Probate Fees in the Northern Territory: The $1,542 Supreme Court Filing Fee

When families in the Northern Territory first look into probate, the cost is usually the thing that stops them short. The Supreme Court charges a flat fee to grant probate, and it is the same whether the estate is worth $25,000 or $2.5 million. Knowing exactly what that fee is, what it buys, and what extra costs sit on top of it is the only way to work out whether formal probate is worth it for your situation — or whether a cheaper route exists.

The Core Filing Fee: $1,542

The headline number is $1,542 to file a probate application with the NT Supreme Court. That figure is made up of two parts:

• $1,506 for the originating process (the application itself)
• $36 for the search fee

This is a flat fee. It does not scale with the size of the estate, which is good news for large estates and a real consideration for small ones — paying $1,542 to release a $20,000 estate is a very different proposition to paying it on a $1 million estate.

What the Fee Actually Buys

The $1,542 gets you a grant of representation from the court — the legal authority to deal with the deceased's assets. Which form that grant takes depends on whether there's a will:

• If there is a valid will naming an executor, you apply for a Grant of Probate.
• If there is no will, or no willing executor, an eligible person applies for Letters of Administration instead.

Both are grants of representation, both cost the same to file, and both do the same essential job: they give banks, share registries, and the Land Titles Office a court document they can rely on before releasing assets or transferring title.

Certified Copies of the Grant

One original grant is rarely enough. Every institution holding an asset — each bank, each registry — typically wants to sight an official certified copy, and many keep it. The court charges for these:

• $7.25 for the first page
• $1.45 for each additional page

If the deceased held assets across several institutions, interstate, or overseas, order multiple certified copies up front. A certified copy is exactly what an interstate bank or a foreign asset holder will ask for, and getting extras issued later means going back to the court.

Other Costs That Sit on Top

The filing fee is the floor, not the ceiling. Depending on how you run the application, add:

• Solicitor's fees, if you engage one. These are charged separately from the court fee and vary with the estate's complexity — a straightforward grant costs far less than a contested or asset-heavy one.
• JP or Commissioner for Oaths witnessing. Probate documents are affidavits and must be sworn before an authorised witness.
• Advertising the Notice of Intention to Apply. Before you can even file, you must publish a notice and then wait 14 days before submitting the application.
• Translation or notarisation, if documents (or foreign assets) require it.
• An Affidavit of Delay, if you file more than six months after the death — this is an extra sworn document explaining the delay, not a court fee as such, but it's extra work and often extra cost.

How the 14-Day Notice Period Works

You cannot file the moment you're ready. The NT process requires you to first publish a Notice of Intention to Apply for the grant, and then wait 14 days before lodging the application with the court. This gives potential creditors and other interested parties a window to come forward. It's not a fee, but it is a fixed delay you have to build into your timeline — the clock on the grant doesn't start until that period has run.

Why Applications Get Rejected — and Re-Filed

The single biggest hidden cost in NT probate is the requisition: the court reviewing your application, finding a defect, and sending it back for correction. Requisitions are especially common in self-represented (DIY) applications, and each one can add weeks or months. Common triggers include:

• Documents not lodged as single-sided A4
• PDFs combined into one file when each must be separate and uncombined
• Affidavits not properly sworn before a JP or Commissioner for Oaths
• An out-of-NT executor failing to provide an NT address for service (you must use a local address, typically care of a local solicitor)
• Filing after six months without the required Affidavit of Delay

A requisition rarely means paying the $1,542 again — but it costs time, and for a self-represented executor it can add three to six months to the process. That delay has its own price: assets stay frozen, and the estate can't be wound up.

If you're trying to decide whether to take this on yourself or hand it to a solicitor, the Northern Territory Funeral Laws & Consumer Rights Guide sets out where DIY applicants most often come unstuck, so you can make that call with your eyes open rather than discovering the pitfalls mid-application.

What the Flat Fee Means for Small vs Large Estates

Because the fee doesn't scale, the maths is very different at each end:

• For a large estate, $1,542 is trivial — a rounding error against the value being protected and transferred. Formal probate is almost always the right call.
• For a small estate, $1,542 can be a meaningful chunk of the whole. This is exactly why the NT recognises a $20,000 small-estate threshold, below which most institutions release assets informally without a grant — letting modest estates skip the fee entirely.

When It Makes Sense to Hire a Solicitor

DIY probate saves the solicitor's fee but exposes you to requisitions, delay, and personal risk if you get the administration wrong. A solicitor generally earns their fee when:

• The estate is large or complex — businesses, multiple properties, interstate or foreign assets.
• There's a dispute, a caveat, or a likely family provision claim.
• The will is unclear, damaged, or its validity is questionable.
• You're an out-of-NT executor who needs a local address for service anyway.

For a clean, simple, single-property-or-less estate with a clear will and no conflict, DIY is genuinely viable — the detailed procedure is covered in our DIY probate guide, so this post deliberately stays on the costs rather than the steps.

Alternatives to Paying for Probate at All

Before assuming you need a grant, check whether you can avoid it:

• The $20,000 small-estate threshold — present the will, death certificate, and ID to banks and agencies and administer informally.
• Surviving joint tenant — property and accounts held as joint tenants pass automatically by survivorship, no grant required.
• Direct-beneficiary assets — superannuation and life insurance paid to a named beneficiary (not "the estate") bypass probate entirely.
• Funeral funds — a bank can release money straight to the funeral home on production of the MCCD and an itemised invoice, no grant needed, because funeral costs have statutory priority.

The $1,542 filing fee is fixed, but the total cost of probate — copies, witnessing, advertising, possible solicitor fees, and the time cost of requisitions — varies enormously. Working out whether that total is worth it comes down to the size and complexity of the estate and whether a cheaper path qualifies. The Northern Territory Funeral Laws & Consumer Rights Guide lays out every cost and every alternative in one place, so you can decide before you commit to the Supreme Court route.

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