What a Toronto family owes while the house waits for probate
Start with the correction, because it saves a lot of worry. There is no Toronto probate fee. Probate in Canada is provincial, so a Toronto estate is charged Ontario's estate administration tax on exactly the same terms as an estate in Sudbury: nothing on the first $50,000, then 1.5% of the rest. On a $1,000,000 estate that is $14,250.
What is different about Toronto is not the rate. It is the shape of the estate. In a great many Toronto families almost everything the parents built sits inside one house, and that house cannot be sold, refinanced or transferred until the court issues the certificate. The estate can be worth a fortune on paper while the family has nothing at all to spend.
Estate Settlement Cost Calculator
Probate is one line on a longer bill. This adds up the whole cost of settling an estate, including the parts that fall due before any assets can be sold.
Professional fees are typical ranges, not fixed tariffs; a straightforward estate costs less and a contested one costs far more. Executor compensation is commonly around 2–5% of the estate where it is claimed at all, and family executors often waive it.
An inheritance nobody can reach
Once a bank learns of a death it will normally stop honouring anything on a sole account. Investment accounts are held. The land registry will not move title. The executor holds authority in principle and no access in practice, and in Ontario that stretch commonly runs for months rather than weeks. For a family whose parents owned a Toronto home outright, it means an estate of considerable value and a chequing balance of nothing.
The probate tax lands inside that same window. It is payable when the application is filed, not when the estate is wound up, so somebody is asked for $14,250 on a $1,000,000 estate at the one moment none of the estate's money is available. In practice a family member fronts it and is reimbursed later, which is worth recording carefully at the time it happens.
The house keeps costing money while it sits
A property does not pause because its owner has died. Property tax instalments come due, the insurer has to be told the home is unoccupied and will often charge more or impose conditions, utilities keep running so the pipes do not freeze, and any mortgage carries on. Somebody has to check on the place. If it is going to be sold it may need clearing and repairs before it can be listed, and that work is paid for before the sale produces anything.
Then there is the sale itself, the largest single cost in most Toronto estates. Commission and closing costs are a percentage of the price, so on a city home they come to a multiple of the probate tax. None of that is unusual or avoidable; it is simply what turning a house into something divisible between children costs. It is worth knowing in advance that the number on the appraisal is not the number that gets shared.
The money that does not wait for the court
Life insurance paid to a named beneficiary is the exception to everything above. It goes to the person named rather than into the estate, it is left out of the value the Ontario tax is calculated on, and it does not need the certificate to be released. Claims are usually settled within weeks of the paperwork going in, which is what covers the funeral, the property tax instalment and the family's own bills while the house sits.
It is worth reading the beneficiary line rather than assuming it is still right. A designation naming a former spouse continues to govern. A designation naming the estate pulls the proceeds back in, subject to the tax and the wait like everything else. The same question applies to an RRSP, a RRIF or a TFSA, where a named beneficiary generally receives the plan directly. Ten minutes with the paperwork answers it, and an estate lawyer can confirm anything that reads oddly.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a Toronto probate fee separate from Ontario's?
No, there is not. Probate is charged by the province, and a Toronto estate pays the Ontario estate administration tax on the same schedule as every other Ontario estate. Living in the city changes which court office you file with and nothing else.
How long before our family can sell the house?
Not until the certificate of appointment is issued, which in Ontario usually takes months and longer where the application has gaps. Title cannot be transferred before then, so budget for carrying the property through that entire period.
Who pays for the funeral if the accounts are frozen?
Whoever can. Some institutions will settle a funeral invoice directly from the deceased's account as a courtesy, but it is not a right and rarely stretches beyond the funeral itself. Life insurance paid to a named beneficiary is the dependable answer, because it arrives within weeks and never enters the estate.
Does a policy payout increase the probate tax?
Not when a living person is named as beneficiary. That money belongs to them directly and is excluded from the value Ontario charges the tax on. A policy naming the estate instead produces the opposite result and is taxed along with everything else.
Is it cheaper to settle an estate outside Toronto?
The probate tax is identical anywhere in Ontario, but several other costs are not. Cemetery plots, funeral homes and professional fees generally run higher in the city, and sale costs on a more valuable property are larger in absolute terms. Where the house is, not where the executor lives, is what drives that.
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Probate is provincial, not municipal. A Toronto estate pays the Ontario rate — see probate fees in Ontario for the exact schedule.