Our Charges

All firms of Solicitors are now required by the Consumer Markets Authority to publish the price they charge for the work they undertake. In addition, they must give information as to the experience and qualifications of the staff who will undertake the work.

You will find details of the qualifications and experience of each Fee Earner under their individual resume which can be found in the TEAM section of our website. Below you will find a guide to the prices we charge. However it is important to understand that this can only be a guide as before prices can be confirmed before we act, both parties must have a full understanding of the scope of the work to be undertaken, the level of client care and service provided, the seniority and experience of the Fee Earner undertaking that work and the complexity or difficulty of the transaction.

We at Black Norman Solicitors Limited pride ourselves in the quality of service provided, the level of staff engaged on your work and the accessibility and availability of our staff to assist you even if outside normal office hours.

Whilst all firms will be publishing their prices, not all firms will offer similar levels of service or quality of work. Price is only one if many factors you should consider before choosing your legal adviser.

You will see references to “disbursements” disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as Land Registry fees. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process. they are additional to professional fees.

We charge for the work we undertake in 2 different ways. The actual basis selected for any particular type of work will depend on the type of work and also in some cases by your choice. The methods are:

Fixed Fee and Hourly Rate

Where there are references to VAT, VAT is charged at 20% (although this percentage is subject to change from time to time) so, for example where a Professional Fee is £250, VAT at 20% (£50) the Grand total would be £300.

The vast majority of the work we undertake requires a combined Identification and Anti Money Laundering Search for which we charge an additional £25 plus VAT per search.

Fixed Fee

Residential Conveyancing

Most of our standard Residential Conveyancing is charged on a Fixed fee basis rather than on an Hourly Rate Basis.

Residential Conveyancing Fixed Fees – Click to view

Residential Conveyancing Example:

Purchase of a freehold residential property at £300,000

Our fees

• Legal fee                                                                                                                                              £1,480.00 plus VAT
• ID check fee                                                                                                                                             £25.00 plus VAT
• Fee for completing stamp Duty Land Tax form                                                                            £100.00 plus VAT
• Fee for acting on behalf of the mortgage lender (if applicable)                                             £35.00  plus VAT
• Electronic money transfer fee                                                                                                             £43.00 plus VAT
• VAT                                                                                                                                                                           £336.60
• Subtotal                                                                                                                                                            £2,019.60

Disbursements

(Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as search fees. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process).

• Search pack                                                                                                                     £195.00 incl VAT
• Land Registry priority search                                                                                      £3.00
• Bankruptcy Search                                                                                                         £2.00
• HM Land Registry Fee                                                                                                £150.00
• VAT                                                                                                                                  £xxx.xx
• Subtotal                                                                                                                     £350.00

Stamp duty

• Likely stamp duty                                                                                                    £6000.00

This depends on the purchase price of your property. You can calculate the amount you will need to pay by using the SDLT calculator on the gov.uk website or if the property is located in Wales by using the Welsh Revenue Authority’s website.

Grand total                                                                                                                   £8,369.60

Services included in the above costs

We anticipate that the above fees will cover all the work necessary to complete a purchase transaction. However, we will inform you as soon as we can if additional costs need to be incurred in your matter.

Please note that if your property transaction value exceeds those specified in the tables in the link above, any fee estimate will be subject to further examination of the client’s circumstances, complexity of the transaction as well as overall value of the property.

Key stages of the transaction

The precise stages involved in the purchase of a residential property vary according to the circumstances, and there is a comprehensive guide here Guide to Purchasing a Property

However, below we have set out some key stages for your information:

