Home to about 94,415 people (2021 Census). We work online across Ontario — you do not need to come to an office.
Our wills & estates work starts at $563.87, taxes included, published up front on our pricing page. Disbursements and any government fees are extra and billed at cost.
Niagara Falls is in Niagara, and Niagara has two Superior Court venues — St Catharines and Welland. Which one receives the application depends on the address, so confirm it before filing rather than guessing. We confirm it as part of opening the file.
The application is for a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee. If the deceased was not living in Ontario at death, it is filed where they owned Ontario property instead.
Niagara Falls is a lower-tier municipality within Niagara, and court jurisdiction in Ontario follows those boundaries rather than city limits — which is why the answer above is about Niagara, not about Niagara Falls on its own.
You are not alone in this. Residents of Fort Erie, Grimsby, Lincoln, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Pelham, Port Colborne, St. Catharines, Thorold and Wainfleet and 2 other municipalities file at the same court, because all of them sit inside Niagara. There are 12 municipalities in Niagara in total.
Niagara Falls does not have its own courthouse for this work. The venue is in St Catharines/Welland, which serves Niagara. Plan for the travel: attendances, and any filing that has to be done in person, happen there rather than locally. Most of what we do on a file is handled remotely and does not require you to attend at all.
Niagara Falls had a 2021 census population of 94,415 across 37,793 occupied private dwellings, an average household of 2.5.
For most estates here the house is the estate. Ontario's Estate Administration Tax is charged on the value of the estate, and a home in Niagara Falls is usually the largest asset in it — which is why the valuation date figure, not the price the family remembers paying, is what the application turns on. Title is registered through the the local land registry office.
Of 39,778 private dwellings in Niagara Falls, 1,985 (5.0%) had no usual resident at the census. A property standing empty through an estate administration raises its own questions — insurance on a vacant home, and who is responsible for it while probate is pending.
Population and dwelling counts: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population (source), retrieved 2026-07-28. Averages are computed from those counts.
The first question is usually whether probate is needed at all. It is not automatic. What forces it is what the estate holds and what the institutions holding those assets insist on — a bank or the land registry asking for a Certificate of Appointment before they will deal with you. Assets held jointly with right of survivorship, or with a named beneficiary, may pass outside the estate entirely.
Where an application is needed, it goes to the Superior Court of Justice for Niagara — the St Catharines/Welland, which is outside Niagara Falls. The estate trustee is the person who signs it, and who becomes personally responsible for getting the administration right.
That personal responsibility is the part most executors underestimate. An estate trustee who distributes before debts and taxes are settled can end up paying the difference themselves. A clearance certificate from the Canada Revenue Agency exists precisely to protect against that, and skipping it to move faster is a false economy.
If there is no will, someone still has to be appointed. Entitlement to be appointed is governed by the Estates Act; who actually inherits is governed by the Succession Law Reform Act. They are two different questions with two different answers, and conflating them is the most common mistake we see from Niagara Falls families trying to sort an intestacy themselves.
Estate Administration Tax is set by the province and is the same everywhere in Ontario — it does not vary by city.
| Value of the estate | Tax |
|---|---|
| First $50,000 | Nil |
| Above $50,000 | $15 per $1,000 (or part thereof) |
| Example — a $240,000 estate | $2,850 |
Rates effective 1 January 2020. Our legal fee is separate and is published on our pricing page.
With the Superior Court of Justice for Niagara — St Catharines/Welland. The rule is that probate is filed where the deceased lived at the time of death, not where their property is located.
Not always. It depends on what the estate holds and what the institutions holding those assets require. Jointly held property passing by survivorship and assets with a named beneficiary may pass outside the estate.
Nil on the first $50,000 of estate value, then $15 for every $1,000 (or part) above that. On a $240,000 estate the tax is $2,850. It is the same across Ontario.
Someone applies to be appointed estate trustee without a will. Entitlement to be appointed is governed by the Estates Act; who inherits is governed by the Succession Law Reform Act. They are two different questions.
Yes. We work online across Ontario, and the filing venue is determined by where the deceased lived, not by where you are.
Government sources for this topic. Rules change — confirm the current position before you rely on it.
Open your Niagara Falls file online in minutes — a licensed Ontario lawyer reviews it before a dollar is owed.