This guide sets out our charges and the court fees payable in respect of the recovery of personal and business debts of up to £100,000.00. It is assumed that the debtor is based in England and Wales. Our charges are based on time at an hourly rate. The hourly rate charged is £272.00 plus VAT. The prevailing rate of VAT in respect of all of our charges mentioned below is 20%.
Obtaining instructions and relevant documents from you, considering facts and issues and sending a letter of claim and if necessary one chasing up letter. Advising you in relation to the response and arranging any payment from the debtor to you. It is assumed that you do not require detailed legal advice on the merits of your claim or any specific linked issue or any potential counterclaim. If you do you will be provided with a separate estimate for such advice. If work is carried out outside these assumptions you will be charged for the extra time at the above-mentioned hourly rate. In the event that the response to the letter of claim or any chasing up letter is to allege possible defences and/or a counterclaim then the advice given to you in respect of such matters and any additional work resulting therefrom would be chargeable on a time basis at the hourly rate referred to above. Before carrying out such further work you would be provided with a revised estimate in order that you can then decide whether to instruct us to carry out the further work.
| Debt Value | Disbursements | Our Charges | Total Costs |
| Up to £1,000.00 | N/A | £75.00 to £150.00 plus VAT | £75.00 to £150.00 plus VAT |
| £1,000.00 to £3,000.00 | N/A | £150.00 to £300.00 plus VAT | £150.00 to £300.00 plus VAT |
| £3,00.01 to £10,000.00 | N/A | £250.00 to £500.00 plus VAT | £250.00 to £500.00 plus VAT |
| £10,000.01 to £25,000.00 | N/A | £500.00 to £750.00 plus VAT | £500.00 to £750.00 plus VAT |
| £25,000.01 to £100,000.00 | N/A | £500.00 to £1,000.00 plus VAT | £500.00 to £1,000.00 plus VAT |
This involves preparation of court documents, advise to you in relation to the court procedure, signing of court documents and lodging of the same at court. The claim is then issued by the court and the claim form and particulars of claim are served on the defendant together with a response pack including a form of admission, form of counterclaim and defence. If a defence is not filed within the requisite time limit an application is made for a default judgment. This stage is completed on the default judgment being obtained.
| Debt Value | Disbursements | Our Charges | Total Costs |
| Up to £300.00 | Court fee: £35 | £75.00 to £100.00 plus VAT | £100.00 to £125.00 plus VAT on our charges |
| £300.01 to £500.00 | Court fee: £50 | £75.00 to £100.00 plus VAT | £125.00 to £150.00 plus VAT on our charges |
| £500.01 to £1,000.00 | Court fee: £70 | £100.00 to £150.00 plus VAT | £170.00 to £220.00 plus VAT on our charges |
| £1,000.01 to £1,500.00 | Court fee: £80 | £150.00 to £200.00 plus VAT | £230.00 to £280.00 plus VAT on our charges |
| £1,500.01 to £3,000.00 | Court fee: £115 | £250.00 to £350.00 plus VAT | £365.00 to £465.00 plus VAT on our charges |
| £3,000.01 to £5,000.00 | Court fee: £205 | £250.00 to £500.00 plus VAT | £455.00 to £705.00 plus VAT on our charges |
| £5,000.01 to £10,000.00 | Court fee: £455 | £350.00 to £600.00 plus VAT | £805.00 to £1,055.00 plus VAT on our charges |
| £10,000.01 to £200,000.00 | Court fee: 5% of value of claim | £750.00 to £3,000.00 plus VAT | £750.00 to £3,000.00 plus court fee equivalent to 5% of the value of the claim and VAT on our Charges |
If a defence is filed we shall provide you with further advice on the options available to you and our charges and disbursements likely to be involved with the option to be selected. For instance, one option may be that you require detailed legal advice on the points raised in the defence. Another option may be that the defence does not show any realistic grounds on which the defendant can successfully defend the claim and that an application should be made for summary judgment.
If no defence is filed and a judgment has been obtained then if the defendant fails to pay the judgment the enforcement methods listed below may be available to you.
