Scale of Charges

Hourly fees

Please see below for our hourly rates and various fixed fees and costs.

£340 + VAT
£280 + VAT
Directors (including dealing with private client matters before a court) and Consultants
Applies to
All non-director Solicitors, Senior and other Legal Executives
Hourly fee

You will be charged in accordance with the hourly fee described above.  Letters sent out on your behalf and telephone calls of less than 5 minutes duration will be charged individually at 1/10th of the hourly rate.  Letters received on your behalf are charged at 1/20th of the hourly rate.

The rates are reviewed annually so please be sure to ask the rate that is applicable.

Probate

Our costs are based on the length of time that we spend on the file at our charging rate of £280 per hour. In a straightforward case we would expect our costs to be in the region of £1,750 plus VAT of £350. However, the exact costs will depend on the circumstances of the case.

In addition on all matters there are the following estimated expenses that have to be paid to third parties:

Probate Fee (if estate over £5k) - £273
Oath Fee (per executor) - £7.00
Bankruptcy Search (per beneficiary) - £2.90
AMC (per person) - £6
ECOS (per person) - £6.30
Copy of grant or probate (per copy) - £1.50
Statutory Advertisement - £353.58 (estimated)

We can offer an initial meeting with you to explain what we can do and an estimate of the likely costs and expenses before you formally instruct us to act. Please do telephone to arrange such a meeting.

Conveyancing

Most disbursements are absolute requirements of the conveyancing process as they are required by bodies such as the Land Registry or are needed to comply with our Money Laundering duties. Costs of disbursement are detailed below.

Our conveyancing quotes are made up of our fees and also a number of disbursements which are payments to third parties.

Fees for Freehold Purchase

Our fees for a residential purchase start at £1000 plus VAT of £200. For a purchase at say £250,000 our fees would be as follows:
Legal Fees - £1000
Costs Stamp Duty Return - £10
Bank Transfer Fee - £30 (per transfer required)
VAT - £148

And Disbursements (inclusive of any applicable VAT) would be as follows:
Searches* - £215
Land Registry Searches - £12 (estimated)
Land Registry Fee - £150
Money Laundering search - £6 (per person)

*We supply all 3 standard conveyancing searches as standard; some firms will not provide the Drainage or Environment searches as part of their standard package.
Technically searches are only a must if you have a mortgage, however we would always strongly advise you carry out all searches. Do feel free to contact us about this if you have any questions.

Stamp Duty or Land Tax (in Wales) will be payable depending on your individual situation and how much you are purchasing the property for. HMRC have an online calculator on their website to assist, however please do call us to discuss and we will speak to you about this when we take our initial instructions from you.

We offer a fixed fee service for standard conveyancing transaction which do apply to the vast majority of the matters we take on. However, there are occasions we are required to carry out work which goes well beyond the standard work (e.g. issues with the title which needs remedying). When extra work is involved our costs may increase, however we will advise you immediately of any likely increase and before carrying out the additional work, should this be relevant.

If you have a Help to Buy Loan or a Help to Buy Isa or a Lifetime ISA then additional fees may apply due to the extra work involved and you should contact us to discuss.

Fees for Freehold Sale

Our fees for a residential purchase start at £950 plus VAT of £190.

For a purchase at say £250,000, our fees would be as follows:
Legal Fees - £950
Bank Transfer Fee - £30 (per transfer required)
VAT - £186

And Disbursements (inclusive of any applicable VAT) would be as follows:
Land Registry “Office Copies” - £12 (estimated)
Money Laundering search - £6 (per person)

As with the purchase costs our fees are on a fixed fee basis, however there may be rare occasions when additional work is required (e.g. issues with the title which needs remedying). When extra work is involved our costs may increase, however we will advise you immediately of any likely increase and before carrying out the additional work should this be relevant.

Leasehold

Leasehold properties require additional legal work including reviewing and advising on the Lease and therefore we charge an additional fee for Leasehold properties. For example; at a sale or purchase of a Leasehold property at £250,000 our fees would be £1,250 Plus VAT.

When selling a Leasehold property there are also possibly additional costs payable to any Management Company or your Freeholder for release of their sales information. This information will be a requirement for the sale to progress and usually the fee is between £100 and £300. If there is more than one management company (i.e. one collecting the ground rent and the other the service charge) there may be 2 payments to make. You should speak to your Management Company/Freeholder to confirm the costs.

When purchasing a Leasehold property there are also usually additional fees payable to the Management Company or Freeholder. These relate to the Management Company/Freeholders administrative costs for registering you as the new owner of the property and to comply with the terms of the Lease. These fees usually range between £100 and £400. This is generally something which we cannot confirm at the outset as we will require sight of the sales information from the Management Company/Freeholder.

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