Disbursements:

• If you have a lender and we are instructed by your lender, £350.00 plus VAT;
• Lawyer Checker £20.00 plus VAT;
• Search fees £400.00 – £450.00 (this could vary from borough to borough);
• Land Registry fees: this is dependant on the value of your property but allow between £135.00 – £550.00 being the most common bracket;
• Stamp Duty. This is dependant on the value of your property. We will give you a specific figure once you provide us with the value of your property. This is also dependant upon various factors such as if you are buying a second home. You can work out your stamp duty from  the government stamp duty calculator.
• Office copies of title and plan £6.00 plus £3.00 per additional document.

 Leasehold Disbursements:

In addition to the above, there could be:

• Management fees;
• Notice fees;
• Deed of Covenant fees
• Certificate of Consent from Landlord/managing agents for restriction on title  .

 We can only advise you of the cost of these once we review the Lease and find out the fees from the landlord/management company.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you are an existing client or a first-time buyer as we may be able to offer preferential rates in some circumstances.

 The rates could change if we encounter certain unforeseen issues, problems or excessively burdensome instructions such as:

• Issues with the title to the property which requires further investigation or variation(s) to the lease (if leasehold property)
• If the lender (if any) is not one of the mainstream High Street lenders and we encounter excessive or overly burdensome instructions
• If we are not instructed by the lender who then instructs independent solicitors
• The searches reveal any issues which require further investigation
• Excessive correspondence is entered in to with the other side or the lender
• The mortgage offer needs to be renewed/extended
• Lenders requirements are exhaustive which we can only know when the instructions are received
• New build properties
• You fail to respond to any request for information or fail to provide any documents in a timely manner
• Priority urgency and speed that needs to be devoted to the transaction
• If there is more than one charge that is registered against the title that requires redeeming

 Service Levels

 Our conveyancing Team consists of a qualified Licensed Conveyancer and a Solicitor. Our support staff are experienced and familiar with the conveyancing process, but they are not permitted to give any legal advice and you must not request legal advice from any one other than your designated conveyancer.

 The quoted price includes carrying out all necessary work to complete the purchase or sale (subject to any variation in price) and includes attending the client in person. A broad outline of our work includes:

• Collating all relevant information
• Checking title to the property
• Preparing contracts/considering contract received
• Carrying out searches
• Considering lease
• Raising enquiries with the other side and or any management company
• Making any pre-completion arrangements and checks including Land Registry and Bankruptcy searches
• Obtaining funds from your lender and or redeeming any existing mortgage(s)
• Dealing with exchange of contracts and completion.

 Our prices are inclusive of all Anti Money Laundering and ID checks that we are required to carry out at the outset of our instructions.

VAT is in additional to any quoted price and will be added to any quoted or estimated fees.

Time Scales

Time scales can vary depending on the length of the chain, i.e. whether your sellers or buyers have a property to sell or buy. This chain can sometimes consist of several buyers and sellers which will invariably increase the time for exchange and completion as the exchange and completion date must be convenient for all concerned.

In practice, where you are a first-time buyer and the seller has nothing the buy the process (subject to clear searches and no issues with the title) usually does not exceed 6-8 weeks. This is dependent on how quickly your mortgage offer is issued, if you are dependent on a mortgage.

Where there is a chain, e.g. you have a property to sell and your seller has a property to buy the process could take longer and 12 weeks should be allowed.

It is not possible to provide accurate time scales because there are too many variables to take account of but the above time scales should act as a reasonable guide in most cases.

 PROBATE – UNCONTESTED

Probate work is carried out by qualified solicitors with the assistance of support staff who are paralegals with experience in such matters.

Our charges for probate work is 1.5% of the value of the gross estate or £5000 plus VAT and disbursements, whichever is higher.

The costs can also increase depending on the speed with which the transaction needs to be undertaken and the expertise or specialised knowledge that may be required.

In some cases, we may need to seek advice from outside counsel or other third parties where the estate includes International beneficiaries’ assets and or property. Such fees will be in addition to our fees.

