Licence Applications Information and Fees

Savvas Panayiodou will have conduct of all licensing applications who has more than 25 years’ experience in licensing.
He has undertaken licensing applications from night venues seeking late night licences to sell alcohol and provide music both recorded and live through to small off licences wishing to sell alcohol to customers wishing to buy and take home for consumption.

Premises Licence Application and Off Licence Application

Our overall fees vary depending upon how complex your case is and what you would like us to do. For a free quote specifically tailored to your circumstances please email info@southgateandco.co.uk. We would be more than happy to discuss your case.

Our charges are made up of:

a) our fees for the legal work;

b) ‘disbursements’ - disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to other people, such as fees payable to the Local Licensing Authority (please see below) and for an architect or other professional to prepare plans of the Premises and advertising the application in a local paper or other approved method. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.

Where VAT is referred to below please note that this will be charged at the applicable rate, which is currently 20%.

How much do we charge?
Our fees

New Premises Licence application for late night refreshment and sale of alcohol. This is the most common type of Premises licence which we deal with, namely where an individual or company wish to apply for a New Premises Licence for a Restaurant to sell food after 11pm to midnight and sell alcohol to be consumed with their food (Standard Application). Our fees for this work will either be agreed with you as a fixed sum before we start of our work together or based on how much time it takes to deal with your case. Our standard hourly rates are £350.00 for one of our solicitors. Normally this work takes between 8 and 12 hours work at £350.00 per hour. Total costs therefore tend to be in the region of £2,800.00 - £4,200.00 plus VAT at 20%. The costs detailed above are in respect to a Standard Application which is unopposed, and the local authority grants the licence without a hearing or requiring further representations from the applicant and include the following work on our part

taking your instructions

advising you as to how you can promote the licensing objectives within their premises licence application

advising on the type of plans required to accompany their application

completing and submitting the application

disclosing the application to the responsible authorities

making arrangements for the necessary advertising of the application.

You should set out that additional costs are payable for submitting and advertising the application and explain how these are calculated

In addition, there will be disbursement to include placing the notice in a local paper the disbursement varies from newspapers but an estimate if £300.00

Fixed fee example for an application for a new premises licence (simple application)

Fixed fee of £5,040.00 (including VAT but excluding disbursements)

This fee is made up of:

• Legal fees £4,200.00

• VAT at 20% on legal fees £840.00

Disbursements

Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as the application fee. We will pay the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.

• Application fee (payable to licensing authority) £500.00*

• Advertising fee £150.00 -£350.00

• Special delivery fee to serve the application £25.00

• Printing additional copies of plans if necessary £25.00

*These fees vary depending on the individual premises and where it is located. 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.

Fee includes:

• Taking your instructions and advising you as to how you can promote the licensing objectives within your application

• Advising you as the type of plans you are required to submit with your application.

• Completing the application form for a new premises licence (including the operating schedule) 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 licence 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 licence 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.

The fee does not include:

• 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 licence

• 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 which will be charged at an hourly rate.

How long will my application take?

Matters usually take 8-16 weeks from receipt of full instructions from you. This is on the basis of 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.

Non-standard Applications

These will include applications in respect to trading hours beyond midnight, where there are objections, a licence has been previously revoked for the premises, there are proposed unreasonable licensing conditions, there is to be a hearing in respect to the application. There are other unusual aspects of your application.

We are happy to undertake and represent you in such cases and will provide a more tailored quote for all stages of your particular case once we know about your specific circumstances.

Other Licensing activities

Applying for variations or amendments to existing licences,
Defending applications against objections in appeal hearings
Defending enforcement action
Objecting to someone else’s licence application
Private clubs, Bars and Pubs, Nightclubs, Theatres and Sports Venues.
In all cases we will be happy to provide a more tailored quote to your particular case.