Affordable Notarial Fees

1. NOTARIAL FEES: Details of my charges are set out below. Please note that if I have to make payments on your behalf such as legalisation fees, translator or interpreter fees, or other costs such as travelling expenses, your approval to these will be obtained and you are normally required to make payment in advance of any such amounts.

Charges: If the matter is simple I will endeavour to charge a fixed fee to include disbursements such as legalisation fees, postage, consular agent fees, courier fees, travelling expenses, translating costs and so on. I do not charge VAT.

For more complicated or time-consuming matters the fee will be based on my hourly rate of £250.00 subject to a minimum fee of £80, plus disbursements. The fee charged may include time spent on preliminary advice, drafting and preparation time, making and receiving telephone calls, correspondence written and received in all formats, arranging legalisation and record keeping.

Disbursements: Some documents require legalisation before they will be accepted for use in the receiving jurisdiction by obtaining an apostille through the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and, for some countries, additional legalisation is required through the relevant embassy or consulate.

Payment can be made by cash, card (only for payments exceeding £100.00) and bank transfer. Payment of my fees and disbursements is due when the document has been prepared which I may retain pending payment in full.

Occasionally unforeseen or unusual issues arise during the course of the matter which may result in a revision of my fee estimate. Examples of this could include where additional documents are required to be notarised, additional translations or legalisations are needed to meet the requirements of the receiving jurisdiction, third-party fees are adjusted to reflect external factors such as fuel price changes and so on. I will notify you of any changes in the fee estimate as soon as possible.

2. PAYMENT: Notarial charges are normally payable upon signature/release of the notarised documentation. If disbursements exceed £30, I may request payments for these in advance.  An Invoice can be issued on request for payment within 7 days and 10% above the base rate will be applied on any late payment.

3. SPECIAL FACTORS may affect fee rate e.g. (1) complexity, difficulty or novelty; (2) skill, labour, specialised knowledge and responsibility; (3) time; (4) number and importance of documents prepared or perused; (5) place and circumstances in which the business or any part is done; (6) value of any money or property involved; (7) importance of the matter to the client; (8) urgency, disruption, dislocation/rearrangement of other work; (9) work unavoidably undertaken out-of-office hours.

4. PLACE OF ATTENDANCE: Your personal attendance at my office is usually essential where my own photocopying and experienced secretarial facilities are available as required. In exceptional cases justifying attendance at your own address – e.g. in the event of incapacitation – special arrangements can be made but this inevitably increases time and expense.  There is  parking available nearby office which is also easily accessible by public transport and 30 seconds  walk from the train station.  My office is serviced by a lift and provides easy wheelchair access.

5. URGENCY: Urgency and/or trying to minimise expenses must not override essential accuracy and validity otherwise this could result in the documents being invalid and rejected by the receiving country.

6. COMPARATIVE FEES: If you have attended an English notary in the past, you may have been charged less/undercharged. But times and standards have changed.  My fees take into account the recommendations of the Notaries Society; these confirm that it should not be assumed that all notaries will, or should, charge the same amount for the same work.

7. RECIPIENT’S REQUIREMENTS: If the foreign country/authority/party with whom you are dealing stipulates that documents are to be notarised, then they will not settle for less. So it is pointless to try to take short cuts (e.g. sign it before a solicitor or any other official person) – which WON’T be acceptable. Unsatisfactory documents will be rejected and will come back to you and will have to be done again at your expense.

8. THE FOREIGN & COMMONWEALTH & DEVELOPMENT OFFICE AND/OR CONSULAR LEGALISATION: Most countries require notarised documents to receive further certification (usually termed “an Apostille”) by the Legalisation Section of The Foreign & Commonwealth & Development Office and/or legalisation by the relevant High Commission/Embassy/Consulate. At your request, I arrange receipt of apostille by ordinary courier; but clients may if they prefer to deal with it themselves.

9. REGISTER & PROTOCOL: At the conclusion, a formal register entry has to be made by the notary as a permanent record; and a photocopy set of the notarised documentation is customarily kept.