Data last verified: 29 October 2026. Figures re-checked against their primary sources under the Whito rolling re-verification programme.
Finding
On 12 October 2026, 26 of 36 law firm probate price pages that quoted the court fee still showed an out-of-date figure, three months after it rose to £526.
Source: Whito, whito.co.uk/solicitors/research/solicitor-price-transparency, 2026-10-12. Free to quote with a link to this page.
Last Updated on October 29, 2026
Checked: 12 October 2026. The 64 English law firms that ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode named on 3 October 2026 when asked for a trustworthy solicitor. Every price page read on the firm’s own website.
Re-checked 29 October 2026. We opened all 36 probate pages that quote the court fee again. Not one had changed: 10 show £526, 23 still show £300, 1 shows £273 and 2 show £155. The page-by-page list, with the exact wording on each page, is a free download: whito-solicitor-probate-fee-check-2026-10-29.csv.
Since 2018, law firms in England and Wales have had to publish prices for some everyday services, probate among them. So the price is usually there. The question we asked is whether it is still right.
On 12 October 2026, 26 of 36 law firm probate price pages that quoted the court fee still showed an out-of-date figure, three months after it rose to £526. Most said £300. Two said £155, a figure from years ago.
The fee that moved
The probate application fee is the government’s charge for applying for a grant of probate on an estate worth more than £5,000. On 19 June 2026 the government announced it would rise to £526 from 13 July 2026. GOV.UK’s probate fees page gives £526 (read 12 October 2026).
Firms pass this fee on as a disbursement, a cost paid to a third party on the client’s behalf. The SRA Transparency Rules say a firm’s published price must describe likely disbursements and their cost. We call a disbursement that has not caught up with the real charge the frozen disbursement. It is small, it is easy to fix, and it makes every total on the page look £226 cheaper than it will be.
What we found
| Probate court fee shown on the firm’s price page | Firms |
|---|---|
| £526 (current) | 10 |
| £300 | 23 |
| £273 | 1 |
| £155 | 2 |
| No court fee figure given | 11 |
| Price document could not be read | 1 |
| Firms with a probate price page | 48 |
So of the 36 pages that name a court fee, 10 have it right. Some of the stale pages say the old figure is the fee “currently”. Others put it inside worked examples that add up to a total, so the total is wrong too. One firm that did update dated it, giving the fee “as at August 2026”.
The wider picture: prices are mostly there
This is not a story about firms hiding prices. Of the 64 firms, 58 advertise at least one service the Transparency Rules cover: residential conveyancing, uncontested probate, immigration applications, summary motoring offences, employment tribunal claims, debt recovery or premises licensing. Across those 58 firms and the 255 covered services they advertise, we found a published price for 208, a partial price for 24 (for example hourly rates only, or a calculator with no figures on the page), and no price for 19. Four could not be read. 31 of the 58 firms had a price for every covered service they advertise.
Where prices were published, nearly all said whether VAT applied. Disbursements were listed on 164 of the 208 and timescales on 174. The gaps cluster in debt recovery and employment tribunal work for employers, where the rules apply but fewer firms publish.
Why this matters for AI answers
These are the firms AI engines put in front of people. Our 3 October check found 89 of the 93 English names they gave matched an SRA-regulated firm, so the recommendations were mostly real firms. But an engine reading a firm’s price page repeats what it says. A stale £300 on the page becomes a stale £300 in the answer.
If you are an executor
- Budget £526 for the probate application fee on an estate over £5,000, whatever a price page says.
- Ask the firm for its total including disbursements and VAT, in writing, with the date of the figures.
- Check the firm on the SRA register before you instruct it.
If you run a law firm
Search your own site for “£300” and “£155”. Update every probate page, PDF and worked example in one pass, and add the date the figures were last checked. When government fees change, the rules still expect your published price to describe likely disbursements and their cost. Our free Visibility Check shows what clients, and AI assistants, can find on your site.
What this does not prove
- A stale disbursement line is not proof a firm will overcharge or undercharge anyone. Firms bill the actual court fee.
- We do not say any firm is in breach of the SRA’s rules. That is for the SRA.
- The sample is the firms three AI engines named in five English cities. It is not a census of law firms.
- “No price found” means we could not find one in the pages checked. It does not prove a price is not published somewhere else on the site.
- Pages change. Every result carries its check date, 12 October 2026.
How we did it
We took the firms named by ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode on 3 October 2026 for “Recommend a trustworthy solicitor in [city]” in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Bristol, kept the 64 distinct firms matched to an SRA-regulated firm, and opened each firm’s own website on 12 October 2026. For every service the firm advertises that the Transparency Rules cover, we looked for its price page and recorded the price, VAT, disbursements and timescales. For probate, every price page was then re-opened in a normal browser and the court fee line read live. Price documents in PDF were read as text. Nothing is ranked and no firm is named as best or worst. If you think a result is wrong, use corrections.
The data behind this page
The firm-level file behind this page covers all 64 firms and 255 firm-service rows: the price page, the price as published, VAT, disbursements, timescales, the court fee quoted and the exact wording, with the check date. It is available as Whito Data. Nobody can pay to be added to a study, removed from one or moved within one. How Whito makes money.
Cite this research
Whito Research (2026). Solicitor price pages: on 12 October 2026, 26 of 36 law firm probate price pages that quoted the court fee still showed an out-of-date figure. https://whito.co.uk/solicitors/research/solicitor-price-transparency/
These figures are free to quote with a link to this page.
- Which solicitors AI engines recommend, checked against the SRA register
- Do care homes publish their fees?
- The fees UK agencies do not quote
Questions
How much is the probate application fee in 2026?
£526 for an estate worth more than £5,000, from 13 July 2026 (GOV.UK, read 12 October 2026). On 12 October 2026, 26 of 36 law firm probate price pages we checked that quoted the fee still showed an older figure. Source: Whito, firm websites read 12 October 2026.
Do solicitors have to publish their prices?
For some services, yes. SRA Transparency Rules require firms advertising residential conveyancing, uncontested probate, some immigration, motoring offence, employment tribunal, debt recovery and licensing work to publish cost information. Of 255 covered services advertised by 58 AI-recommended firms, we found a published price for 208. Source: Whito, 12 October 2026.
What is a frozen disbursement?
A third-party cost on a published price page that has not caught up with the real charge, such as a probate court fee still shown as £300 after it rose to £526. Source: Whito, 12 October 2026.
If your business is named here and you think we have a fact wrong, email hello@whito.co.uk and we will check it and correct it. If you want to respond, send us a statement and we will publish it alongside. Full detail: Corrections, right of reply and removals.
