The medium costs related to divorce in UK are related to the legal fees as well as application fee for the divorce centre. When the parties need to make important property or living rearrangement after the separation the overall costs will increase significantly. The divorce solicitors costs differ according to the team with which you choose to work and whether or not the case will go to court.
In those situations in which the parties can easily agree on certain issues going to court will not be an option and this will also impact the overall divorce costs.
Talking to one of our divorce lawyers in London is a good first step to estimate the duration and the expenses. Our fees are transparent ones and one of our agents will be able to provide you with an estimate for divorce solicitors costs once you provide us with a number of relevant details.
In this article, we highlight some of the current medium costs associated with getting divorced in England. Please keep in mind that this is merely an estimate and in practice, former spouses will deal with unforeseen or different other costs. The actual costs are presented by the lawyers, after the initial meeting.
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What are the costs one can expect when divorcing in the UK?
Estimates show that the average costs of legal fees alone is above 1,000 £ in most cases that involve uncontested divorce. To this, the parties will also need to observe the fixed fee for the application imposed by the divorce centre as well as any other specific issues, for example, costs related to translating documents in case of international divorce.
The divorce solicitors costs will often be above the 1,000 £ threshold because value added tax applies to these. For example, the local solicitor’s costs can be around 950 £ plus VAT (which for this particular solicitor fee is another 190£).
The overall divorce solicitors costs for an initial fee of 950£ is, in fact, 1,140 £ after the calculation of the value added tax (which has a current value of 20% in the UK).
To this, the 550£ standard divorce application fee is added, bringing the overall estimate of court and initial legal fees to around 1,690 £ for divorce in the UK.
Please keep in mind that the divorce solicitors costs above are only to be used as an example. In practice, each law firm determines its own costs for the services and high-street firms will charge more than local solicitors will. This means that there is a possibility for the costs to be higher for those living in large cities such as London.
Are the divorce costs different for the former spouses?
To the court and legal services fees described above, the former spouses also need to any additional ones, for example, if they also need to get a financial settlement or of they need to work with a mediator, not to mention the costs that will be involved if they cannot settle and need to take the case to court.
Uncontested divorces involve lower costs than those in which the parties cannot agree on financial issues. If the relationship between the former spouses is a hostile one, then both parties will need to reach out to their own lawyer and this will involve divorce solicitors costs for both of them.
In practice, the petitioner (the one initiating the divorce) will pay the divorce centre fee of 550£ and (along with the solicitor’s fees) while the respondent (the one who is served with the petition for divorce) will not need to pay the same fee, making his or her medium costs lower in most cases.
The financial settlement between the spouses has a separate fee that increased when the agreement is a complex one. In fairly simple cases, when the spouses can draft a simple agreement, the costs can start at 500£.
What is an estimate of the medium costs related to divorce in UK?
Our divorce solicitors in London have highlighted some of the most important basic costs to take into consideration when the divorce procedures are fairly simple. However, the process can involve additional fees and expenses. We list some of them below, along with the ones previously mentioned:
- 550£: this is the standard divorce centre fee payable when submitting the divorce application;
- 50£: the court fee when filing an application for a financial order (the order is drawn up by the solicitor in most cases, increasing the overall cost for the financial settlement);
- 300£: an estimated average starting costs for using a mediator for solving financial and children matters;
- 10% capital gains tax basic rate: this may apply on the transfer of assets once the separation is complete; the capital gains tax depends on the overall annual income.
As seen above, divorce solicitors costs are complex and depend on a number of different factors.
We suggest reaching out to our divorce solicitors in London for complete information on our fees and what you can expect when you decide to get a divorce.