| Enforcement Action | Disbursements | Our Charges | Total Costs |
| County Court Bailiff by issue of warrant of control | Court fee: £91 | £150 to £300.00 plus VAT | £241.00 to £391.00 plus VAT on our charges |
| High Court enforcement by writ of control (only available where judgments exceed £700.00) | Court fee for issue of writ: £78 – High Court Enforcement Officers abortive fee if unsuccessful: £75 plus VAT | £200.00 to £500.00 plus VAT | £353.00 to £653.00 plus VAT on our charges and the High Court Enforcement Officer’s abortive fee. |
| Charging Order | Court fee: £131, Land Registry Search fee: £3, Land Registry fees for registering interim charging order: £20, Land Registry fee for registering final charging order: £20 | £500.00 to £750.00 plus VAT | £674.00 to £924.00 plus VAT on our charges |
| Application for third party debt order | Court fee: £131 | £500.00 to £750.00 plus VAT | £631.00 to £881.00 plus VAT on our charges |
| Attachment of Earnings Oder | Court fee: £131 | £350.00 to £500.00 plus VAT | £481.00 to £631.00 plus VAT on our charges |
| Application to arrange for the debtor to attend court to provide information about his financial circumstances | Court fee: £65 | £150.00 to £300.00 plus VAT | £215.00 to £565.00 plus VAT on our charges |
NB: The prevailing rate of VAT is currently 20%. That rate will apply to both our charges and the High Court Enforcement Officers abortive fee referred to above.
NB: The above fees are provided on the assumption that none of the enforcement methods would be contested by the debtor. If the methods are contested then additional charges based on time may apply. We shall provide you with an estimate in respect of any additional charges that may become necessary. The hourly rate would remain £255.00 plus VAT.
Please also note that we cannot guarantee that enforcement action will be successful. This will depend upon the circumstances of the debtor.
Where a debt is not disputed insolvency proceedings provide an alternative method of debt recovery. Our fees shall be charged at a rate of £272.00 per hour plus VAT. The Prevailing rate of VAT is 20%. Please find below a guide setting out the court fees and our estimated fees in respect of various options.
Our charges are likely to be in the region of between £250.00 to £350.00 plus VAT. A process servers fee of between £100.00 to £150.00 plus VAT would also be incurred. This amounts to total costs of preparing and serving the statutory demand of approximately £350.00 to £500.00 plus VAT.
Our charges are likely to be in the region of between £500.00 to £750.00 plus VAT up to and including the first court hearing.
The following fees are incurred in addition to the fee paid to the process server of £150.00 plus VAT referred to above:
Bankruptcy Search: £2.00
Court issue fee: £332.00
Official Receiver deposit (refundable if the Petition is dismissed or withdrawn) £1500.00
Process server fee to personally serve the bankruptcy petition £150.00 plus VAT
Fee paid to agent/advocate to attend on our behalf at court on the hearing of an undisputed bankruptcy petition £150.00 to £300.00 plus VAT
Total estimate of costs:- £2,500.00 to £2,750.00 plus VAT on our charges
Our charges are likely to be in the region of £500.00 to £750.00 plus VAT up to and including the first hearing.
In addition, the following disbursements would be incurred:
Company Winding up Search: £4.30
Court issue fee: £332.00
Official Receiver deposit ( may be refundable save for £50 if the petition is dismissed or withdrawn): £2,600.00
Advertising in London Gazette: £79.40
Process server fee for personal service of the winding up petition: £100.00 to £150.00 plus VAT
Agent or advocates fee to attend hearing: £150.00 to £300.00 plus VAT
Overall estimated costs: £3,000.00 to £3,250.00 plus VAT on our charges
Please note that the above figures do not include the costs associated with an application to set aside the statutory demand or an application to restrain the presentation or advertisement of a winding up petition.
The prevailing rate of VAT is 20%.
Our Debt Recovery Services are carried out by our Director and Senior Solicitor Kumer Ali.
Kumer has substantial experience of advising and representing businesses and individuals in his specialist field of litigation and disputes. Kumer graduated from the University of Oxford and has been a practicing solicitor for over 30 years.
Dealing with an estate can be a complicated matter and can be particularly challenging after the death of a loved one. We have an experienced team here to help guide you through this difficult time.
We offer a range of services that can be tailored to your needs – dependent upon how much assistance you need in dealing with issues that arise.
If this option is chosen you will need to obtain and provide to us all information in relation to the estate that we request. We will not be contacting any of the financial institutions ourselves.
This will enable us to draft and have executed the probate papers. We will apply for the grant of probate or letters of administration on your behalf and provide this to you so that you can then call in the assets and deal with the administration of the estate.
This will include the following work:
It will not include:
All other work listed under the heading ‘Dealing with the Entire Estate’
Because you will be responsible for providing the information required to us you are very much in control of how quickly this matter can be dealt with. Once we have been provided with all outstanding information requested, providing there is nothing that delays you attending an appointment to approve the papers then generally we can submit the papers to the probate court within 4 weeks. How long the probate court then take to issue the grant is beyond our control. This currently averages 3 – 4 months.
The disbursements that will be charged in addition to our fees are a court fee of £273.00 and each official sealed copy of the grant is £1.50. There will be an ID verification fee of £12.50 + VAT per executor.
