New Terms

Last updated: 2 September 2026

These terms explain how Berkeley Weston Ltd supplies the free information and assisted probate services offered through DIY Probate Forms. Please read them before asking us to begin paid work.

1. Who we are

DIY Probate Forms is a trading name of Berkeley Weston Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 05274731. Our VAT registration number is 871928879.

Our registered office and correspondence address is Business Box, Oswin Road, Leicester LE3 1HR. You can contact us through our contact page.

In these terms, “we”, “us” and “our” mean Berkeley Weston Ltd. “You” and “your” mean the person requesting or buying a service.

2. What these terms cover

These terms apply to:

• your use of this website and any free guides, checklists or other general information we provide; and
• any assisted probate service that you buy from us as a consumer.

Your written proposal, service summary, engagement confirmation or invoice may contain additional terms specific to your matter. If there is a conflict, the specific written terms will take priority for that matter, except that nothing will reduce your statutory consumer rights.

3. Free guides and website information

Our free guides, articles, calculators, emails and other website content provide general information only. They are not tailored legal, tax, financial or investment advice and do not create a client relationship. Probate and tax rules can change, and the correct approach depends on the facts of an estate. You should check that information is current and obtain appropriate professional advice where needed.

You remain responsible for decisions you make using general information. Nothing in this section excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

4. Enquiries and when a contract is formed

Submitting an enquiry, downloading a guide or booking a call does not commit you to buy an assisted probate service.

Before paid work begins, we will normally confirm in writing:

• the service we will provide and any exclusions;
• the fee, VAT and known third-party charges;
• what information or documents we need from you; and
• any important assumptions or estimated timescales.

A contract for the assisted probate service is formed when you accept our written offer or engagement confirmation and make any payment required to start. We may decline a matter before then, including where it falls outside our expertise, capacity or risk criteria.

5. Eligibility and scope of the assisted probate service

Our assisted probate service is intended for applications governed by the law and probate procedure of England and Wales. The exact work included will be set out in your written engagement confirmation.

Depending on the service agreed, our work may include gathering information from you, identifying the forms required, preparing or checking inheritance tax and probate information, helping prepare the application, submitting it where authorised and supporting you while the application is processed.

Unless we expressly agree otherwise in writing, the service does not include:

• collecting or valuing every asset or liability in the estate;
• full administration, accounting for or distribution of the estate after the grant;
• conveyancing, litigation or resolving a dispute about a will, executor, beneficiary or ownership;
• advice on investments or financial products;
• Scottish or Northern Irish confirmation/probate, foreign grants or foreign law; or
• work for trusts, insolvent estates, complex business assets or other specialist matters outside the agreed scope.

If new facts make the matter materially more complex, we may pause work and explain the options. Any extra work or fee must be agreed with you before we undertake it.

6. Your role and responsibilities

Unless we confirm otherwise in writing, you remain the executor, administrator or proposed personal representative and retain the legal responsibility for the estate. You must:

• have authority from any other personal representatives where required;
• give us complete, accurate and timely information and documents;
• tell us promptly if information changes or may be disputed;
• check documents and summaries we send you before approving, signing or submitting them;
• not conceal assets, gifts, debts, beneficiaries or other relevant facts; and
• meet any deadlines we tell you about and pay HMRC, HMCTS and other third parties when required.

We are entitled to rely on information supplied by you and by third parties unless it is obviously incorrect. Inaccurate, incomplete or late information may cause delay, additional fees, penalties or an incorrect application.

7. Fees, VAT, deposits and third-party charges

Your fee will be the fixed or estimated amount stated in your written proposal or engagement confirmation. VAT will be added where stated.

The £50 booking deposit advertised on our website is fully refundable until you accept a written engagement confirmation. If you proceed, we will tell you whether the deposit is credited against the service fee. Your statutory cancellation rights continue to apply after a service contract is formed.

Unless your written proposal says they are included, third-party charges are payable in addition to our fee. These may include probate application fees, official copies, valuation fees, search fees, accountant or specialist fees, tax and bank charges. We will identify known charges where reasonably possible, but third parties may change their fees.

We may require payment in advance or by agreed instalments. If an undisputed payment is overdue, we may pause work after giving you reasonable notice.

8. Your 14-day cancellation right

If you enter into the contract online or by telephone as a consumer, you normally have 14 days from the day after the contract is made to cancel without giving a reason.

To cancel, send us a clear statement before the cancellation period ends using the contact details in section 19. You may use the model cancellation form at the end of these terms, but you do not have to.

If you ask us to begin the service during the 14-day cancellation period and then cancel, we may charge a proportionate amount for work properly completed up to the time you told us to stop. We will only begin early where you have expressly requested this.

If the service is fully performed during the cancellation period, your right to cancel may be lost only where you expressly requested early performance and acknowledged that the right would be lost once the service was fully performed.

Any refund due will be made without undue delay and no later than 14 days after we are informed of your cancellation, normally by the payment method you used.

