Professional, local & regulated

Alane Lunn is a local solicitor in Ongar (Essex, UK) who offers a professional and personal service with the added security of being governed by the Solicitor's Regulatory Authority.

Professional

Whether you are looking to simply write a will or handle complex legal situations, Alane Lunn is able to offer professional legal advice and services:

  • Wills, Powers of Attorney & Court of Protections
  • Probate and Estate Administration
  • Inheritance Tax Services

Local

Being a local solicitor means that your legal affairs will be handled by someone that you can meet in person that knows your locality first hand.

  • Face-to-face meetings at your convenience
  • Knowledge of your locality and situation

Authorised & Regulated

You can have peace of mind knowing that your legal affairs are being handled by a solicitor who is Authorised & Regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority:

  • Quality assured, integrity, strong ethics
  • Visit the Law Society for more information

Legal Services

We are a legal practice located in Ongar specialising in:

  • the drafting of wills
  • the drafting of lasting powers of attorney and general powers of attorney
  • registering lasting powers of attorney and enduring powers of attorney
  • obtaining and managing deputy orders from the Court of Protection
  • inheritance tax advice
  • probate applications
  • estate administration

A carefully written Will affords you with peace of mind, it usually reduces the administration required to manage your affairs in the event of your death. Other legal measures may be taken to authorise your spouse or other nominee with your financial and legal affairs during your life should you need this.

We would be pleased to discuss your specific situation with you to clarify where we can help. Evening and weekend appointments are available.

Fees & Funding

We are upfront about the cost of all our services and will not undertake any work without your agreement

Preparing Wills

For preparing a single Will our fee is £160.

For preparing a couple’s Will our fee is £210.

There is no VAT as we are currently not VAT registered. We will let you know if this changes.

If you require a more complex Will our fees may be higher. We would advise you of this at our initial meeting.

We do not charge for storing Wills in our deed storage facility.

Applying for Lasting Powers of Attorneys

There are two types of Lasting Powers of Attorney. One that deals with your Property and Finance and one that deals with your Health and Welfare. You can choose to have both or just one.

For preparing Lasting Power of Attorneys our fee is £200 for one and £300 for two.

Lasting Powers of Attorney cannot be used unless they are registered with the Office of the Public Guardian. You can choose not to register them after preparation, we would advise you about this option depending on your circumstances.

Our fee for registering one Lasting Powers of Attorney is £175 and £250 for two. As part of our service we provide one certified copy for each Lasting Power of Attorney registered. Additional copies will be charged at £20 each. We do not charge if you choose to store Lasting Powers of Attorneys in our deed storage facility.

There is no VAT as we are currently not VAT registered. We will let you know if this changes.

Please note that there is a fee for registering each Lasting Power of Attorney to the Office of the Public fee of £82 unless you are entitled to a fee exemption or reduction. We would discuss this with you.

Court of Protection

A Deputyship application starts from £950 in line with the Court of Protection solicitors’ fixed costs.

If you also require authority to sell any property, a separate application will have to be made to the Court of Protection. Our fee for this is £500.

There are some disbursements, primarily a £385 court fee.

Our fees are billed at the end of the application process. There is no VAT as we are currently not VAT registered. We will let you know if this changes.

Applying for the grant, collecting and distributing the assets

We anticipate this will take between 7 and 25 hours work at £195 per hour. Total costs estimated for time spent on a matter are between £1,365 - £4,875. There will be additional charges for letters, emails, telephone calls and disbursements. £19.50 for telephone calls, letters and emails sent, £9.25 for letters and emails received .There is no VAT as we are currently not VAT registered. We will let you know if this changes. We will always do our best to keep costs to a minimum.

The exact cost will depend on the individual circumstances of the matter. For example, if there is one beneficiary, a small number of bank accounts and no property , costs will be at the lower end of the range. If there are multiple beneficiaries, a property, multiple bank accounts and shares costs will be at the higher end.

