Pricing

Each transaction is unique and is tailored towards your particular requirements.

We will provide you with a quote for your particular legal issue at the outset of a new matter.

Who will deal with my matter?

We believe in providing a personal service to clients. Your transaction will be dealt with by a Partner of the firm. You will have direct access to a Partner via telephone, email, Zoom /Teams or in person throughout your transaction.

What are Disbursements? (where applicable Vat is included at 20%)

Disbursements (where applicable VAT is included at 20%) are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties e.g Stamp Duty Land Tax. Disbursements are payable in addition to our costs. We will go through all expected disbursements and expenses with you at the outset of the matter and will keep you advised as the matter proceeds.

Residential Conveyancing

Residential Conveyancing Costs

Each transaction is unique and tailored to your requirements therefore the information provided on this page is meant to provide an indication of costs only.

What will it Cost?

We will agree a fixed fee plus VAT at 20% for our services with you before commencing your transaction. This will be tailored to your transaction and will detail all the legal costs, VAT at 20% and any known disbursements / expenses (where applicable VAT is included at 20%). In some transactions the exact cost of some of the disbursements and expenses may be unknown at the outset e.g. Landlord Notice fees or the cost of a Managing Agents/Freeholders Management Pack but we will initially give you an estimate of those disbursements or expenses based on our experience and we will then advise you of the cost of those disbursements and expenses as soon as we are made aware of them. Our fee will depend on several factors including (but not limited to): whether the transaction is a sale/purchase/re-mortgage, whether the property is freehold or leasehold and the value of the property and your personal timescale requirements. Should any unforeseen additional work arise that goes beyond a standard conveyancing transaction then we will immediately advise you of this and we may have to increase our fee to cover the extra work undertaken on your behalf. Where your instructions require that work is undertaken outside normal office hours, we reserve the right to increase our fixed fee to reflect this factor. We would not undertake any extra work without your prior consent to the fee increase. Typically, our fees will fall within a range of £1,500.00 to £5,000.00 plus VAT at 20% per property transaction.

What are the likely Disbursements? ( where applicable VAT is included at 20%)

Disbursements (where applicable vat is included at 20%) are payments that we will make on your behalf to third parties during the course of the transaction e.g. Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on the purchase price. The disbursements that apply will depend on the nature of the transaction and we will itemise the disbursements particular to your transaction in our quotation to you. For further information on SDLT you can refer to https://www.gov.uk/stamp-duty-land-tax.If the property is in Wales you can find further information on Land Transaction Tax by using the Welsh Revenue Authority's website.

We reserve the right to charge an additional fee for postal services, copying, couriers and travel costs. These would be set out in your invoice and further details would be available upon request.

What work in included in the price ?

The work undertaken will vary according to the type of transaction (e.g. if it is freehold or leasehold or if it is a sale or purchase) but some of the key stages are set out below for illustration purposes only:

o Taking your instructions and providing initial advice.
o Receiving or preparing contract documentation.
o Carrying out searches.
o Making all necessary pre-contract enquiries.
o Reporting to you.
o Exchanging contracts and completing the transaction.
o Acting for your mortgage lender.
o In leasehold purchases, dealing with apportioning ground rent, service charges, reserve fund and insurance rent payments.
o Dealing with post-completion matters to include obtaining the SDLT Certificate and registration at the Land Registry.

How long will my Sale/Purchase take?

Our policy is to work in a proactive manner ensuring that our clients complete the sale/purchase transaction as soon as possible. Delays can result from factors outside of our control e.g. the number of other transactions in the chain, delay from other buyers/sellers in the chain, delay from third parties, unforeseen complications such as a defective title or delays caused by a mortgage lender. The average timescale in a freehold purchase without unexpected delays would be 6-8 weeks from instruction to completion.

Wills and Probate

Probate - applying for the Grant of Probate, collecting and distributing the assets

Each transaction is unique and tailored to your particular requirements and we will provide you with a quote for your particular legal issue at the outset of a new matter. Therefore, the information provided here is meant to provide and should be considered as, a general guide for our costs only.

We appreciate you will want Probate to be dealt with as smoothly and quickly as possible. Once instructed we will set out the process and provide you with a personal service.

What will it cost?

We generally charge on a fixed fee basis plus VAT at 20%. The fixed fee basis can range from £5000.00-£25000.00 plus VAT at 20%.The fee will depend upon the size and complexity of the estate. For example, if there is one beneficiary and few assets, fees will be lower than if there are multiple beneficiaries and multiple assets. Please refer to our two costs illustrations below as guidance.
With complicated estates we may sometimes instead charge at an hourly rate £275.00 plus VAT at 20% in which case the final cost will depend upon how many hours of work we have carried out.
Whether we charge on a fixed fee basis or hourly rate basis this would be agreed with you at the outset of the transaction and would depend upon the complexity of the estate .

Depending on the value of the estate, it may attract inheritance tax which if any is due, will be payable in addition to our costs. You can find out more about this using HMRC calculator at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hmrc-tools-and-calculators. If applicable we will prepare HMRC forms.

