ProbatePack vs the free forms on courts.ie.
The Courts Service of Ireland publishes blank probate forms for personal applicants. They are genuinely free, genuinely usable, and for many estates they are enough. This page is an honest comparison of what the free forms give you, what is missing if you use them alone, and when spending €229 on a pack makes sense over downloading them.
What you get from courts.ie at no charge.
The Courts Service publishes the full set of probate forms on their website. For a personal applicant, the relevant free materials are:
- The Oath for Executor or Oath for Administrator template (blank).
- The Probate affidavit skeleton (blank).
- The Inland Revenue Affidavit for pre-2020 estates, superseded by the SA2 filed on Revenue myAccount for current estates.
- A general guide to personal applications and the probate offices list.
- The District Probate Registry contact details and opening hours.
- The court fee schedule.
These forms are the same forms a solicitor uses. Nothing on the site is locked behind a professional account. If you download them, fill them in correctly for your estate, and lodge them at the right registry with the right accompanying documents, you will get a Grant.
Side by side.
| courts.ie free forms | ProbatePack Preparation Pack | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | €229 |
| Probate affidavit | Blank template, generic | Pre-filled for your specific Grant type |
| SA2 Revenue filing | Not covered (Revenue myAccount) | Pre-drafted answers to paste into myAccount |
| Institution notification letters | Not provided | 25 pre-personalised letters (PDF + DOCX) |
| Asset tracker | Not provided | Excel tracker with date-written, date-replied, confirmed balance |
| Registry appointment briefing | Phone the registry | Written briefing specific to your registry |
| CAT calculation | Not covered | Basic calculation sheet included; full per-beneficiary in Complete Bundle |
| Post-Grant walkthrough | Not provided | Step-by-step asset collection and distribution guide |
| Estate accounts template | Not provided | Excel template for final accounts |
What you still have to build yourself with free forms alone.
Courts.ie hands you the Grant application forms. It does not hand you the surrounding work that makes the application actually happen. Specifically, these six tracks are on you:
1. Notifying institutions. Every bank, credit union, pension provider, utility, and government body that held an account in the deceased's name must be notified in writing and asked for a date-of-death balance. The 25 pre-written institution letters in the Preparation Pack are not on courts.ie. You draft each one yourself.
2. Filing the SA2 with Revenue. Courts.ie references the SA2 but does not walk through it. You file it on Revenue myAccount, which is a separate system with its own form structure, its own section breakdown, and its own reject-for-missing-info pattern. The pack's SA2 briefing compresses this.
3. Calculating CAT. If any beneficiary might owe inheritance tax, each one needs their own calculation, potentially an IT38 filing, and possibly a claim under the Dwelling House Exemption or Section 72. None of this is on courts.ie.
4. Drafting the probate affidavit content. Courts.ie gives you the skeleton. You fill in the specific statements required for your Grant type (Probate, Letters of Administration, Letters of Administration with Will Annexed) and your situation (executors named, renunciations, substituted capacity, etc.).
5. Registry appointment process. Different Probate Offices have different procedures. Dublin has its Principal Probate Office at the Four Courts with a booked-appointment system. The 13 District Probate Registries each run differently. Courts.ie lists the registries but does not set out the appointment flow.
6. Post-Grant administration. Once the Grant issues, you still have to collect assets, pay debts, request Revenue clearance, and distribute to beneficiaries. None of this is on courts.ie because courts.ie is the Probate Office's website, not a probate administration guide.
Skip the pack and use courts.ie if.
Tiny estate, one institution
Single bank account, well under the small-estates threshold, no probate needed at all. The bank's own bereavement form is all you need.
You have access to existing templates
Someone in the family has done probate recently and kept their letters and SA2 working. You can adapt those rather than build from scratch.
You have professional experience
Solicitor or accountant dealing with a family estate. You have the content knowledge; the pack just saves time you can afford to spend.
Extremely small budget
€229 is not feasible right now. Courts.ie plus the free institution guides on this site (see every one at /institutions/) cover most of what you need, just more slowly.
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