Premises Licence Variation Costs

We are required by the SRA to provide pricing information on our website for two types of licence applications: an application for a new premises licence under Section 17 of the Licensing Act 2003 and an application to vary a premises licence under Section 34 of the Licensing Act 2003.

Both applications follow the same legal process and accordingly the work we do to obtain a new licence for you is not dissimilar from a variation.  The pricing below sets out the cost for a variation of a premises licence.  Figures on this page are provided as a guide only.

Before undertaking any work on behalf of a client we will always take full instructions and provide pricing details and charging structures for the work to be undertaken. This will be tailored to your specific needs and requirements. If you want a more accurate idea of costs, please contact us so that we can ascertain what work needs to be undertaken.

Additionally, the below is for a single application.  Should you wish to discuss licensing for your estate we would be more than happy to give indications of costs based on multiple applications.

There are a large number of factors that can affect the complexity of a variation application and these include but not exclusively:

• The content of the Statement of Licensing Policy for the area where the site is located
• whether there is a Cumulative Impact Policy in place
• type and size of the premises
• whether it is in a residential area
• hours of operation
• type of operation
• type of venue
• type of cliental
• trading history

We tend to split the variation process into two sections: application and post application:

Application

For the application we charge a fixed fee between £750 and £2000 plus VAT taking account of the individual complexity of your matter.

This includes:

• Taking your instructions and advising you on the steps to promote the licensing objectives within your application
• Advising you on the plans you are required to submit with your application. You must provide suitable plans, but we can put you in touch with people to assist with the preparation of plans if need be.
• Completing the application form for a variation of a premises licence (including the operating schedule) in accordance with your instructions and submitting this to the local licensing authority.
• 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.
• Providing you with the Public notice(s) advertising the variation of a premises licence application and advising you where and how this should be done 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.

Post Application

Once the application has been submitted there are a number of outcomes which would affect the overall cost:

1. No representations Received - If within 28 days of submission, your application attracted no representations, the application would be automatically granted and there would be no further charges from us.
2. Representations Received – if representations are received, we would try and resolve them through mediation with a view to avoiding a Committee hearing. Time spent on mediation would be charged on the agreed hourly rate and depending on the nature and amount of representations this could be between 1 and 5 hours.
3. Hearing - It may be necessary to go to a hearing for which we usually charge on a time spent basis at the agreed hourly rate and this is required to take place within 20 working days of the end of the representation period. Again we would discuss the likely costs of such with you at that time.
4. Appeal – Usually on a time spent charge based on the hourly rates set out below. Depending on the nature of the appeal this could be between 5 and 40 hours work and charged on our hourly rates.

There are also a number of disbursements and expenses that we will need to discharge on your behalf for all premises licence applications:

• Application fee payable to the local authority – based on rateable value of premises. These fees can be found on our application fees page.
• Advertising fee – it is a requirement to advertise the application in the local press. We use a specialist agent who gets favourable rates and typesets the advert to be the most cost effective. Depending on publication these usually cost between £150 and £400 + VAT.
• Agent to display public notices – it is a requirement to display a copy of the notice that appears in the local press and on the outside of your premises. We have a long-standing relationship with an agent who, if you are unable to arrange to put these notices up yourself can do so on your behalf for £165 + VAT. This includes the check of notices and provision of a witness statement.
• Special delivery charges to serve applications – it may be necessary to serve the application by special delivery, if this is the case this will cost between £10 and £20 plus VAT to do so. These fees depend on the size and weight of the letters we will be sending and we only charge you what we get charged by Royal Mail.
• Plans – we require 1:100 sized plans of the premises. The licensed area is then required to be red lined. We are able to do this in house along with any printing. For this we charge £1.50 per a1 sheet. We require 12 copies of each plan. This works out at £18.00 + VAT for a venue with one floor.