1. Initial instructions (0-2 weeks) We will open your file, issue our client care pack and terms of business, arrange for and check identification and undertake appropriate anti money laundering checks. You must return the signed terms of business before we are able to being work on your matter.
2. Title check, enquiries, searches and arranging funding (0-6 weeks)  On receipt of documents from the seller’s solicitors we will examine the title deeds, order standard searches plus any additional searches necessary or advisable, look at the results and then raise enquiries to deal with any ambiguous points highlighted and request any missing information from the seller’s solicitor. At this point your mortgage offer (if applicable) should have been approved and a copy with your solicitor.
3. Reporting to you and obtaining signed documentation (0-2 weeks) Once we have received satisfactory responses we will report to you with the information obtained, negotiate and approve contract and prepare documents including TR1 for you to sign and (if applicable) contact your mortgage lender to arrange for release of funds.
4. Exchange and pre Completion (0-2 weeks) we will arrange priority and (if applicable) bankruptcy searches, check the seller’s replies to requisitions on title and once ready, contact the seller’s solicitors to agree a Completion date. Once a date is agreed we will seek your authority to proceed with exchange of contracts which legally binds you to the agreed Completion date. A deposit will be payable to exchange contracts, this is usually 10% of the purchase price to pay to the seller’s solicitors accordingly. We will request the mortgage monies from your mortgage lender in time for the Completion date. We will prepare a Completion Statement detailing all the financial information including our legal fees and disbursements and showing the balance  sum of money required from you to complete.
5. Completion (agreed mutually with seller) on the agreed day, and after receipt of funds from your mortgage lender if applicable, we will send the balance of purchase monies to the seller’s solicitors electronically. once all is confirmed the seller’s solicitors will authorise the estate agent to release the keys to you.
6. Post Completion this is where we arrange for payment of stamp duty to HM Revenue & Customs and apply for your name to be registered at HM Land Registry as the new owner

Timescales

How long it will take from your offer being accepted until you can move into your house will depend on a number of factors. The average process takes between 8-12 weeks. It can be quicker or slower, depending on the parties in the chain. For example, if you are a first-time buyer, purchasing a property with a mortgage in principle, it could take about 10 weeks. However, if you are buying a leasehold property, this can take significantly longer, between 10 and 16 weeks.

Our team (please see Team)

Our team has well over 100 years of collective experience in delivering high quality work in all matters relating to residential house purchases and sales.

There are several members of the Team who may work on your matter. Regardless of who works on your matter, they will be supervised by our Head of Real Estate, Mr Shoab Panwar.

Mr Panwar has been working in this area for more than 20 years.  We always make sure that more junior fee earners and members of staff are supported and supervised appropriately so that the quality of advice is not affected, regardless of who is working on your case.

Please see Lawyer qualifications/experience here  – Team | Black Norman

Our secretaries and paralegals do much of the day-to-day work on cases. Although they are not legally qualified, they have received extensive training within our firm and work under the direct supervision of a an experienced fee earner/Solicitor.

Private Client 

All professional fees are typical and exclusive of both VAT and disbursements (where applicable)

We are happy to arrange visits away from the office (additional fees may apply):

• to your home;

• place of work; or

• hospital

• We also welcome referrals from Care homes and care agencies.

Wills etc

Codicil around £175 – £200

Simple Will £250

Simple Mirror Wills £400 (for the pair)

More complex Wills £ 400 – £900 (typical range and depending on complexity / type of trust)

In some cases, instructions will be such that will inevitably fall outside these parameters for example

where the document is required as a matter of urgency, travel is required, where there is an

international element or where medical opinions need to be sought.

Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs)

Our charges for Lasting Powers of Attorney include the following services:

• initial advice given, including whether your attorneys act jointly or jointly and severally, whether your attorneys can act straight away or only when you do not have capacity and whether your attorneys can give or refuse life sustaining treatment and the implications of those decisions;
• drafting;
• execution;
• witnessing;
• acting in our professional capacity as certificate provider to confirm that you have mental capacity to put the document in place (if required);
• attending to the registration including communication with the Office of the Public Guardian.

The cost for the above service for a single LPA is £600+VAT and an additional disbursement of £82.00 currently charged by the Office of the Public Guardian, who are the executive agency that will Register your LPA.

However, thereafter where clients ask us to attend to multiple LPAs (for example a couple wanting both Health and Care and Property and Financial Affairs), we generally apply a discount to the above fee and the relevant lawyer will discuss this with you.

UNCONTESTED PROBATE

Estate Administrations (complete)

We charge at the relevant lawyer’s hourly rate (see below). The professional fees for the administration of an estate can vary very significantly but by way of a range it would be normal for an estate to require anywhere from about 15 at the very lowest to about 60 hours’ worth of time from beginning to end and where an estate is at this higher end this will tend to be determined by its complexity and so such things as the following (by no means an exhaustive list) will tend to make the administration more complex. We will keep you regularly informed of fees and invoice on a regular basis where the estate is liquid.

