At Woodfines, we pride ourselves on being transparent and clear on fees, and providing our clients with as much information upfront as possible.
As such, we have provided an indication of costing information for a range of legal services below. For a more precise quote for your matter, please contact the relevant team.
For individuals:
For business:
For Individuals
Residential Conveyancing
If you are thinking of moving, we’d be pleased to assist you. Since there are many variables when calculating the legal fees, it is always best to contact us for a bespoke quote or use our online quoting system. Our prices depend on the price of property in question.
Your matter will be handled by an experienced legal expert, and details of our teams can be found on our Meet the Team page.
To make an enquiry, please get in touch by telephone, or via email at mail@woodfines.co.uk
Alternatively, you can obtain an instant, competitive quote for our trusted services here.
We pride ourselves on offering a very competitive and transparent price, and have outlined below three examples detailing the costs for a typical transaction:
1. Purchase of a freehold residential property for £500,000
Our fees cover all of the work* required to complete the purchase of a property, including dealing with the registration at the Land Registry and dealing with the payment of Stamp Duty Land Tax (Stamp Duty) if the property is in England, or Land Transaction Tax (Land Tax) if in Wales.
Conveyancer’s fees and disbursements:
Disbursements are costs related to your matter, that are payable to third parties – such as Land Registry fees. We handle the payment of disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.
We neither pay nor receive referral fees.
Stamp Duty or Land Tax (on purchase):
This depends on the purchase price of your property. You can calculate the amount you will need to pay by using the HMRC’s website, or if the property is located in Wales, by using the Welsh Revenue Authority’s website.
How long will my house purchase take?
How long the purchase will take from your offer being accept until you can move into your new house will depend on a number of factors. The average process takes six to twelve 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 new build property with a mortgage in principle, it could take longer. Also, if you are buying a leasehold property that requires an extension of the lease, this can take significantly longer. In such a situation, additional charges would also apply.
Stages of the process
The precise stages involved in the purchase of a residential property vary according to the circumstances of the purchase. However, we have suggested some key stages you may wish to take into consideration:
2. Purchase of a leasehold residential property for £500,000
Our fees cover all of the work* required to complete the purchase of a property, including dealing with the registration at the Land Registry and dealing with the payment of Stamp Duty Land Tax (Stamp Duty) if the property is in England, or Land Transaction Tax (Land Tax) if in Wales.
Conveyancer’s fees and disbursements:
Disbursements are costs related to your matter, that are payable to third parties – such as Land Registry fees. We handle the payment of disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.
We neither pay nor receive referral fees.
Anticipated Disbursements**
You should also be aware that ground rent and service charge are likely to apply throughout the ownership of your property. We will confirm the ground rent and the anticipated service charge as soon as we receive this information. It may be necessary to ‘apportion’ these items at completion to ensure that neither you nor the seller are left out of pocket at completion.
Stamp Duty or Land Tax (on purchase):
This depends on the purchase price of your property. You can calculate the amount you will need to pay by using the HMRC’s website, or if the property is located in Wales, by using the Welsh Revenue Authority’s website here.
Stages of the process
The precise stages involved in the purchase of a residential leasehold property vary according to the circumstances. However, in addition to the stages listed previously for a freehold purchase, they include:
3. Sale of a residential property for £500,000
Our fees cover all the work* required to complete the sale of a property, including dealing with registration at the Land Registry.
Conveyancer’s fees and disbursements:
We neither pay nor receive referral fees.
*Our fee assumes that:
Probate
For all new probate matters, our charging structure is as follows:
i) A fixed 2% plus VAT of the gross value of an estate up to £650k which is subsequently tiered as follows:
ii) For those clients where option i) is not appropriate either in terms of value and/or complexity or where for example the client only wants us to obtain the grant of probate we will be able to offer the client the alternative of being charged on a time spent basis subject to a minimum fee of £2k plus VAT.
To assist with the full administration of an estate we will charge on a time spent basis and from experience costs tend to fall in the region of 1%-3% plus VAT of the gross value of the estate. A minimum fee of £4,000 plus VAT will apply. We can limit our involvement to obtaining the Grant only which will be charged on a time spent basis with a minimum fee of £2,000 plus VAT.
For further information, please contact our Private Client team on mail@woodfines.co.uk
Motoring Offences
Our solicitors conduct the full range of motoring offence representation and can support you from the first notice from the police to the Court proceedings. Our pricing structure will be set out at the outset of any matter.
Our hourly rates range between £250 – £300 + vat.
Whilst requirements vary dependent on circumstances, we would anticipate that standard advice on plea for a basic Summary (non-Crown Court) motoring offence under the Road Traffic Act 1988 would require 2 to 4 hours for advising in a meeting and drafting a letter of advice following assessment of the evidence.
If a written plea were to be drafted, this would require between 1 and 3 hours. This range would include advising on sentencing options as our advice is based on the SGC guidelines and its application to the facts and evidence.
Representation at a single hearing would require between 3 and 6 hours, including court attendance / conference plus advocacy.