* What counts as an excepted estate depends on when the person died:
If the person died on or after 1 January 2022
An estate is usually an excepted estate if any of the following apply:
If the person died on or before 31 December 2021
An estate is usually an excepted estate if any of the following apply:
In certain circumstances it will still not be possible to use the simple application even if one of the above criteria apply. These can include cases where, for instance, there have been lifetime gifts, gifts where benefits have been reserved, assets held in trust, assets held abroad or assets that might qualify for relief such as agricultural or business property or where an application to secure additional inheritance tax allowances is required (the residence nil rate band) In these cases the more complex IHT 400 form must be completed and the higher fixed fee below would apply.
If this option is chosen you will need to obtain and provide to us all information in relation to the estate that we request. We will not be contacting any of the financial institutions ourselves.
This will enable us to draft and have executed the probate papers. We will apply for the grant of probate or letters of administration on your behalf and provide this to you so that you can then call in the assets and deal with the administration of the estate.
This will include the following work:
It will not include:
All other work listed under the heading ‘Dealing with the Entire Estate’
If inheritance tax has to be paid and monies are not readily available in an account or investment held by the deceased then the fixed fee will not cover further advice given or additional work undertaken in relation to raising funds to cover inheritance tax.
Nor will it cover additional work required in obtaining information or responding to queries raised by HMRC in respect of valuations, trust assets, reliefs claimed etc.
Any such additional work, if undertaken by us will be charged at our hourly rate unless agreed otherwise.
If you obtain advice from third parties (eg valuation reports or tax advice ) their fees will of course be entirely separate from ours.
Because you will be responsible for providing the information required to us you will be in control of how quickly we can progress this matter at the outset. Once we have been provided with all outstanding information requested, providing there is nothing that delays you attending an appointment to approve the papers then generally we can submit the inheritance tax papers to HMRC and deal with the payment of any inheritance tax within 6 – 8 weeks of receiving the information. We must then wait 4 weeks before we can submit the probate papers to court. How long the court takes to issue the grant is then out of our control. It is currently averaging 3 – 4 months.
The disbursements that will be charged in addition to our fees are a court fee of £273.00 and each official sealed copy of the grant is £1.50. There will be an ID verification fee of £12.50 + VAT per executor.
** An IHT 400 form and the accompanying schedules must be completed where there is inheritance tax to pay or where there is no inheritance tax to pay but the estate is complicated due to issues such as gifts, trusts, foreign assets, or the existence of assets that can attract inheritance tax reliefs such as businesses or agricultural land and farms.
For a variety of reasons many clients wish to have more assistance in dealing with an estate than our fixed fee services allow for. Our team would be more than happy to guide you through the whole process – offering support throughout as and when this is required.
This service will include the following work:
Work done in relation to obtaining probate and administering the estate will not include dealing with disputes between beneficiaries, disputes over property ownership , challenges to the validity of the will or claims against the estate. These are often referred to as Contentious Probate claims.
Our charges will be calculated according to:
(a) the time spent dealing with the estate at a variable charge out rate of £145 – £255 per hour dependent upon the experience of the fee earner. Work is charged in units of 6 minutes.. Standard letters in and out, emails in and out and telephone calls are charged at one unit per item
(b) a value element – being 0.5% of the value of the deceased’s home and 1% of the gross value of any other assets in the estate (0.75 % and 1.25% where we also act as executors).
Payments to third parties – known as disbursements may need to be paid. A court fee of £273.00 together with a fee of £1.50 for each official sealed copy of the grant will be charged. There will be an ID verification fee of £12.50 + VAT per executor and beneficiary.
Other disbursements may include fees to advertise for creditors in local newspapers, land registry fees for copy documents, searches and fees, valuation fees to estate agents and fees to tracing agents to find missing beneficiaries. We can discuss the likely disbursements that may be incurred in your particular case at the outset.
The time it takes to complete the administration of an estate varies – from a matter of months to several years in some very complex cases. There can be problems locating assets, tracing beneficiaries, studying family trees, obtaining details of historic gifts, dealing with foreign property which can include liasing with lawyers and tax departments overseas and the valuation of certain assets and claiming reliefs – on say businesses or farmland – can take some time.
The time it takes does not necessarily depend on the value either. Some large estates could have just one or two investments that are easily dealt with whilst what might be considered a smaller simple estate with just one property to sell could take some time to deal with if there were difficulties in securing a buyer or problems with the property or title to the property that needed resolving prior to the sale.
Simpler estates can take, on average, 6-12 months to conclude.