The administration of the estate is dependent on the size of the estate, the number of beneficiaries, complexities and how paper heavy the administration is.

 Our work includes: 

• collating all the relevant information and documentation to enable us to determine whether any Inheritance Tax is payable.
• Preparing the relevant IHT forms to be submitted to the revenue
• Once the grant is issued, dealing with the encashment of any assets, closing of bank accounts selling of immovable property and settlement of debts
• Preparing estate accounts and circulating amongst beneficiaries
• Distributing the estate
• We may need to investigate the whereabouts of beneficiaries

 A reasonably straight forward estate could take anything between 6-12 months to complete. A complex and paper heavy estate could take a couple years and, in some cases, longer.

All fees and figures quoted here should be taken as no more than an approximate guide. We will often issue interims invoices in matters that are time consuming and likely to take some time to complete. Issuing interim invoices provides a better guide to how much the final charges are likely to be.

All fees are exclusive of VAT and disbursements.

Probate fees can be ascertained from the probate registry site at www.gov.uk/government/publications/probate-fees-from-april-2014-pa3

IMMIGRATION

We do not undertake immigration work

 

EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS (Unfair/Wrongful dismissal)

All work in connection with Employment work is carried out by a qualified solicitor with the assistance of experienced paralegals.

Our prices include attending the client, collating all relevant and necessary evidence, submitting and early notification claim to ACAS, taking Witness Statements, making the initial application to the Tribunal or filing a response to any claim, preparing the case for a hearing and attending the hearing with Counsel if counsel is required, otherwise the solicitor handling the case will attend the hearing. Please note that to keep fees down, the person attending the hearing is likely to be a paralegal with Counsel.

All work carried out on behalf of Employers is done so based on hourly rates. It is not possible to quote with accuracy the extent of fees that may be expended due to the number of variables that need to be taken into account such as the number of witness complexity of issues, ease with which instruction can be taken, speed and priority required. We can only provide a guideline quote based on a simple straightforward case with no additional witnesses or complex issues. In such circumstances the range of fees based on our hourly rates would be expected to be in the range of £2,500-4,500 if the case is resolved prior to a full hearing. If the case goes to a hearing the fees are dependent on the length of the hearing. The fee range is likely to be between £5,000-£15,000 plus vat and disbursements.

All prices exclude VAT and disbursements. We will always instruct outside Counsel to represent you at the hearing. The cost is in addition to our fees and depends on the seniority of Counsel. Counsel’s fees for a maximum of a one-day hearing should not exceed £2,000 plus VAT. The fees could be much higher if senior counsel is required.

We offer contingency fees to employees or hourly rates. Contingency fees are based on a percentage of any damages recovered. The maximum percentage we will apply is 35% of any damages recovered.

We do not offer Conditional Fee Agreements for any Employment related cases.

 

DEBT RECOVERY

All debt recovery work is undertaken by qualified solicitors with experienced paralegals.

All debt recovery is undertaken on an hourly rate basis. However, in some cases we may offer a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). Please see the basic points on CFA below.

All fees are exclusive of VAT and disbursements. Please note that Court issue fees are dependent on the amount of the claim and can be very high. Please visit www.gov.uk/government/publications/fees-in-the-civil-and-family-courts-main-fees-ex50 for the Court fee scales.

There may be additional disbursements such as process servers’ fees (approximately £100 -£150 plus VAT) office copy entries £3 each, official searches £3.00, Bankruptcy Searches £2.00 per name.

The average cost of a straight forward debt collection matter, assuming the case goes all the way to a trial not lasting more than one day where the claim exceeds £10,000 but not more than £100,000, is estimated to be between £6,000 to £25,000 excluding vat and Counsels fees.

Counsel fees vary depending on seniority of counsel and could be anything from £2,500 to £7,500 plus VAT for counsel between 2-10 years call.

The fee range quoted is based on our current hourly rates and may differ according to how paper heavy a case is, the urgency and priority to be devoted to the case, the number of any interim applications that may be necessary e.g. injunctions to freeze assets. The number of witnesses and the availability of documents may also be a variable to take into account.