Dealing with the sale or transfer of any property in the estate is not included in our Probate costs and will be charged at a fixed price separately (please refer to our conveyancing costs).

Each case will be unique. We will keep you advised of costs as the Probate proceeds and may produce interim bills every three months.

For illustration purposes only:
Assuming all of the assets are in the UK.
• There is a valid will.
• There is no more than one property.
• There are no more than 2-3 bank or building society accounts.
• There are no other intangible assets.
• There are 2-4 beneficiaries.
• There are no disputes between beneficiaries on division of assets. If disputes arise this is likely to lead to an increase in costs.
• There is no inheritance tax payable and the executors do not need to submit a full account to HMRC.
• There are no claims made against the estate.

We would charge a fixed fee between £5,000.00-10,000.00 plus VAT at 20% , disbursements / expenses (where applicable VAT is included at 20%) .

What factors will potentially increase costs?
For illustration purposes only: For more complicated and/or larger estates e.g.
• There is no Will.
• The Will contains complex trust provisions.
• There have been a large number of lifetime gifts made by the deceased in the 7 tax years prior to his or her death.
• There is a large Portfolio of investments.
• There are a large number of beneficiaries.
• There is more than one property.
• There is a dispute between the beneficiaries.

The hours of work will be greater so the total cost will be greater resulting in fees in the region of £10,000.00- £25,000.00 plus VAT at 20% ,disbursements / expenses ( where applicable VAT is included at 20%).

What are Disbursements? ( where applicable VAT is included at 20%)

Disbursements ( where applicable VAT is included at 20%) costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, e.g. the probate application fee.
We will go through all expected disbursements and expenses with you at the outset of the probate and keep you advised as the matter proceeds.

How long will this take?

The administration of an uncontested small estate can generally be dealt with within 6-12 months depending upon how quickly The Probate Office deals with the issuing of the Grant of Probate and so the time taken to issue a Grant of Probate is dependent upon The Probate Office but may take them several months . Collecting in the assets may also take several months. Once this has been done we can distribute the assets which normally takes 1-2 months but this will be longer if you decide to dispose of assets first e.g. sell a property. Each case will be different and delays can occur as we are dependent on hearing from third parties.

What is included in our fee ?

As part of our fixed fee we will:

Provide you with a dedicated and experienced probate solicitor to work on your matter.

Identify the legally appointed executors or administrators and beneficiaries.

Accurately identify the type of Grant of Representation (e.g probate) application you will require.

Obtain the relevant documents required to make the application.

Complete the Grant of Representation application and the relevant HMRC forms.

Draft a legal oath for you to swear.

Make the application on your behalf.

Obtain the Grant of Representation.

Collect and distribute all assets in the estate.

Debt Recovery

What will this cost?

In cases of debt recovery up to £100,000.00 where your claim is in relation to an unpaid invoice which is not disputed and enforcement action is not needed we would charge a fixed fee plus vat at 20%. For example, for taking initial instructions and writing a one off letter our fee would be in the region of £250-500.00 plus vat at 20% depending upon the amount of time spent dealing with the matter.
If the other party disputes your claim at any point, we will discuss any further work required and provide you with revised advice about costs, which could be on a fixed fee for dealing with the disputed claim, or an hourly rate if more extensive work is needed. Our hourly rate is £275.00 plus vat at 20%.

Our fee includes:
• Taking your instructions and reviewing documentation.
• Undertaking appropriate searches.
• Sending a letter before action.
• Receiving payment and sending onto you, or if the debt is not paid, drafting and issuing claim.
• Where no Acknowledgment of Service or Defence is received, applying to the court to enter Judgement in default.
• When Judgement in default in received, write to the other side to request payment.
• If payment is not received, providing you with advice on next steps and likely costs.

What are Disbursements? (where applicable VAT is is included at 20%)

Disbursements (where applicable VAT is included at 20%) are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties.
We will go through all expected disbursements and expenses with you at the outset and keep you advised as the matter proceeds.
A court fee would a have to be paid to proceed with any court action. The court fee is in addition to our fees. The amount of the court fee depends on the debt value. Interest and compensation may take the debt into a higher banding, with a higher cost. Information on the amount of court fees can be found by looking at https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/court-fees.

Anyone wishing to proceed with a claim should note that:
• A separate fee would be charged for dealing with an enforcement action, such as the bailiff needed to collect your debt. Also the VAT element of our fee cannot be reclaimed from your Debtor.

How long will this take?

It is extremely difficult to give a time estimate as to how long a matter may take as this will depend on many factors such as if the matter is contested or not and in addition whether enforcement action is needed. We keep our clients fully advised at every stage of the proceedings.

We are required to publish prices about our Probate [in relation to uncontested cases where all the assets are in the UK including testate (with a will) and intestate (without a will) and taxable and non-taxable estates], Debt Collecting and Residential Conveyancing transaction costs. As each matter is tailored to your particular requirements the information provided on our website is meant to and should be considered as a general guide to our costs only.

Pricing

Frank & Co Solicitors

0207 224 3837

info@frankandco.co.uk