Our fees set out below cover all of the work reasonably required to complete the purchase of your new owner occupied home at a price below £500,000, including dealing with registration at the Land Registry and dealing with the payment of Stamp Duty Land Tax (Stamp Duty) if the property is in England, or Land Transaction Tax (Land Tax) if the property you wish to buy is in Wales.
Our fees and disbursements
- Legal fee £1075.00 plus VAT
- Customer due diligence fee (CDD) £25 plus VAT for first client and £15 plus VAT per additional client
- Search fees £250.00
- Electronic money transfer fee £35.00 plus VAT (each)
- File archiving fee £10 plus VAT
- Land Registry fee £100.00 (variable - disbursement not subject to VAT)
- Land Registry search fee £3.00 plus VAT per title
- Bankruptcy Search £2.00 plus VAT per name
- VAT payable £255.40 (will vary depending on CDD fee payable)
Estimated total: £1750.40 (will vary depending on CDD fee payable)
Further anticipated Disbursements*
- Notice of Transfer fee – This fee if chargeable is set out in the lease. Often the fee is between £1 – 250.00.
- Notice of Charge fee (if the property is to be mortgaged) – This fee is set out in the lease. Often the fee is between £1 - £250.00.
- Deed of Covenant fee – This fee is provided by the management company for the property and can be difficult to estimate. Often it is between £1 – 250.00.
- Certificate of Compliance fee - To be confirmed upon receipt of the lease, as can range between £1 – 250.00.
*These fees vary from property to property and can on occasion be significantly more than the ranges given above. The figures estimated are plus VAT. We can give you an accurate figure once we have sight of your specific documents.
You should also be aware that ground rent and service charge are likely to apply throughout your ownership of the property. We will confirm the ground rent and the anticipated service charge as soon as this we receive this information.
If you are taking a mortgage to assist with your purchase and you are using a non-mainstream lender, or your borrowing is in any way non-standard (for example you are obtaining funds from a third party, a buy to let mortgage or bridging finance) our charges will be higher and a tailored estimate will be provided on request.
If your purchase price is between £500,001.00 and £750,000.00, we will generally charge an additional fee of £150 including VAT and if your purchase price is between £750,001.00 and £1,000,000.00, we will generally charge an additional fee of £500.00.
If your purchase price is above £1 million, our charges will be higher and a tailored estimate will be provided on request.
If you ask for your matter to be dealt with by a partner in the firm or a solicitor consultant an uplift of 25% will generally apply to our estimated fees.
Our estimate assumes that :
- You co-operate in promptly providing instructions and documents we may request from you and that a reasonable level of contact takes place between us (we define reasonable contact as our spending no more than one hour dealing with your telephone calls, emails and letters over the course of your transaction
- We can easily confirm your identity and verify your source of funds and / or you are using a mainstream lender
- There are no linked transactions and all monies to be used in the transaction come from you personally and / or your mainstream lender
- You lender (if you have one) applies no special conditions to your borrowing
- The property is not in London
- The legal title of the property you are buying is not defective and no part of the property comprises unregistered land
- Any necessary building regulations or planning permissions are in place
Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as Land Registry fees. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.
If your purchase does not complete, we reserve the right to charge you a percentage of our estimated legal fee for the work we have undertaken. You are referred to the stages of the process below. We will charge you up to 25%, on opening your file and beginning correspondence, 25% to 50% if we have prepared or received contract papers and have started to deal with enquiries, 50% to 75%, if we have completed all enquiries and the matter is otherwise ready for exchange of contracts, 75% to 100%, if contracts have been exchanged. Please note that if any search or money transfer fees have become due or disbursements paid out, they will be payable in full
Stamp Duty or Land Tax (on purchase)
This depends on the purchase price of your property and this firm does not provide tax advice. You can calculate the amount you will need to pay by using HMRC's website or if the property is located in Wales by using the Welsh Revenue Authority's website here..
How long will my house purchase take?
How long it will take from your offer being accepted until you can move in to your house will depend on a number of factors. The average process takes between 6-12 weeks.
It can be quicker or slower, depending on the parties in the chain. For example, if you are a first time buyer, purchasing a complete new build property without a mortgage, it could take less than 4 weeks. However, if you are buying a leasehold property that requires for example an extension of the lease, this can take significantly longer, possibly between 3 and 6 months. In such, a situation additional charges would also apply.
Stages of the process
The precise stages involved in the purchase of a residential property vary according to the circumstances. However, we set out below the key stages of the conveyancing process:
- Take your instructions, provide initial advice and send you our client care pack
- Confirm your identity
- Check finances are in place to fund your purchase and contact lender's solicitors if needed
- Receive and advise on contract documents
- Carry out searches
- Obtain further planning documentation if required
- Make any necessary enquiries of seller's solicitor
- Give you advice on all documents and information received
- Go through conditions of any mortgage offer with you
- Send the final contract to you for signature
- Agree completion date (date from which you own the property)
- Exchange contracts and notify you that this has happened
- Arrange for all monies needed to be received from lender and you
- Complete purchase
- Deal with payment of Stamp Duty/Land Tax
- Deal with application for registration at Land Registry
A profile of all of our residential conveyancing staff is available on this website via the links below:
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