Civil Disputes

Civil disputes can be very stressful for the parties involved. Our civil disputes department will assist you in resolving this through negotiations and if required, by use of the courts.

Our civil litigation team are specialists in this field and will support you at every aspect of your case from start to finish.

Please contact us for further information.

Probate/Administration of Estates

Our Fees

We offer fixed fee services. There can however be subject to change dependant on any additional work required. We will be able to advise you of this when we first discuss the matter with you at the time of taking your instructions.

Application for Grant

We can act for you to obtain the Grant of Probate or Letter of Administration only. The appointed Executors/Administrators can then administer the Estate without our involvement.

• £900 plus VAT (£180) and Probate Registry fees of £155 plus £1.50 per additional copy of Grant.

Uncomplicated Probate and Full Administration of the Estate (obtaining grant, collecting in assets and distributing to beneficiaries)

As a guide, the fees for full administration will typically start from £2,500 to £5,000 plus VAT (£500 to £1000) and disbursements (not including Court and Oath fees and any conveyancing fees).

The exact cost will depend on the individual circumstances of the matter. For example, if there is one beneficiary and no property, costs will be at the lower end of the range. If there are multiple beneficiaries, a property and multiple bank accounts, costs will be at the higher end.

As part of our fixed fee we will:

• Providing initial advice regarding the Will or intestacy position.
• Identify the legally appointed executors or administrators and beneficiaries
• Gathering the necessary evidence to complete the application for the Grant and processing the application with the Probate Registry.
• Collecting in assets, settling liabilities and preparing full estate accounts.
• Liaising with HMRC and DWP
• Collect and distribute all assets in the estate
• Searching for missing Wills, dormant investments and placing public notices if required.

Disbursements

Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as court fees.

Some Typical disbursements additional to this quoted fee (where applicable VAT is included at 20%) are:

• Probate court fee of £155.00
• Additional copy of Grant required £1.50 each
• Bankruptcy-only Land Charges Department searches (£2 per beneficiary)
• HM Land Registry Search Fee – £3.00
• S27 Advertisement in The London Gazette (Protects against unexpected claims from unknown creditors) and post in a Local Newspaper – (This also helps to protect against unexpected claims) – from £150.00-£300.00 depending on the local newspaper advertising costs.
• Other third party costs will be advised as required e.g. accountant’s fee for potential income tax return, statutory advertisement fee to advertise for unknown creditors, asset tracing fee
• There may be additional third party costs for lost share certificates and share registrar and/or sale agent fees on transfer or sale of the shares
• Stockbroker fees – £25 – £150 depending on the number of shareholdings to be dealt with.

This quote guide is for estates where:

• There is a valid will
• There is no more than one property
• There are no more than 4 bank or building society accounts
• There are no other intangible assets
• There are no more than 4 beneficiaries
• There are no disputes between beneficiaries on division of assets. If disputes arise this is likely to lead to an increase in costs
• There is no inheritance tax payable and the executors do not need to submit a full account to HMRC
• There are no claims made against the estate

How long will this take?

On average, estates that fall within this range are dealt with within 6-12 months. Typically, obtaining the grant of probate takes 3-6 months. Collecting assets then follows. Once this has been done, we can distribute the assets, which normally takes a further 3-6 Months.

These time guidelines are approximate and each estate can vary depending on the assets and matters involved and information provided to us.

Legal fees in these cases will be taken from the Estate when it is in funds.

Additional costs

Larger estates/Complex estates with multiple assets and beneficiaries will attract a higher fee due to the additional works we will have to carry out for you. We will off course be able to give you a much more accurate quote when taking instructions from you.

• Additional £500 plus VAT (£100) for per 3 financial institutions to be contacted.
• Additional £500 plus VAT (£100) for every additional 3 beneficiaries.
• If we are dealing with the utilities and empty property insurance there will be an additional charge of £500 plus VAT (£100) to the Estate (in addition to the costs of the utilities and insurance).
• If there is no will or the estate consists of any share holdings (stocks and bonds) there is likely to be additional costs that could range significantly depending on the estate and how it is to be dealt with. We can give you a more accurate quote once we have more information.
• Dealing with the sale or transfer of any property in the estate is not included.

Who will deal with your case:

Your matter will be dealt with by Shomaila Younas or Afan Bashir.

Shomaila Younas – Solicitor

Shomaila is a Solicitor and Director of Penn Faraday Solicitors, having qualified as a Solicitor in 2002.  Shomaila has a Law degree from the University of East London and completed the Legal Practice Course at the College of Law, Guildford. She completed her training contract at Aina Khan Solicitors and worked at different firms before opening Penn Faraday Solicitors.

Shomaila areas of expertise are Family Law, Child Law, Personal Injury (high value multi track cases), Immigration and Private client work.

Shomaila has also completed several professional development courses in family, children, personal injury and probate and estate administration.

Afan Bashir – Solicitor

Afan qualified as a solicitor in August 2019 having obtained a Distinction in his Legal Practice Course and having completed his training contract with Penn Faraday Solicitors.

He has been working in the Legal profession for over 20 Years, joining Penn Faraday Solicitors in 2009.

His experience extends to Private client work, conveyancing, civil litigation and Immigration

Business Leases

We act for landlords and tenants in relation to business leases. Our solicitors can draft leases to suit any situation and can advise regarding terms therein. We have vast experience in dealing with problems that arise from time to time with commercial leases.

Please contact us for further information.