We will always provide an estimate of our legal fees for the purchase of a residential property, including disbursements, before we start work for you.
Key Stages
When you are buying a property, the key stages of a transaction are set out below. We will:
- Set you up as a client on our systems, take instructions from you, and agree a scope of work for your transaction, which will be set out in a client care letter to you
- Liaise with you about how you are financing the purchase, in particular, if you are obtaining mortgage funding
- Review a contract pack, check title to the property and raise any further necessary enquiries with the seller’s solicitors
- Submit searches and review the results
- Prepare a report on title for you in respect of the property based on the results of our title due diligence
- Negotiate and agree the sale contract and transfer deed (which we will draft on a purchase) plus any other deeds or documents required
- Exchange contracts
- Comply with all requirements of your lender, including preparing a certificate of title, and confirming that funds will be transferred to us ahead of the completion date
- Complete the purchase
- Take care of all post-completion matters, including submitting an SDLT return to HMRC and applying to the Land Registry to register the transfer and mortgage, and notifying you and your mortgage lender once this has been completed
You should be aware of the services that we will not carry out for you:
- We do not advise on the value of the property
- We will not physically inspect your property
- We will not provide any advice on any tax implications of the transaction beyond informing you how much stamp duty land tax will be due on completion. You should be aware that in more complex transactions, you should take specialist SDLT advice if you consider it necessary
- We will not provide any planning or building regulations compliance advice
- We will not provide any advice in respect of any environmental liability at the property
This list is not exhaustive, and we will let you know of anything else we will not be able to provide advice to you on.
Our Fees
Our fees are based on the value of the property, although there will be additional fees payable dependent on the transaction we are being asked to advise on. Below is a list of the fees we will charge on your purchase.
Base Fee
| Value of Property | Fee | 20% VAT | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| £0 – £500,000 | £1,600 – £1,800 | £320 – £360 | £1920 – £2160 |
| £500,001 – £1,000,000 | £1,900 – £2,100 | £380 – £420 | £2280 – £2520 |
| £1,000,001 – £1,500,000 | £2,200 – £2,400 | £440 – £480 | £2640 – £2880 |
| £1,500,001 – £2,000,000 | £2,500 – £2,700 | £500 – £540 | £3000 – £3240 |
| Above £2,000,000 | On Request |
Likely Disbursements
A ‘disbursement’ is expenditure incurred in order to progress your matter. Search Fees and Land Registry fees are examples of disbursements. We endeavour to inform you in advance of the disbursements you should expect to pay during your matter and why they are necessary; if this changes we will let you know and explain why. Disbursements are billed at cost and once paid to the relevant third party, are usually non-refundable .
| Disbursement | Fee | 20% VAT | Total | Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Land Registry Searches | Variable | Variable | Variable | The searches will depend on the nature and location of the property, as well as your mortgage lender’s requirements. We will advise you of the cost before submitting the searches but they typically fall in the £200 – £400 range (£240 – £480 inc. VAT). |
| Bankruptcy Searches | £6.50 per person | 1.30 | £7.80 | We will conduct bankruptcy searches against each seller prior to completion. |
| Priority Search | £7.33 per registered title | 1.47 | £8.80 | We will submit a priority search prior to completion. This will be to ensure there have been no changes to the title since or report on title to you. The priority search also provides you with the security of knowing that no other applications can be registered against the property until your purchase has been registered. |
| Land Charges Search | £2 per person | 0.40 | £2.40 | These will only be required where the property is unregistered. |
| Stamp Duty Land Tax | Variable | Variable | Variable | How much SDLT you pay on completion will depend on your status as a buyer and the value of the property you are buying. You can use the HMRC SDLT Calculator to check how much this will be. |
| Land Registry registration and/or mortgage transfer | Variable | Exempt | Variable | The fee payable to the Land Registry for is dependent on the value of the property. You can use the Land Registry Fee Scale to check how much this will be. |
| Expedited Postage | £8.75 – £10.00 | £1.75 – £2.00 | £10.50 – £12.00 | Used when a faster or trackable delivery service is needed |
Factors that may increase costs
Your matter may attract additional fees in the range of £200 to £750 (£240 to £900 inc. 20% VAT). For example, when your matter involves a new build property, help or right to buy, indemnity insurance or a repossession. This is not an exhaustive list and you will be advised when further fees apply, how much they are and why.
Here are some further examples of situations that can arise during a property matter that will require additional work and therefore, increase our fees:
- If there is a defect in your title that requires remediation before completion
- If a trust deed is required in respect of ownership of the property
- If your mortgage lender instructs their own solicitors rather than instructs this firm to act for them as well as you
- If your mortgage lender has more complex requirements that require additional work on our part
- If the lease requirements at the property are more complex than normal. For example, if the lease needs to be extended, or a new lease entirely is required
Abortive Fees
If your matter unfortunately aborts, fees will still be payable for the work we have done. It does not matter who is at fault or the reasons that led to the termination. For example, if the seller decides to take the house you were intending to purchase off the market or to sell it to someone else (known as gazumping), we will still charge you for the work we have undertaken up to that point, even though you had no control, nor responsibility, for the situation. Equally, if something leads you to withdraw from a purchase, such as a poor surveyor’s report or an unexpected change to your mortgage offer, you will still be charged for all the work we have carried out prior to this.
Timescales
How long it takes to complete your transaction is difficult to anticipate and is typically dependent on a variety of factors that may not always be within our control. Here is a list of factors that impact on how quickly a transaction takes to proceed:
- Whether the property is freehold or leasehold. Freehold transactions tend to be faster to complete. For leasehold properties, there is more title due diligence required, and it may take some time for landlords or management companies to provide a management sales pack
- Whether you are getting a mortgage. Mortgage lenders tend to have their own list of requirements that must be satisfied before we can proceed to completion, and so transactions which involve a new mortgage tend to take a little longer
- How long your chain is. If the transaction is dependent on a lot of other transactions exchanging and completing at the same time, this does require a degree of coordination on the part of the solicitors acting for the various parties, and this can mean your transaction takes a bit longer
- How quickly the searches come back. Many of the desktop searches for property purchases come back very quickly. There are however some searches like a local search that can take some time to come back depending on the local authority responsible for supplying it
- How efficient the other parties involved in the transaction are. Rest assured that we will progress your matter as quickly and efficiently as possible, but we have noticed in some matters that other parties involved (other side’s solicitors, mortgage lenders, management companies) tend not to move as quickly
- How complex your property’s title is, and whether any additional work is required as a result
Typically purchases take around two to three months to get to completion from first instruction
What are your next steps?
Please get in touch with us. We look forward to helping you.
Chartered Legal Executive
Senior Conveyancer
