By Michael Lamb
The proposed rise in what was described as ‘Court Fees’ is to be scrapped giving relief to bereaved families and those professionals assisting those families.
Issues were identified by the Committee which overseas the increase in Court Fees who concluded that this increase was a Tax and as such was referred back to Parliament. The Order designed to give effect to these increases was put to the House of Commons on 19th April 2017 but due to the announcement of the General Election there was insufficient time to go through Parliament and the House of Lords and is now a matter for the next Government.
We have expressed our concern through the Law Society and the Society for Trust and Estate Practitioners as have other professional organisations that the significant increase in the cost of obtaining a Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration was unfair.
The threat of the introduction of these increased Court Fees has been looming over some executors of the estates for many weeks. For example, in one case, we are assisting the executors in the administration of an estate there would have had an increase in their ‘Court Fees’ from £155 to £8,000. This demonstrates the scale of the increase in fees and why it has been described as a Tax rather than an increase in fees. Fortunately, we had worked diligently to be able to complete the documentation for submission to the Probate Registry in this particular estate but if someone had passed away after the date of implementation or there was insufficient time to complete the documentation the increase in costs would have been significant.
We hope that the next Government sees this increase in Probate fees as unpopular.