• the requirement to obtain extraneous advice for example if there is an issue of the construction of a home made will.
• a house to arrange to be cleared, cleaned, marketed and sold
• property in disarray
• large numbers of beneficiaries and especially in an intestacy where a genealogist might need to be instructed
• large numbers of complex assets
• the necessity to complete IHT400 with multiple schedules

Key stages and timescales in Estate Administration

where we are instructed in a full estate administration, and much of this will be dictated by the nature and extent of the relevant assets and liabilities in the Estate they can broadly be divided into the following stages however there may be some crossover in terms of where a particular element maty come in the overall process. there is wide disparity over timescales (especially establishing assets and liabilities) this is simply reflective of what we find in Practice.

• file opening the initial meeting (which may be over a video call if you prefer) and following which, we will open a file for you. We will send you our client care letter (detailing our fee estimate) and terms of business and arrange for and check identification and undertake appropriate anti money laundering checks. We may deal with renunciations and disclaimers of executors at this stage, where appropriate (within 2 weeks)
• Corresponding with parties to obtain Will and Legal Documents and contacting beneficiaries  and considering the same, where the Will is held with the bank for example we will request its release. depending on the situation, we may contact beneficiaries at a fairly early stage to let them know we are dealing. We will advise and enquire of the executors whether they all wish to act or whether, for example, power is to be reserved. (within 2 weeks)
• establishing assets and liabilities if not already, take receipt of keys to property, arrange specialist insurance, arrange photographs and/or inventory, write to asset and liability holding institutions for details of holdings and balances of account, such as: bank, insurer, share registrar, council tax, HMRC, DWP, TV Licensing, water, gas, electricity, life assurance. annuity provider, private pension provider, stockbroker or investment manager, accountant for business valuation, and financial adviser. (2 weeks to 6 months)
• pre-issue of Grant around this time we may consider whether to place statutory adverts, assimilate all information obtained above, request IHT reference if appropriate, complete IHT400 if appropriate, liaise with charity over deed of variation if appropriate,  report to you and forward statement of truth, complete online application if appropriate or PA1 to apply for Probate and arrange for payment IHT if appropriate and complete account closure forms in anticipation of the next stage. consider marketing property of not already. (4 weeks to 6 months)
• post-issue of Grant on receipt of the Grant, checking the same and forwarding to each asset holding institution with the relevant closure form, dealing with any query or claim eg from DWP. market the property if applicable as it will be possible to Complete a sale. start to collect in monies and following any relevant claims expiry date, pay liabilities as funds allow (4 weeks to 6 months)
• Finalising Estate prepare estate accounts for approval firstly by the executors and then circulate among relevant beneficiaries, undertake bankruptcy searches and appropriate anti money laundering checks against beneficiaries, payment of legacies and distribution of residue (3 months (could be less even if not placing statutory adverts) to 8 months).

Obtaining Grants of Probate (only)

• This would be to apply for a Grant of Probate (only)
• this would not be to deal with or advise on other matters in connection with the Administration of the Estate generally, such as corresponding with asset holding institutions, creditors, DWP, realising assets, attending to distributions, placing statutory adverts, completing Estate Accounts etc
• For Simple estates, which we would usually be able to identify at the outset – our professional fixed fee would be £975, plus £25 for a combined Identification and Anti Money Laundering Search
• For Grants in more complex estates especially where there is a requirement to complete Form IHT400 please refer to one of our private client lawyers.

The typical disbursements for Probate would be currently:

Probate Court Fee £300 plus £1.50 for each copy

Commercial Landlord & Tenant: Whilst the majority of this work is charged on a Fixed fee basis, due to the variables in terms, as well as complexity and risk and value, it is not possible to have a standard set of charges. The Fixed Fee can only be assessed and agreed once full details of the instructions are fully understood. We invite you to contact our Commercial Property Department for an indicative cost.

Hourly Rate

Hourly Rate Charges – Click to view.

Other than where detailed above, all other work is charged on an Hourly basis.