Price Transparency

Range of fixed fees to a debt that is undisputed

These costs apply where your claim is in relation to an unpaid and valid demand for payment pursuant to a lease, which is not disputed, where the debtor is located in England and Wales and the courts within England and Wales have jurisdiction. 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, if necessary, which could be on a fixed fee (e.g. if a one off letter is required), or an hourly rate if more extensive work is needed. The work will be undertaken by a solicitor, with the assistance of trainee solicitors and paralegals.

Pre-action

We charge a fee of £250 plus VAT for a letter before action. We will also incur HM Land Registry fees of approximately £15 (no VAT). This fee includes:

• Taking your instructions and reviewing documentation;
• Sending a letter before action; and
• If the debt is paid, receiving payment and sending onto you;

The above fee does not include:

• Any additional correspondence or communications (either telephone or written) with the debtor or their legal representative, including negotiation of payment terms.

It may be possible to add contractual interest to the sum claimed or statutory interest, a fixed sum and costs under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.

A 2-week period is given to the debtor to pay in business-to-business claims and 30 days is given to the debtor where they are an individual or sole trader. Accordingly, we estimate that this section of work will take approximately 1-2 months.

Court proceedings to default Judgment stage

We charge a fee of £700 plus VAT to prepare and issue the court claim.

The court fee is dependent upon the value of the debt claimed, and you will find a breakdown of these fees here. There is also a fee of £22 for requesting judgment (or £30 where the amount of the judgment exceeds £5,000). There is no VAT payable on court fees.

The above fees include:

• Drafting and issuing claim through the County Court Money Claims Centre;
• Where no Acknowledgment of Service or Defence is received, applying to the court to enter Judgment in default;
• When Judgment in default is received, to write to the other side to request payment; and
• If the debt is paid, receiving payment and sending onto you.

The above fees do not include:

• Any correspondence or communications (either telephone or written) with the debtor, including negotiation of payment terms;
• Dealing with any response or application by the debtor to the court, either before or after Judgment; and
• Attending any hearing, including relating to payment amount or terms.

Any interest and compensation claimed may take the debt into a higher banding, with a higher cost.

You may not recover every penny that you spend and there may be a short fall between the sum you can claim from the debtor and how much it costs you. In each case the court fee will be included within the claimed sum together with fixed commencements costs and fixed judgment costs.

We estimate that this section of work will take approximately 2 months.

Enforcement

In the event that the debtor does not pay the Judgment debt, one or more of the following methods of enforcement may be used.

Action	Fixed cost
Standard letter post-judgment	£100 + VAT
Action to trace debtor	£150 + VAT
Prepare and apply for a Warrant Of Control	£600 + VAT
Prepare and apply for a Third-Party Debt Order	£600 + VAT
Prepare and apply for an Attachment of Earnings Order	£600 + VAT
Prepare a statutory demand	£300 + VAT
Prepare a Section 146 Notice	£300 + VAT
Prepare and apply for an Interim Charging Order and registration of the Order at HM Land Registry	£300 + VAT
Serve the Interim Charging Order and arrange an attendance at the Final Charging Order hearing	£350 + VAT

The above fees include:

• Making appropriate court application and dealing with court orders as appropriate; and
• If the debt is paid, receiving payment and sending onto you.

The above fees do not include:

• Any court fees or other disbursement costs;
• Instruction of Barrister or attendance at any hearing;
• Any correspondence or communications (either telephone or written) with the debtor, including negotiation of payment terms;

Fees relating to disputed matters:

In the event that any debt is disputed, our fixed fee pricing will cease to apply and work will be charged at an hourly rate depending on the seniority of staff who will be working on your matter, as per the table below:-

Partner	£450 plus VAT per hour
Senior Associate	£425 plus VAT per hour
Associate	£350 plus VAT per hour
Trainee solicitor	£225 plus VAT per hour
Paralegal	£175 plus VAT per hour
Administrative	£100 plus VAT per hour

Expenses are payable in addition.

Time scales of key stages:

The standard time scales and key stages of work depend on whether the matter proceeds to court, tribunal or a different forum. If the matter proceeds to court after the pre-action stage and the issue of proceedings, then it could be up to 12 months before your matter is concluded. For the tribunal, there may be a turnaround of between 3 to 9 months depending on the capacity of the tribunal.