9. How and when we provide the service

We will provide the service with reasonable care and skill. Any completion or grant date is an estimate unless we expressly guarantee it in writing.

HMCTS, HMRC, banks, valuers and other third parties control parts of the process. Their processing times, requests and decisions are outside our control. We cannot guarantee that probate will be granted, that it will be granted by a particular date or that a tax authority or court will accept a particular treatment.

We will keep you informed of material issues and may ask for further information. Delays caused by missing information, third parties, events outside our reasonable control or a change in the estate do not amount to a failure by us to perform the service.

10. Changes to the service

You may ask us to change the agreed scope. We do not have to accept a change, but if we do, we will confirm any effect on fees and timing before carrying out the additional work.

We may make a minor change where necessary to comply with law, regulation, HMCTS or HMRC procedure, or to address a technical or security issue, provided it does not materially reduce the service you bought.

11. Ending the service after the 14-day period

You may ask us to stop work at any time. Unless your engagement confirmation provides a more favourable arrangement, you must pay for work properly completed and non-cancellable third-party costs incurred up to the end date. We will refund any balance paid for work not carried out.

If a separate satisfaction guarantee is stated in your written offer, it will apply on the conditions set out there and will not affect your statutory rights.

12. When we may suspend or end the service

We may suspend or end the service on reasonable written notice if:

• you do not provide information, instructions or payment needed for us to continue;
• we reasonably suspect that information is false, misleading, unlawful or connected with fraud or financial crime;
• a conflict of interest or professional risk arises;
• the matter becomes contested or falls outside the agreed scope or our competence; or
• continuing would require us to breach a legal or regulatory obligation.

Where lawful and practical, we will explain the reason and give you an opportunity to resolve it. You will only be charged for work properly completed and committed third-party costs, and we will refund any balance due.

13. Our responsibility to you

If we fail to comply with these terms, we are responsible for loss or damage that is a foreseeable result of our breach or our failure to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss that was not foreseeable when the contract was made.

We are not responsible for loss caused by inaccurate or incomplete information supplied by you or a third party, your failure to follow reasonable advice or instructions, or the independent act or delay of HMCTS, HMRC or another third party, except to the extent that our own breach contributed to the loss.

Our services are supplied for private consumer purposes. We are not responsible for business losses such as loss of profit, business, opportunity or goodwill.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of rights that cannot legally be excluded, or any other liability that the law does not allow us to exclude or limit.

Your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and other consumer law are not affected.

14. Intellectual property and permitted use

We or our licensors own the copyright and other intellectual property rights in our website, guides, checklists, templates and working materials. We grant you a personal, non-exclusive licence to use materials supplied to you for the estate and purpose for which they were provided.

You must not sell, publish, share commercially, reproduce in bulk or create a competing product from our materials without written permission. You may share relevant materials with co-executors and professional advisers working on the same estate.

15. Privacy and confidentiality

We handle personal information in accordance with our Privacy Statement and applicable UK data protection law. Probate work may require us to handle information about you, the deceased, beneficiaries and other people and to share relevant information with HMCTS, HMRC and service providers involved in the work.

You confirm that you are entitled to provide the personal information you give us and that, where appropriate, you have told the affected people how their information will be used.

We will keep information about your matter confidential except where disclosure is authorised by you, required to perform the service, required by law or reasonably necessary to prevent crime or protect legal rights.

16. Complaints

If you are unhappy with the service, please contact us promptly through our contact page or write to the address in section 19. Please explain what happened and the outcome you are seeking. We will acknowledge the complaint and investigate it fairly.

If we are required to use or tell you about an alternative dispute resolution provider, we will provide the relevant details. You may also seek independent advice about your consumer rights.

17. Changes to these terms

The terms that apply to a paid service are those accepted when the contract is made, together with any later change agreed in writing. We may update the website version for future customers, but will not retrospectively change an existing contract without your agreement unless the change is required by law and does not materially disadvantage you.

18. General legal terms

If any part of these terms is found unlawful or unenforceable, the remaining parts will continue to apply. A delay in enforcing a right does not waive that right.

No person other than you and Berkeley Weston Ltd has a right to enforce the contract under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

These terms and the contract are governed by the law of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales will have jurisdiction, although a consumer living elsewhere retains any mandatory right to bring proceedings in their home courts.

19. Contact details

Berkeley Weston Ltd, trading as DIY Probate Forms
Business Box
Oswin Road
Leicester
LE3 1HR

Company number: 05274731
VAT registration number: 871928879

Telephone and online enquiry details are kept up to date on our contact page.

Model cancellation form

Complete and return this form only if you wish to cancel a service contract.

To: Berkeley Weston Ltd, trading as DIY Probate Forms, Business Box, Oswin Road, Leicester LE3 1HR

I/We hereby give notice that I/We cancel my/our contract for the following service:

Service: __________________________________________

Ordered on: ______________________________________

Name of consumer(s): ______________________________

Address of consumer(s): ____________________________

Signature of consumer(s) (only if this form is sent on paper):

_________________________________________________

Date: ____________________________________________