We will handle the full process for you. This quote is for estates where:

  • There is a valid will
  • There is no more than one property
  • There are no more than 4 bank or building society accounts
  • There are no other intangible assets
  • There are 1-4 beneficiaries
  • There are no disputes between beneficiaries on division of assets. If disputes arise this is likely to lead to an increase in costs
  • There is no inheritance tax payable and the executors do not need to submit a full account to HMRC
  • There are no claims made against the estate

Disbursements will include:

  • Probate application fee of £155.
  • £7 Swearing of the oath (per executor), although it is possible to sign a Statement of Truth if preferred (there is no fee for this)
  • Bankruptcy-only Land Charges Department searches ( £1 per beneficiary)
  • A post in The London Gazette and in a Local Newspaper – Protects against unexpected claims from unknown creditors. (This is optional.)

We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.

  • If there is no will or the estate consists of any share holdings (stocks and bonds) there is likely to be additional costs that could range significantly depending on the estate and how it is to be dealt with. We can give you a more accurate quote once we have more information.
  • If any additional copies of the grant are required, they will cost 50p each.
  • Dealing with the sale or transfer of any property in the estate is not included.

On average, estates that fall within this range are dealt with within 3-9 months. Typically, obtaining the grant of probate takes 6 weeks. Collecting assets then follows, which can take between 6 weeks. Once this has been done, we can distribute the assets, this normally takes 4 weeks.

If a full Inheritance tax account is required, our fees will increase. However we will always discuss this with you and whether you want us to proceed. We will always do our best to keep costs to a minimum.

Our Fixed Fee Option where a full Inheritance Tax Account is not required

We can help you through this difficult process by just obtaining the Grant of Probate on your behalf on the basis that you obtain all the probate valuations. Our fixed fee for this would be £450. There is no VAT as we are not VAT registered. We will let you know if this changes.

Breakdown of costs:

  • Legal fees £450

Disbursements:

  • Probate court fee of £155.
  • £7 swearing of the oath (per executor). It is possible to sign a Statement of Truth if preferred (there is no fee for this)

Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as court fees. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.

As part of our fixed fee we will:

  • Provide you with a dedicated and experienced probate solicitor to work on your matter
  • Identify the legally appointed executors or administrators and beneficiaries
  • Accurately identify the type of Probate application you will require
  • Obtain the relevant documents required to make the application
  • Complete the Probate Application and the HMRC forms
  • Draft a legal oath for you to swear
  • Make the application to the Probate Court on your behalf
  • Obtain the Probate and securely send two copies to you

On average, estates that fall within this range are dealt with within 6-9 months. Typically, obtaining the grant of probate takes 6-12 weeks. It would then be your responsibility to collect in the assets.

Costs for other work we undertake

If you would like us to provide you with another legal service within our expertise please contact for us a direct quote.

Who we are

Solictor

Alane LunnAlane Lunn BSc(Hons)
Qualified Solicitor since 1996
Specialising in Wills & Probate since 1996

Alane studied law at the University of Birmingham following the completion of a law conversion course at De Montfort University. Alane also has a degree in Mathematics having graduated from the University of Nottingham in 1992.

Alane has lived in Ongar all of her life with the exception of five years studying at University and two years living in the USA with her family. Alane was a pupil at Chipping Ongar Primary School and the Davenant Foundation in Loughton.

From 2009 to 2012 Alane was self-employed and contracted by Sorrells Solicitors to provide wills and probate services in Ongar.

Alane is married with two children who both attended Brentwood secondary schools.

Alane is responsible for ensuring the firm's compliance with regulations concerning legal and practice matters and financial and administrative matters.

Office Manager

Andy LunnAndy Lunn BSc(Hons), ACA, CTA
Chartered Tax Advisor since 2006
Chartered Accountant since 1995

Andy has a degree in Chemistry from the University of Nottingham, where he met Alane.

Andy has strong business and financial management skills having trained in audit before moving into the financial services and banking industries where he has worked for the past 25 years including a two year assignment to the USA.

Andy will provide business support to the practice as appropriate.

Get in touch

Thank you for visiting. We’d love to hear from you.

Our prices are available on request; we commit to being fair and transparent with you on all pricing matters.

Everyone's situation is different, so please contact us in order to arrange an initial free consultation to see how we can help. Evening and weekend appointments are available.

Contact Information

Alane Lunn Solicitor
48 Cloverley Road
Ongar, Essex
CM5 9BY

Phone: +44 (0) 1277 362346

Drop Us a Line

We will get back to you asap. Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required.