Fees, before the engagement letter
The quote is one line. The completion statement is five.
Chancery quotes conveyancing, probate and employment work as one itemised figure: our fee, the disbursements we pay out on your behalf, the tax, and the VAT that attaches to each of them. You see the whole number before you instruct us, not on the day you complete.
5
lines on a completion statement
4
paid to someone other than us
3
searches a lender expects
Practice areas
Three matter types, priced the same way
Different work, one habit: every estimate separates what we charge from what we pay out on your behalf, and says which lines carry VAT.
01
Residential conveyancing
Freehold and leasehold purchase and sale, transfers of equity, remortgage and new build plot sales. Quoted as our fee, the searches, the registration fee and the tax, itemised.
02
Probate and estate administration
Grants of probate and letters of administration, full administration, deeds of variation and intestacy. The registry fee and the cost of each certified copy are shown separately from our own.
03
Employment
Tribunal claims and responses, settlement agreements, redundancy consultation and TUPE. There has been no Employment Tribunal issue or hearing fee since 2017, which is the opposite of what most people budget for, so the arithmetic here is advice time rather than court fees.
The estimator
Put a price in and watch the other four lines appear
The rates below are the real ones: Land Registry Scale 1, the SDLT bands in force from April 2025, the Probate Registry fee and the County Court issue and hearing scales. Change any input and every line recomputes.
People
Who does the work, and at what rate
Guideline hourly rates are banded by grade. Publishing the grade beside the name is the cheapest way to make an estimate checkable.
Eleanor Bramwell
Partner, head of residential property
Grade A
£350 per hour
Freehold and leasehold purchase, new build plot sales, shared ownership staircasing.
Tobias Nkemelu
Senior associate, private client
Grade B
£280 per hour
Grants of probate, estate administration, deeds of variation, intestacy.
Priya Raghunathan
Associate, employment
Grade C
£215 per hour
Tribunal claims, settlement agreements, TUPE, redundancy consultation.
Marcus Oyelaran
Solicitor, residential property
Grade C
£205 per hour
Purchase and sale, transfers of equity, remortgage, lender panel work.
Hana Delacroix
Trainee solicitor
Grade D
£145 per hour
Search ordering, requisitions on title, file opening and client care.
Recent matters
What a file looks like from the outside
Leasehold purchase, Hackney
11
weeks to completion
3 searches, 1 lender, 1 management pack
Grant of probate, Leeds
6
weeks to grant
9 asset holders, 5 certified copies
Settlement agreement, Bristol
2
weeks to signature
1 advice meeting, 2 rounds of amendment
Freehold sale, Norwich
9
weeks to completion
1 buyer chain, 2 requisitions on title
How an estimate is built
Four steps, in this order, every time
01
Scope the matter
We ask what the file actually contains: the tenure, the chain, the number of asset holders, whether a lender is involved. Scope is what makes a fixed fee safe to give.
02
Separate our fee from the payments
Our charge sits on one line. Searches, registration, court and registry fees sit on their own, because they are money we hand to someone else.
03
Apply the statutory rates
Registration, tax and court fees run on published scales. They are arithmetic once the price or the claim value is known, not a matter of judgement.
04
Show VAT where it lands
VAT attaches to our fee and to some of what we pay out, not to all of it. The estimate says which, rather than adding one line at the bottom.
Insights
Notes on what a quote leaves out
Insight
What a quote of “from £750” leaves out
The legal fee is one line of a purchase. Searches, registration and tax are the other four, and they are the ones that move.
Insight
The three searches a lender will not let you skip
Local authority, drainage and water, environmental. What each one is for, what it costs, and when a lender insists.
Insight
Probate: the fee that is not the solicitor’s
The application fee is paid to the Probate Registry, not to the firm, and copies of the grant are charged per copy.
Ask for the whole number first
Tell us the matter and we will send an itemised estimate: our fee, what we pay out on your behalf, the tax, and where VAT attaches. No engagement, no obligation.
Request an estimate