The fee range quoted does not include any enforcement action or any costs assessment hearings.

 LICENCING WORK (BUINESS PREMISES)

 All licensing work is carried out by a qualified solicitor together with the assistance of a licensing executive.

We offer fixed fees in connection with the following applications: 

• New Premises Licence from                                                               £1250.00
• Application for a variation of a Premises Licence from                £1250.00
• Application for a minor variation to a Premises Licence from    £945.00
• Application for the Transfer of a Premises Licence                       £795.00
• Application for Change of Designated Premises Supervisor        £795.00

 The above fees include:

 • Taking your instructions and advising you as to how you can promote the licensing objectives within your application

• Advising you as the type of plans you are required to submit with your application.

• Completing the application form for a new premises licence (including the operating schedule) in accordance with your instructions and submitting this to the local licensing authority alongside suitable plans. You must provide suitable plans.

• Providing guidance on the fee levels payable to the licensing authority.

• Preparing copies of the premises licence application for disclosure to the responsible authorities and serving copies of the application on the responsible authorities.

• Drafting the notices advertising the premises licence application and submitting the notice to the local newspaper.

• Arranging with you for you to display the notice(s) advertising the premises licence application and advising as to where and how this should be done by you in order to comply with the requirements of the Licensing Act 2003.

• Providing a Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) consent form for signature by a personal licence holder proposed by yourself.

• Checking the licence once granted and correcting any errors with the licensing authority.

 

All charges stated above exclude VAT and disbursements save where otherwise stated.  If your licensing application is of a complex nature, the legal fees are likely to be higher. Application fees payable to the local authority are calculated based on the rateable value of your premises and can be found at www.gov.uk/premises-licence. If your application is required to be advertised, we will advise you of the cost of the advertisement which is usually in the region of between £200.00 – £400.00 plus VAT depending upon the newspaper being used.

 

The fee does not include: 

• obtaining suitable plans

• attending pre-consultation meetings with the Licensing Authority or Responsible Authorities, nor their fee for this meeting.

• dealing with or advising you in relation to queries or representations received from either the responsible authorities or other interested parties

• advising on varying the licence

• attendance and representation at a licensing sub-committee hearing of the responsible authority. If representations are received and attendance and representation at a licensing sub-committee is required then we will provide a separate fee estimate for this work which will be charged at an hourly rate.

 

How long will my application take? 

Matters usually take 3-8 weeks from receipt of full instructions from you depending on the type of licensing application. This is on the basis of the application being relatively straightforward and you being able to provide all the necessary documents promptly. If your matter is more complex, for example, if there is substantial opposition from interested parties, or if there is a delay in receiving the documents we need, the process may take longer.

 CONDITIONAL FEE AGREEMENTS (CFA) IN CASES OTHER THAN PERSONAL INJURY WORK

We do offer CFA’s for some cases. In the event that you ask us to review your case with a view to considering a CFA based retainer we will do so on the following basis: 

