Eighteen months in, the estate is still open, the bills keep arriving, and nobody at the firm returns calls. Three different bodies stand behind an executor in that position, and the order in which you use them matters, because the second will not act until the first has had its eight weeks.
What the firm had to tell you at the start
Prices first. The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s Transparency Rules require any firm that offers uncontested probate to publish its prices on its website: the total cost or a range, and the basis for its charges, including hourly rates or fixed fees.
It must also show the experience of the people doing the work, likely disbursements, meaning costs such as court fees paid out on your behalf, whether VAT applies, and the key stages and timescales.
Those are the items in rule 1.5 (SRA Transparency Rules, checked 1 November 2026).
The rules also require the firm to publish how to complain, including how and when a complaint can go to the Legal Ombudsman. A quote that does not match the published basis, or a timescale the firm’s own website contradicts, is the first thing to put in writing.
What probate actually costs, according to the regulator’s research
No official fee scale exists, but the oversight regulator measures the market. The Legal Services Board’s 2024 price survey took quotes from firms for a £310,000 estate with a valid uncontested will and a sole executor. It found a mean price of £1,334 for help obtaining the grant alone and £3,570 for full estate administration.
The median for grant-only help was £1,000 (Legal Services Board, Prices of Individual Consumer Legal Services 2024, checked 1 November 2026).
Those are research findings, not a tariff, and the survey found the spread of prices widened between 2020 and 2024. A charge several times the mean is not wrong in itself; it is a reason to ask what was done for it. Our how probate works page shows what the job involves, including what an executor can do without a solicitor.
Step one: complain to the firm
The SRA Code of Conduct requires a solicitor to tell clients in writing at the start of the work how to complain and to whom, and that complaints are dealt with promptly, fairly, and free of charge (SRA Code of Conduct, paragraph 8, checked 1 November 2026).
Put the complaint in writing, date it, and say what you want: a timetable, an itemised bill, the file, or a reduction.
The Code sets the clock. If the complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction within eight weeks, the firm must tell you in writing of your right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman. That notice must include the time frame for doing so and how to contact it.
Step two: the Legal Ombudsman
The Legal Ombudsman looks at service. Its own list of what it can help with includes the communication you received, the costs you are being asked to pay, and the time taken for the work to be done (Legal Ombudsman, checked 1 November 2026). Slowness is in scope. So is a bill that does not match what was quoted.
Two time limits run together: you must refer the complaint within one year of the problem, or of becoming aware of it, and within six months of the firm’s final response. The Ombudsman’s remedies guidance says compensation awards are limited to £50,000 in total, and that the limit does not apply to a reduction or refund of fees, for which there is no limit (Legal Ombudsman, Guidance on remedies, checked 1 November 2026). It can also order the firm to release papers or money it holds.
Challenging the bill itself
The Solicitors Act 1974 gives a client the right to have a bill assessed by the court. Apply within one month of the bill being delivered and the court must order the assessment. The solicitor cannot sue to recover the bill until it is done.
After that the court may still order it, but after twelve months only in special circumstances.
That is section 70 (Solicitors Act 1974, section 70, checked 1 November 2026).
A lump-sum bill can be turned into an itemised one. Section 64 lets the client, within three months of a gross sum bill, require a bill containing detailed items instead, a right the legislation extends to non-contentious work such as probate (Solicitors Act 1974, section 64, checked 1 November 2026). Ask for the itemised bill before deciding whether to go to the Ombudsman or the court: the items are the evidence either way.
Moving to another firm
An executor is the client, and a client can change solicitor at any time. Two things slow it down. The outgoing firm may hold documents it owns until properly rendered fees are paid, a matter of general law rather than a numbered rule, so ask for the final bill and the file in the same letter.
And money the firm holds for the estate is client money.
The SRA Accounts Rules require client money to be returned promptly to the client as soon as there is no longer any proper reason to hold it. The firm must also account for a fair sum of interest on money held (SRA Accounts Rules, checked 1 November 2026). Estate money held for months without reason is a complaint in its own right.
When the solicitor is also the executor
A will that names the firm as executor changes the position, because the executor is not the client’s employee but the person the will chose. A client can end a retainer; a beneficiary cannot end an appointment the will made, and the route depends on whether the firm has started acting.
Ask first: a named executor who has not yet acted can give up the right to apply on form PA15 (GOV.UK, Applying for probate: if there’s a will, checked 1 November 2026), and a firm may agree to step aside. Where it will not, or has already started acting, removal goes through the court. The Administration of Justice Act 1985 lets a beneficiary, or another personal representative, apply to the High Court to appoint a substitute in place of an existing one.
Personal representative is the legal term for an executor or administrator.
That is section 50 (Administration of Justice Act 1985, section 50, checked 1 November 2026).
Charging is set by the will. Under the Trustee Act 2000, a professional executor with a charging clause in the will is entitled to be paid for services even if a lay executor could have done them (Trustee Act 2000, section 28, checked 1 November 2026). Without a clause, a professional who is not the sole executor may take reasonable remuneration only if each other executor agrees in writing (Trustee Act 2000, section 29, checked 1 November 2026). The clause decides the rate, so it is the first thing to read.
What is the court’s delay, and what is the firm’s
Not every delay is the solicitor’s. GOV.UK says you will usually get probate within 12 weeks of submitting the application, longer if more information is needed (GOV.UK, Applying for probate: apply for probate, checked 1 November 2026). Our how long probate takes page carries the HMCTS figures behind that, including why stopped applications wait months.
Ask the firm for the date the application was submitted and whether it has been stopped. A firm that cannot say is a firm that has not checked, and the Ombudsman treats not communicating as a service failure in itself. Our executor delays page covers the mirror case, where the executor is a relative and the beneficiaries are the ones waiting.