Please note that these examples are solely based on a conclusion at the first hearing. Any adjourned hearing will require a further 1 to 3 hours.
Our team covers Courts across England, and therefore travel time may be included at an hourly rate or negotiated inclusively (subject to court location). This decision will be communicated with the client at presentation of the case circumstances.
Due to the variables involved, it is difficult to advise on a precise cost until a matter is initially discussed. However, this will be provided once the case has been discussed allowing for full transparency on costs, and enabling any new client to assess our fee ranges and make an informed decision on whether to instruct.
The above fee example does not include:
Stages of the Process*
*based on the presumption that you have entered a guilty plea and have a date for your hearing
For further information or to instruct our team in relation to motoring offences, please email: transport@woodfines.co.uk
Employment Tribunals
Prior to hearing the exact details of your matter, it is not possible to provide an exact indication of costs but below is a general guide to costs for each stage of an Employment Tribunal claim:
Please note that all of the above estimates are exclusive of VAT and disbursements (including court fees listed below), Counsel’s fees and travel expenses, etc.
The above estimates do not include correspondence with other parties which, if excessive, can increase costs significantly. To give you an idea of total costs for a typical Employment Tribunal matter involving a one day hearing, you can usually expect to incur around £20,000 as a minimum.
We also normally request that you make a payment on account of fees at the start of your matter which is usually around £2,500 (+ vat).
In the Employment Tribunal, rules about the payment of costs generally mean that each side will pay their own costs whether they win or lose. This rule is made more complicated where there are issues about of the conduct of the parties, or whether an unreasonable claim has been pursued.
Many claims do not progress all the way to a final hearing as they are settled beforehand, although we cannot guarantee that this will happen in your case.
It is always advisable to check whether you have the benefit of legal expense insurance. It is usually offered as an additional benefit on insurance policies that you already have in place, such as house contents insurance, credit card insurance, etc. If you do have such cover, this may mean that all, or at least some, of your legal fees will be paid by your insurers. However, you should note that your insurers will most likely make it a condition of cover that you instruct their panel solicitors.
Alternatively, if they consent to you continuing to instruct our lawyers to deal with your claim, their rates may not cover their hourly rate and consequently there may still be a shortfall which you will be liable to pay.
To obtain a bespoke quote, please contact a member of our Employment Law team on employment@woodfines.co.uk
For Business
Debt Recovery
Woodfines offers a tailor-made commercial debt recovery service. Please see our Commercial Debt Recovery Proposal for further information on our service, pricing and how to instruct us.
For further information or to instruct our lawyers to recover an uncontested invoice debt, please email: debtrecovery@woodfines.co.uk
Employment Tribunals
Prior to hearing the exact details of your matter, it is not possible to provide an exact indication of costs but below is a general guide to costs for each stage of an Employment Tribunal claim:
Please note that all of the above estimates are exclusive of VAT and disbursements (including court fees listed below), Counsel’s fees and travel expenses, etc.
The above estimates do not include correspondence with other parties which if excessive can increase costs significantly. To give you an idea of total costs for a typical Employment Tribunal matter involving a one day hearing, you can usually expect to incur around £25,000 as a minimum.
We also request that you make a payment on account of fees of £2,500+VAT prior to preparation of the ET3 Defence.
In the Employment Tribunal, rules about the payment of costs generally mean that each side will pay their own costs whether they win or lose. This rule is made more complicated where there are issues about of the conduct of the parties, or whether an unreasonable claim has been pursued.
Many claims do not progress all the way to a final hearing as they are settled beforehand, although we cannot guarantee that this will happen in your case.
To obtain a bespoke quote, please contact a member of our Employment Law team on employment@woodfines.co.uk
Licensing Applications for Business Premises
When applying for a new premises licence or to alter an existing licence, the costs will vary based on the merits, location and history of behaviour at the premises. The licensing authority involved will also have different local policies, which can again lead to varying fees and scales. Therefore, any fee indication given would have to be on the basis of initial research, but the following range can be applied:
The complexity of a matter will be decided on receiving the details of the matter, and it is worth noting that in some cases that the complexity of a particular local authority of the location of the premises being applied for may be of a high degree, despite the application itself appearing initially straight-forward.
Further, if the matter is required to be heard by a sub-committee, it should be noted that the hours required for this could be extensive and would be impacted on by the presence of objectors, including the responsible authorities, and whether they are represented or calling witnesses.
If this were to happen, preparation for a contested hearing may require between 3 and 15 hours, followed by a similar number of hours for advocacy, depending on the nature of the case.
Stages of the Process
The fee does not include:
How long will my application take?
Matters usually take 6-8 weeks from receipt of full instructions from the client. This is on the basis of the application being relatively straightforward and the client being able to provide all the necessary documents promptly.
If the matter is more complex, for example, if there is substantial opposition from interested parties, or if there is a delay in receiving the documents required, it may take longer.
For a precise quote, please contact a member of our Licensing team on mail@woodfines.co.uk