Licensing
If you have questions regarding licensing for your business then please feel free to contact us for a Free Initial Enquiry on 01298 22741 or make an Online Enquiry.
We would always recommend that you seek initial advice before taking any action in relation to dismissing. If an employee has brought a claim against you then please contact us as soon as possible.
Prices
Our costs information is set out generally below. For a bespoke quote relevant to your exact licensing requirements, please click here and enter your details and we will contact you. Please refer to our privacy policy for details of how we will use any information that you submit via the enquiry form on our website.
Please note that there will be two elements to the costs information set out below:
- Fees charged by Brooke-Taylors Solicitors. These are charged on the basis of hourly rates; and
- Fees payable to third parties.
Please ensure that you consider both parts of the costs information.
Fees charged by Brooke-Taylors Solicitors
We can assist you with obtaining a licence to sell alcohol or provide ‘licensable activities’ from a particular venue.
The costs will range depending on the license required and who are generally required to be notified.
For an application for a business premises licence, we would usually expect this to take around 4 - 8 hours of our time. At an hourly rate of £275.00 plus VAT (20%), this would likely cost between £1,100.00 and £2,200.00 plus VAT and disbursements.
Please note that this is for an uncontested application. If your application is contested or refused it may cost more.
Fees payable to third parties (‘Disbursements’)
| Description of Disbursement | Fee |
|---|---|
|
Application fee (payable to licensing authority) |
£100.00 - £1,950.00 |
|
Special delivery fee to serve the application |
Estimated at £5.00 per document |
|
Printing additional copies of plans if necessary |
Estimated at £5.00 per copy |
This fee varies depending on the individual premises and where it is located.
VAT is not payable on the disbursements listed in the table above.
The fees can on occasion be higher than the ranges given above. We will give you an accurate figure for each item as soon as we are able to do so.
There are other fees such as
- newspaper advertising fee
- enquiry agent fees to display public notices
which will vary dependant on the location of the notices and advertisements. VAT may also be payable on these fees.
Work included and key stages
The precise work and stages involved in a licensing application vary according to the circumstances. However, we have set out the key stages involved in a typical application:
- Taking your instructions and advising you as to how you can promote the licensing objectives within your application.
- Advising you as to the type of plans you are required to submit with your application.
- Completing the application form for the licence in accordance with your instructions and submitting this to the local licensing authority alongside suitable plans. You must provide suitable plans.
- Providing guidance on the fee levels payable to the licensing authority.
- Preparing copies of the premises license application for disclosure to the responsible authorities and serving copies of the application on the responsible authorities.
- Drafting the notices advertising the premises licence application and submitting the notice to the local newspaper.
- Arranging with you for you to display the notice(s) advertising the premises license application and advising as to where and how this should be done by you in order to comply with the requirements of the Licensing Act 2003.
- Providing a Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) consent form for signature by a personal licence holder proposed by yourself.
- Checking the licence once granted and correcting any errors with the licensing authority.
Services excluded
Our services (within the scope of this costs information) will not include any of the following:
- Obtaining suitable plans.
- Attending pre-consultation meetings with the Licensing Authority or Responsible Authorities, nor their fee for this meeting.
- Dealing with or advising you in relation to queries or representations received from either the responsible authorities or other interested parties.
- Advising on varying the license.
- Attendance and representation at a licensing sub-committee hearing of the responsible authority. If representations are received and attendance and representation at a licensing sub-committee is required, then we will provide a separate fee estimate for this work.
Approximate/average timescales
Matters usually take 2 - 4 months from receipt of full instructions from you. This is based on the application being relatively straightforward and you being able to provide all the necessary documents promptly. If your matter is more complex, for example, if there is substantial opposition from interested parties, or if there is a delay in receiving the documents we need, it may take longer.
