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SJP Law Solicitors in Hull and East Yorkshire

Call us on 01482 324591
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Complete legal support for administering your family’s estate

We provide advice and guidance across a variety of areas:

  • Probate preparation
  • Probate application
  • Letters of administration
  • Tax and investment advice
  • Administration of complex estates

Our professional, experienced solicitors are here to help you to quickly and efficiently deal with the administration of an estate.

Handling every aspect of the process from start to finish, we will manage the probate application, and provide you with all the information and support you need.

The team to trust

We are experts in all aspects of probate and estate administration, minimising stress and disruption at a difficult time, whilst helping your family to effectively protect its assets and provide for future generations.

We pride ourselves on being trusted, independent, successful and helpful in all transactions with our clients, either directly, or in partnership with mutually trusted advisers.

Claire Charman

We look forward to hearing from you

Please contact Claire Charman on 01482 316720

Pricing Information and Processes

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Current hourly rate as at May 2023:

A.         Directors, Associate Directors and Consultants - £330 plus VAT

Senior Solicitors, Senior Legal Executives and other members of relevant professional bodies with 8 years’ or more experience after qualification - £275 plus VAT

B.         Solicitors, Legal Executives and members of relevant professional bodies with 4 or more but less than 8 years’ experience after qualification and fee earners with equivalent experience - £230 plus VAT

C.        Other Solicitors, Legal Executives and fee earners of equivalent experience not falling within A or B above - £190 plus VAT

D.        Trainee Solicitors, Paralegals and fee earners of equivalent experience not falling within A-C inclusive above - £150 plus VAT

 

Probate

We have been helping families deal with personal and business financial affairs following a death for many years and in a number of cases we have acted for the same family for the last three generations.

We will arrange to meet with you, as soon as appropriate, following a death to discuss immediate and urgent next steps and leave less pressing matters for another day. To help avoid overloading you with information at an initial meeting we provide a booklet for you to take away that explains what happens with a deceased’s assets and some of the terms used. The booklet is quite detailed and there is a lot to take in. When you feel ready to progress matters we arrange to meet again and we are always happy to run through anything you are unclear about.

We can help you as much or as little as you want us to in the administration of the deceased’s Estate. There are a variety of solutions that we can discuss with you. The main options are set out below. You can decide at the outset or as you proceed how much you want us to do and how much you wish to do yourself. Whatever choice you make we will do our best to answer your queries, charging for that service on the time spent.

  1. The first option is a fixed fee of £2500 plus VAT and the court fees for:

    1. you collect all of the relevant paper work and obtain valuations of the deceased’s assets as at the date of death and provide us with the information;
    2. we complete the relevant forms and apply for the Grant of Representation (the formal court paper that authorises someone to collect a deceased’s assets and give them to those that benefit under the will) on your behalf; and
    3. you collect in the deceased’s assets once the Grant of Representation is made and give them to those that benefit
  2. The second option is:

    1. We collect all of the relevant paper work and obtain valuations of the deceased’s assets as at the date of his death;
    2. We complete the relevant forms and apply for the Grant of Representation on your behalf; and
    3. You collect in the deceased’s assets once the Grant of Representation is made and and give them to those that benefit

For this we would charge the fixed fee of £2500 plus VAT and charge for the collection of paper work and the valuations on a time basis at our current hourly rates.

  1. The other main option is that we undertake all the necessary work from start to finish on behalf of the personal representatives. We would:

    1. collect all of the relevant paper work and obtain valuations of the deceased’s assets as at the date of his death;
    2. complete the relevant forms and apply for the Grant of Representation on your behalf; and
    3. collect in the deceased’s assets once the Grant of Representation is made and and give them to those that benefit

For this we would charge on a time basis and a percentage of the value of the deceased’s property (‘the Estate’).

The percentage of the value of the Estate we charge will be what is reasonable, in the circumstances, but will not exceed the following rates:

A percentage of the gross value of the Estate (less the value of the main residence):

  • up to £1m 1%  
  • from £1m to £4m 0.5%
  • from £4m to £8m 0.167%
  • over £8m 0.08%

and 0.5% of the value of the residence

Time spent will include meetings with you and perhaps others; considering, preparing and working on papers; correspondence; and making and receiving telephone calls.

From our experience of the time it takes to deal with all the normal and routine tasks in the administration of an estate (where we deal with all matters described in 3 above), we estimate that our total fees, including both time spent and any value element charged but excluding VAT and disbursements, will not exceed the amount or percentage of the gross value of the Estate set out in the table below:

GROSS VALUE OF ESTATE ESTIMATED FEES CUMULATIVE TOTAL
to top of band
Less than £50,000 £2,500 plus £2,500
In respect of any excess over £50,000 up to £250,000 £1 to £8,000 (4 per cent) plus £10,500
In respect of any excess over £250,000 up to £750,000 £1 to £15,000 (3 per cent) plus £25,500
In respect of any excess over £750,000 to £2.5m £1 to £35,000 (2 per cent) £60,500
In respect of any excess over £2.5m By arrangement  

This is not intended to be fixed, it is an estimate only. In any event, we would not go above that figure without informing you in advance.

We review with you the estimate of overall charges and expenses after the grant of probate has been obtained and every 6 months thereafter.

We will add VAT to our charge at the rate that applies when the work is done.

It is our aim to administer estates within 12 months. Sometimes we successfully complete the administration in a shorter timescale. However, for more complex estates it can take 18 months to 2 years to obtain clearance from HMRC in relation to the inheritance tax position.

There are circumstances when our charges will exceed those set out above. Work that we consider being outside the normal and routine tasks in the administration of an estate will be charged for separately and we will tell you about these in advance. Examples of the type of additional work which may be required which is not within the normal administration of the estate are set out below. However, before doing any additional work we will always provide you with an estimate of the additional costs and agree them with you.

Additional Services

  1. Arranging the funeral.
  2. Emptying and clearing property.
  3. Collecting, storing and arranging valuations of household goods and jewellery.
  4. Liaising with beneficiaries in relation to the deceased’s personal belongings.
  5. Sorting through significant volumes of paperwork to investigate the extent of the deceased’s estate.
  6. Ensuring assets are suitably insured.
  7. Complying with property insurance requirements (such as monthly visits).
  8. Dealing with correspondence from/to utility companies, including transfer of accounts.
  9. Setting up new services with the utility providers.
  10. Dealing with an exceptionally large number of assets and/or liabilities.
  11. Advising on and dealing with variations to the Will.
  12. Placing Section 27 Notices.
  13. Notifying numerous beneficiaries of their entitlement and dealing with enquiries for further information.
  14. Tracing missing beneficiaries.
  15. Preparing and submitting personal tax returns to the date of death (or form R27).
  16. Dealing with foreign property.
  17. Probate application fee and payment for office copies.
  18. Dealing with the sale, transfer or appropriation of property in the estate.
  19. Advising on and handling disputes or claims made against the estate including any litigation.
  20. Tax planning advice and implementation.
  21. Arranging interim distributions.
  22. Arranging for the sale and/or transfer of investments.

The family have known Claire for a long time and she has been brilliant with the advice and guidance she has provided to us. Claire is more like a friend than a Solicitor, as she always took time to explain matters in a down to earth way, so that everything was easy and straight forward for us to understand.

Claire was absolutely brilliant in our dealings and always added that personal touch to make sure we were fully informed at every stage.

Both Claire and Alice have been efficient and very kind to me throughout the administration of my mums estate.

They have both given me advice and have been very supportive during a very upsetting time for me. It has not been a straight forward estate by any means and without them I really do not know what I would have done.

I cannot begin to tell you how thankful I am to you both.

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