Is letters of administration harder than probate?

The application itself is very similar. The extra work is proving your entitlement to apply and identifying every person entitled under the intestacy rules.

Cost · 5 min read

What does probate cost when there is no will?

Intestacy does not change the court fee. It changes who can apply and how much evidence you need, and that is where the extra cost creeps in.

Written and reviewed by Ramani Gill, Founder & CEO — Solicitor, TEP, BA, LLM. Last reviewed 2026-08-19.

The fee is the same

Letters of administration cost £526 where the estate is above £5,000, exactly as a grant of probate does, with sealed copies at £2 each ordered upfront.

Where intestate estates cost more

Extra item	Typical cost	When it applies
Marriage or birth certificates to prove entitlement	£12.50 each	Almost always
Genealogist to trace relatives	£500 – several thousand, sometimes a % of shares traced	No known close family
Statutory notices in The Gazette and local press	£150 – £300	Recommended for protection
Missing beneficiary indemnity insurance	From a few hundred pounds	A beneficiary cannot be found

Doing this yourself?

Our guided service walks an executor through valuations, the HMCTS forms and the estate accounts for a one-off £349.

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Who is entitled to apply

The intestacy rules set a strict order of priority: spouse or civil partner, then children, then parents, then siblings, and onwards. A partner you were not married to has no automatic entitlement, however long you lived together.

The distribution is fixed by law

You cannot decide who inherits. The statutory order applies whatever the family understood the deceased's wishes to be — though the beneficiaries can rearrange things afterwards by deed of variation.

GOV.UK — Who inherits if someone dies without a will

Common questions

Is letters of administration harder than probate?: The application itself is very similar. The extra work is proving your entitlement to apply and identifying every person entitled under the intestacy rules.

Not sure whether this estate is straightforward?

The free suitability checker asks about jurisdiction, disputes and complexity, and tells you in a few minutes whether a self-help route is sensible — or whether you should speak to a solicitor. No account needed.

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Where this fits in the probate process

What probate actually costsCourt fee, solicitor quotes and the self-help route compared.