally responsible for the deceased’s debts. What it does do is put you on the hook for how you administer the estate, and there is one exposure that catches people out more than any other: pay the beneficiaries too early, and a debt or a tax bill that surfaces afterwards can come out of your own money rather than the estate’s.
Even a mistake that gets caught and corrected costs you months.
In its Family Court Statistics Quarterly for January to March 2026, probate applications that were stopped, because of a dispute over who can apply, a problem with the will, or an error requiring further information, took 14 weeks on average to reach a grant. Applications that were not stopped took two weeks. That is seven times the wait, and one of the three causes the Ministry lists is an error that needed more information. That one is entirely within your control.
Clean digital applications, 70% of all grants issued that quarter, took around two weeks from submission. Across all applications the mean was five weeks and the median was one. Get it right first time and probate is short. Get it wrong and it drags.
Doing probate yourself carries no professional fee, but it does carry that responsibility from the first form to the final distribution. A probate specialist takes the process on with you and carries full professional indemnity insurance, which is a fair part of what you are paying for.
Solicitor vs DIY vs a fixed-fee specialist
Which brings it back to money, because the bill is why most people ask about a solicitor at all. There are three routes
| Route | What you pay | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself | £526 court fee (estates over £5,000), plus your time | Everything: forms, tax, chasing banks, distribution |
| Full-service solicitor | Roughly 1% to 5% of the estate value plus VAT, or about £3,000 to £15,000 plus VAT for full administration | Hand it over |
| Fixed-fee probate specialist | £1,880, fixed, no hourly billing | Hand it over |
Those solicitor figures are not mine. Kings Court Trust puts percentage-of-estate charging at 1% to 5% of the estate value plus VAT, and NPS Law quotes roughly £3,000 to £15,000 plus VAT for full estate administration. On a £400,000 estate, a 2% charge comes to £8,000 before VAT and before the court fee.
The fixed-fee probate alternative
That last row is what I offer. My name is Ade. I have spent 35 years in estate planning, and I handle the whole estate administration for a fixed fee of £1,880.
The fee covers everything from the grant application through to the final distribution to the beneficiaries. You see the full figure before any work starts, and the price quoted is the price you pay. No hourly billing and no surprise add-ons. You deal with me directly, start to finish, with no call centre in the middle.
You can see exactly what the fixed fee covers, or read the longer picture on how I run probate for families.
If you would like to talk it through, call me on 020 8669 1779. There is no obligation, and I will tell you honestly if your estate is one you can handle yourself.
Frequently asked questions
Is it hard to do probate yourself?
No, in the sense that it is not complicated. The forms are plain English and the process is well documented. What makes it hard is the weight of detail and the fact that errors do not disappear; a missed creditor or a wrong valuation comes back later. If you are organised and thorough, you will manage it. If you are short on time or patience for paperwork, it is a burden you may prefer to hand over.
Can you do probate without a solicitor if there is no will?
Yes. Where there is no will the court issues letters of administration rather than a grant of probate, and the closest surviving relative applies under the intestacy rules. The route is the same one an executor uses and you can take it yourself. What changes is that the intestacy rules decide who inherits and in what share, so be certain you have read them correctly before anything is distributed.
Do I need a probate lawyer, or is a probate specialist enough?
For most estates, a specialist is plenty. A solicitor brings full legal regulation, which matters when there is a dispute, a contested will, or complex tax. A probate specialist handles the administration itself: the forms, the tax, the distribution. If your estate is straightforward and the goal is getting the grant issued and the assets passed on correctly, a fixed-fee specialist covers it. If there is a genuine legal fight, that is where a solicitor earns their fee.