Charges

Most notary’s fees are broadly equivalent to those of a high street solicitor. As a rule of thumb this is about £130 to £150 per hour plus VAT. At the present time I don’t charge VAT. In exceptional cases, where particular urgency or skill is required, a notary will charge an additional fee. Provided that the document to be notarised is already prepared I can usually agree a fixed fee beforehand. Examples of my charges are shown below.

There may be additional charges for ‘legalisation’ or ‘consularisation’. Legalisation means having the document stamped by the UK Foreign Office in London with a stamp called an ‘apostille’. This is required in most European countries and some commonwealth countries. Some countries, particularly those in the Middle East,  may also require consularisation which means an additional stamp is attached by its consulate in the UK.

The UK Foreign Office currently charge £27 per document. Most states in the United States and most commonwealth countries do not usually require legalisation although India and Pakistan may require legalisation and consularisation for commercial documents.

The fees of consulates and the time they take vary considerably. The Foreign Office can take up to three weeks to process an application sent by post. I do have cost effective arrangements with another London notary to be able to obtain over the counter stampings from the Foreign Office and London based consulates.

Typical Charges

These are charges based upon typical transactions based on one or two persons signing. For Europe please remember there will be additional costs for legalisation at the UK Foreign Office.

Unites States sales, purchases and mortgages of property

Due to the extremely large amount of documentation usually required to be notarised in the United States, the charge is typically £200

Bulgaria, Romania and other Eastern European countries sales, purchases and mortgages

For powers of attorney and the ancillary money laundering documents    £160

Spain, France, Portugal and other Western European Countries

Powers of attorney £130