Licensing Fee – Our Charges

Costs for licensing applications can vary depending on the type of licence application and the relevant local authority.

To advise about personal licence applications and to assist you to complete the application would typically cost between £250 – £500 plus VAT and the application fee of £46. Typically, the fee for a new premises licence (without any significant complicating factor such as police objections or planning issues) will be in the region of £700-£1,200 plus VAT and the application fee which varies according to the rateable value of the premises. The application fee ranges from £100-£1,905 (current Home Office fee scales published April 2012), with additional application fees of £100-£1,000 for a club premises certificate.

In most cases we will be able to provide a fixed fee estimate for our charges. If not, and our fee is based on time spent, we will always provide you with an estimate of the likely fee for each stage of the process and the overall cost before any chargeable work is carried out. We will also ask you to pay a proportion of our fee on account and all disbursements in full before they are incurred so that you will know what to expect.

What are the key stages?

The applications for both a premises licence and a personal licence are administrative. The key stages are collecting the information that is required for the application, completing and submitting the application to the relevant licensing authority and dealing with any queries raised.

How Long Will This Take?

Typically, where there are no objections raised by the licensing authority, a premises licence application will take around 1 week to prepare and a personal licence application would normally be completed within a matter of days if not at the initial meeting. Thereafter, it depends on the workload and resources of the particular licensing authority however a decision should normally be received within 2-3 weeks.

Who Will Do the Work

John French, Partner and Head of Litigation or Raman Dhillon, Senior Associate in our Corporate team handle all licensing applications.