• Once we have ascertained the extent of the work to be undertaken we will give you a fixed fee for the initial review. The fixed fee will not exceed £7,000 plus vat and includes Counsel fees if we decide to instruct Counsel.
• If we agree to take on your case under a CFA the CFA that we will offer you is a maximum of 50%. This means that you will only pay 50% of our monthly fees based on our hourly rates excluding vat.
• The other 50% will be differed and only recoverable in the event of a “win” as defined in the CFA.
• A success fee will be added to the differed percentage which will range from 25% to 100%.
• It is important that you understand that you cannot recover the success fee figure from your opponent in the event that you win. The success fee will come out of any damages that you are awarded. If you do not recover enough damages or you fail to recover the damages awarded to you, you, will still remain liable for your own costs including the deferred amount and success fee.
• You should note that if you opt to take out after the event insurance (ATE) to safe guard you against the costs of the other party in part or in whole and pay for disbursements you will need a detailed opinion from experienced counsel. A separate fixed fee will be provided in such circumstances. The fixed fee usually between £3,000 to £6,000 plus vat depending on the volume of paperwork and complexities of the case.
• You may also wish to explore third party funding arrangements.  We do not advice on third party funding agreements. All disbursements such as Court fees, process servers fees and counsels fees (unless counsel also agrees to act on a CFA) will be payable by you as and when incurred.
• We may requested payment of some disbursement up front.
• We will bill you on a monthly basis and give you 28 days to pay.
• After 28 days interest will be automatically added to any outstanding amount at the rate of 8% PA
• By way of a simple example as to how a CFA works based on a 50% CFA is as follow;
• If our hourly rate was £100 you pay £50. The other £50 is only recoverable if we win the case according to the definition of win. So, if the overall costs were £1,000 you pay £500 plus vat. If we lose the case your total liability to us will be £500 plus vat and all disbursements.
• If we win the case, you will be liable for the deferred £500 plus vat plus the agreed success fee on the £500. If the success fee was 50% the additional fee would be £250 plus vat.
• The CFA will not include any enforcement action or an appeal of the final decision. It will include appeals of interim applications but making any appeals is entirely at our discretion.
• In addition to the above you will be required to pay the ATE insurance premium if you have opted for ATE Insurance. The premium is not recoverable from the other party.
• Clients should always check whether they have Before the Event Insurance (BTE). This could be a benefit offered on home insurance credit cards or bank accounts. This is not an exhaustive list.

 

CONDITIONAL FEE AGREEMENTS IN PERSONAL INJURY WORK

We do not undertake any personal injury work

COSTS RECOVERABILITY GENERALLY

 

The general rule is that costs follow the event. The Court will often order the losing party to pay the winning parties’ costs on a “party and Party” basis. This usually equates to around 80% of your actual costs. The shortfall is payable by you unless we agree to waive or reduce any shortfall.

The Court may in certain circumstances award a percentage of the costs to be paid eg 50%. The balance is payable by you.

Your liability to pay your costs is not dependent on whether you actually succeed in recovering any damages awarded or any costs awarded in your favour.

The only time there is no shortfall is when the Court awards indemnity costs which is very rare.

Costs awards are rarely made where the claim is under £10,000. Similarly costs orders are rarely made in Employment Tribunals.

In connection with Immigration cases costs recoverability only becomes relevant where an application has been made for Judicial Reviw.

If you wish to discuss CFA retainers, please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

Our complaints policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.

Our complaints procedure

If you have a complaint, please contact Mr Eddie Dervish, our Client Care Partner. If we have to change any of the responsibilities or the timescales set out below we will let you know and explain why.

What will happen next?

1. Within three days we will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain any details. If it                 seems appropriate we will suggest a meeting at this stage. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint.

2. We will then record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint. We will also investigate your complaint by examining the relevant file.

 

3. If appropriate we will then invite you to meet Mr Eddie Dervish to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. We would hope to be in a position to meet with you in this way no longer than 14 days after first receiving your complaint. If you would prefer not to meet, or if we cannot arrange this within an agreeable timescale, we will write fully to you setting out our position on the situation and any redress that we would feel to be appropriate.

 

4. Within five days of any meeting we will write to you to confirm what took place and any suggestions that we have agreed with you. In appropriate cases we could offer an apology, a reduction of any bill or a repayment in relation to any payment received.

 

5. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, please let us know. We will then arrange to review our decision. We would generally aim to do this within 10 days. This will happen in one of the following ways. 

• Mr Eddie Dervish will review his own decision
• We will arrange for someone in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to review it.
• Mr Eddie Dervish will review your complaint within 10 days.
• We will invite you to agree to independent mediation. We will let you know how long this process will take. 

6. We will let you know the result of the review within five days of the end of the review. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.

 7. At the conclusion of the complaint process, if you still remain dissatisfied, you may have a right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman. You must submit any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within 3 years from when you should have known about the complaint or  within 6 years of the act or omission being complained of. The contact details for the Legal Ombudsman are: PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ, tel: 0300 555 0333.