Licensing

We act for a number of clients with premises throughout the country providing services in relation to all types of licensed premises, such as pubs, clubs, restaurants, hotels and off-licences.

We have long-standing and established working relationships with many local police and local authority licensing departments and always do our best to achieve the desired outcome for our clients, adopting a non-combative approach wherever possible.

We are also often recommended by other solicitors who act for their clients directly or on an agency basis which takes away the stress of dealing with an area of law where they have little or no experience.

We also have many years of experience dealing with tenanted pubs and are frequently called to advise new tenants about standard documentation used by the major tenanted pub companies.

Types of work we deal with are as follows:

• New Premises Licence applications
• Changing a Designated Premises Supervisor
• Variations of Premises Licences – structural alterations and conditions
• Personal Licence applications
• Café / Pavement licences
• Purchase and Sale of Licensed premises
• Temporary event notices (TEN’s)

If you need advice about a licensing matter please call one of our solicitors on 0191 222 1030 or complete our website enquiry form.

LICENSING COSTS

We are required by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to provide information on our website regarding our charges for dealing with two types of licensing applications. The first is an Application for a New Premises Licence and the second an Application to Vary an Existing Premises Licence.

The following information is meant as a guide only. Before we would accept instructions from you we would discuss your requirements and provide you with a written estimate of the likely costs and disbursements to be incurred in connection with your application.

Both the applications mentioned above are fairly similar in their nature and therefore the charges that we have set out below relate to both types of application.

As a general rule the applications are divided into three phases:

Phase 1

This involves us in taking your detailed instructions and advising you on how best to formulate your application to increase the likelihood of it being successful. We will consult with the relevant Responsible Authorities who must be notified of the application prior to the application being submitted and where possible take into account their concerns when drafting the application.

The work involved in relation to the above would be charged for at our hourly rates plus VAT.

An average case normally involves one to four hours of work.

Phase 2

This is the actual preparation of the application, site notices, review of the plans in support of the application, preparing and submitting the application to the relevant Responsible Authorities, dealing with the placement of the relevant newspaper advertisement and advising you as to the progress of the application during the normal 28 day application period.

Our charges in connection with this phase are based on a fixed fee depending on the nature of the application which vary between £995.00 to £1,995.00 plus VAT.

Phase 3

There are now three likely outcomes:

(a) No representations are made by any of the Responsible Authorities and/or members of the public and your application is granted.

(b) Representations are made by some of the Responsible Authorities and/or members of the public. We would then need to deal with these representations and if they can be resolved by negotiation then the application would normally be granted without the need for a hearing before the Licensing Sub-Committee.

The work involved in relation to the above would be charged for at our hourly rates.

An average case normally involves one to five hours of work.

(c) Representations are received but cannot be dealt by negotiation and therefore a hearing will take place before the Licensing Sub-Committee. Our charges for dealing with this aspect will depend on the number of hours spent in connection with the preparation for and attendance at the hearing.

Again this would be charged at our hourly rates.

Although it is not that common, if you are dissatisfied with the outcome of an application you may have grounds to appeal. It is difficult to say how many hours would be involved in this but it is approximately 5 to 35 hours work, again charged at our hourly rates.

Disbursements

There are disbursements in connection with the two applications. These would consist of the following:

1. Local Authority Application Fee. This is based on the rateable value of the premises and can be found on the Government Website.

2. Advertisement Fee. Depending on the publication these can vary between £150.00 and £400.00 plus VAT.

3. Special Delivery Charges to serve the applications. These are based on Royal Mail postal charges as applicable at the relevant time and range between £10.00 to £20.00 plus VAT.