More complex estates can take on average, 12 – 24 months to conclude dependent on the number and nature of the assets involved.
We shall keep you updated as to the progress and explain to you the reason for any unforeseen delays as they arise. It might also be possible to make interim payments to beneficiaries if the matter is taking some time to deal with and there is ready money available to make such payments.
Every case is different. Whether there is a will or not, the number of executors, beneficiaries and assets, the nature of the assets, whether inheritance tax has to be paid and the complexity of the provisions in a will are all factors that can have a bearing on the amount of work required to deal with a matter and hence the final costs.
By way of a very rough guide purely for illustrative purposes:
An estate with no property but say three assets to deal with and three beneficiaries might incur costs of £1500 – £2500 (+ VAT, disbursements and the value element) for us to deal with the entire estate.
An estate with a property and say five other assets to deal with and three beneficiaries might incur costs of £3000 – £5000 (+ VAT, disbursements and the value element) for us to deal with the entire estate. The costs of selling the property would be charged separately.
An estate with a property and say eight other assets to deal with and five beneficiaries where inheritance tax is payable might incur costs of £5000 – £8000 (+ VAT, disbursements and the value element) for us to deal with the entire estate. The costs of selling the property would be charged separately.
We will always provide you with a cost estimate based upon your particular situation at the outset of a matter.
The amount of work carried out in a matter – and thus the final costs – will be influenced by many factors.
Obviously the greater the number of assets and/or executors and/or beneficiaries we need to deal with the higher the costs will be.
Disharmony between executors can also lead to costs increasing. If executors disagree over issues, provide us with conflicting instructions or they simply cannot communicate effectively with each other the time we have to spend dealing with the matter might increase.
It is also wise to bear in mind that we will charge for each communication. Strings of emails should be avoided when one email, letter or call could deal with a number of issues.
The type of assets can have a bearing on the costs. Share holdings can be work intensive. The existence of business interests or farming and agricultural land can cause additional work in relation to valuations, claiming inheritance tax reliefs etc. Dealing with property overseas and the complexities of overseas inheritance tax can mean that expert advice is required.
Complex or unusual issues – where research, tracing unknown or missing beneficiaries or the involvement of third party experts becomes necessary can also cause costs to increase.
On the other hand there are things that can be done by you personally to decrease the overall costs in a matter.
You might for instance wish to carry out some of the work personally – organise estate agents valuations, arrange to empty the contents of the property, trace family members etc.
If there are a number of executors you may wish to select one executor to be the main point of contact.
Similarly you may wish to ask beneficiaries to contact the executors for updates rather than us.
If there are difficulties between executors as mentioned previously one or more of the executors may chose not be actively involved in dealing with the matter.
Julie Burgess is a Director and also leads the Wills and Probate Department. After graduating in Law from the University of Leicester Julie completed her Legal Practice Course at De Montfort University and following formal training qualified as a solicitor in 1996. Julie has been with Catteralls for 24 years.
Vicky Mills is an executive in our Wills and Probate Department. Vicky specialises in the administration of estates and as well as dealing with the obtaining of a grant of probate where a will has been left or letters of administration where there hasn’t, deals with all aspects thereafter of the administration of the estate up to its conclusion. Vicky has worked in this specialist field for over twenty five years. In the course of her day to day work she deals with beneficiaries, trustees, executors, the probate registry, HMRC, care homes, charities and various other interested individuals and parties.
Our online quotation tool will provide up to date costs for your sale and purchase transactions. These costs are fixed fee and hourly rates would not apply. The page also provides information on the fee earners who will be working on your case.
Transfers, equity releases and remortgages all start from £475 plus VAT of £95.
Bank transfer charges are £40 plus VAT of £8
AML/ID Fees are £25 plus VAT of £5 per person
Registration Fees for Transfers and Re-mortgage are as below. We would use the Business Gateway wherever possible.
Our estimated time scale for a transfer is 4-6 weeks, a re-mortgage up to 8 weeks. This is only an estimation. Delays may occur which are beyond our control such as mortgage lender requirements and Land Registry processing times.
| Value or amount | Apply by post | Apply using the portal or Business Gateway, for transfers of whole, charges of whole, transfers of charges and other applications of whole of registered titles | Apply using the portal or Business Gateway for registration of transfers of part, and all other Scale 2 applications that do not affect the whole of a registered title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 to £100,000 | £45 | £20 | £45 |
| £100,001 to £200,000 | £70 | £30 | £70 |
| £200,001 to £500,000 | £100 | £45 | £100 |
| £500,001 to £1,000,000 | £145 | £65 | £145 |
| £1,000,001 and over | £305 | £140 | £305 |
