Our Conveyancing Fee Scale for Residential Property Purchases

Please note that all fees quoted are exclusive of VAT

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 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

Extra Fee Factors

Extra	Fee
Auction	£300
Buy to Let	£300
Leasehold	£300
Unregistered title	Variable
Help to Buy	£300
Mortgage	£100
New Build	£150
Right to Buy	£200
Shared Ownership	£175
Repossession	£200
Lease Extension	Variable
Listed Building	Variable
Intermediate Lease	Variable
Indemnity Insurance	£100
UK Company	£100
Same Day Payment	£25

Likely Disbursements

Disbursement	Fee	Information
Searches	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.
Bankruptcy Searches	£2 per person	We will conduct bankruptcy searches against each seller prior to completion.
Priority Search	£3 per registered title	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	These will only be required where the property is unregistered.
Stamp Duty Land Tax	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 Fee	Variable	The fee payable to the Land Registry for registration of the transfer and mortgage is dependent on the value of the property. You can use the Land Registry Fee Scale to check how much this will be.

Factors that may increase costs

In some circumstances, there will be additional factors affecting your sale that will require an additional fee from you for us to deal with on your behalf. Here are some examples:

• 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

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.