Probate Tasmania Cost: Court Fees, Solicitor Fees, and Hidden Expenses

The Supreme Court filing fee is the number everyone asks about first, but it is only one of at least four separate cost categories that executors encounter during Tasmanian probate. Depending on the estate's complexity and whether you hire a solicitor, total costs range from under $600 for a simple self-represented application to over $5,000 when professional fees, property transfer charges, and incidental expenses are included.

Supreme Court Filing Fees

Tasmania uses a progressive fee structure based on the gross value of assets located within Tasmania only. Out-of-state and overseas assets do not count toward the filing fee tier.

These fees are indexed annually under the Fee Units Act 1997 and typically adjust on 1 July each year, linked to the Hobart CPI.

Additional Court Charges

Beyond the filing fee, the court charges for two common situations:

Provisional assessment ($183.36): An optional service where the Registrar reviews your draft application before formal lodgement. This catches errors that would otherwise trigger a requisition. For self-represented executors, this is worth the cost — it is effectively a pre-filing quality check.

Court requisition penalty ($61.12 per requisition): If the Registrar finds errors in your submitted application — a mismatched name, an unbalanced Form 10 inventory, staple marks on the will suggesting missing pages — they issue a formal requisition. Each one costs $61.12 and delays processing by weeks. Multiple requisitions compound quickly.

Solicitor Fees

Tasmanian solicitors handle probate applications using two main fee models:

Hourly billing: Traditional law firms typically charge $300–$500 per hour. A straightforward probate application might take 5–10 hours of work, placing the total at $1,500–$5,000 excluding disbursements. Complex estates with property, disputes, or intestacy issues can run significantly higher.

Fixed-fee services: Several firms now offer fixed-fee probate packages. Bare Law, for example, advertises a Tasmania Grant of Probate service for $1,999 (excluding court filing fees). National Probate and Estates Group offers similar fixed-fee packages. These typically cover only securing the grant — the executor still handles bank negotiations, property transfers, and distribution independently.

Land Titles Office Fees

If the estate includes Tasmanian real property, transferring the title incurs additional charges:

Recent reforms require most LTO instruments to be lodged electronically through a licensed conveyancer or solicitor, which adds their professional fees on top of the LTO charges.

Other Incidental Costs

Death certificates: $65.96 per certified copy from BDM Tasmania, plus $42.02 for priority processing. Most executors need 3–5 copies for banks, the court, and the LTO.

Valuations: Real estate appraisals ($300–$600), vehicle valuations (often free from dealers), and share registry statements (usually no charge) are needed to complete the Form 10 inventory accurately.

Postage and certified copies: If filing from interstate, registered mail costs and certification fees for document copies add up.

Public Trustee Alternative Costs

Handing the estate to the Public Trustee of Tasmania avoids upfront solicitor fees but extracts a percentage from the estate's total value: 4.5% on the first $200,000, 3.5% on the next $200,000, and 2.5% on the next $200,000, plus 6.6% income commission on interest and dividends earned during administration. On a $500,000 estate, this totals roughly $15,000 — significantly more than a solicitor or self-representation would cost.

How to Minimise Costs

The most effective cost-saving strategy is filing a clean application that avoids requisitions. Each requisition adds $61.12 in direct fees and weeks of delay that compound estate holding costs (rates, insurance, maintenance on property).

For estates without solely-owned real property and with liquid assets below the bank thresholds (which range from $15,000 at smaller credit unions to $114,674 at Westpac), informal administration through bank indemnity forms can bypass the court entirely — eliminating the filing fee altogether.

The Tasmania Probate Process Guide includes a pre-filing checklist specifically designed to avoid the most common requisition triggers, a fee calculator for estimating total costs, and the bank threshold reference card showing current limits for major Australian financial institutions.

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