Residential Conveyancing

In residential conveyancing and in some other cases we can agree a fixed fee for the whole case or certain stages in a case. We will be able to give you an indication as to whether your case is suitable for a fixed fee after an initial consultation.

Our fees cover the following work and key stages as set out below.

Stages of the process

The precise stages involved in the purchase of a residential property vary according to the circumstances.

• Take your instructions and give you initial advice
• Check finances are in place to fund 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 mortgage offer with you
• Send 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

The precise stages involved in the purchase of a residential leasehold property vary according to the circumstances.

• Take your instructions and give you initial advice
• Check finances are in place to fund 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 mortgage offer
• Send final contract to you for signature
• Draft Transfer
• Advise you on joint ownership
• Obtain pre-completion searches
• 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

The precise stages involved in the purchase of a residential sale of a property vary according to the circumstances.

STAGE 1 

The Seller’s solicitor obtains a copy of the title to the property and prepares a Contract. The Seller completes the Property Information Forms and a Fixtures and Fittings List.

• The Seller’s solicitor sends the draft Contract, copy title documents, Property Information Forms and Fixtures and Fittings List to the Buyer’s Solicitors. 
• The Buyer’s solicitors raise any additional enquiries which are appropriate, approves the Contract and submit searches. The Buyer should arrange their mortgage application and survey The Seller and Seller’s solicitors deal with any enquiries. 
• The Buyer’s solicitor reports to the Buyer with the Contract to sign. The Seller’s solicitor send the Contract to the Seller to sign 
• Once all enquiries have been dealt with and any mortgage offer issued, contracts are exchanged, the deposit is paid, a date is fixed for completion, and the Seller and Buyer commit themselves to complete the transaction. 
• The Buyer’s solicitor obtains the mortgage money and asks the Buyer for any balance necessary to complete. 
• The sale and purchase is completed. The Buyer’s solicitor pays the balance of the purchase price to the Seller’s solicitor. The Seller moves out. The Buyer moves in. The Buyer’s solicitor pays any Stamp Duty Land Tax due and registers the purchase at H M Land Registry.

The precise stages involved in the purchase of a residential re-mortgage of a  property vary according to the circumstances.

• We will obtain information from the Land Registry relating to your property and from your new mortgage lender about your application.
• Once we have obtained the title information from the Land Registry we will verify this against the information provided by your new lender. At this point we will be in touch to discuss any discrepancies and to talk to you about the next steps. 
• We will contact your existing lender, where applicable, to obtain the amount outstanding on your current mortgage and this will enable us to then request the funds from your new lender. 
• Once we have received all the document required, including your questionnaire, mortgage offer from your new lender and mortgage deed, we will complete our final checks and set a date for completion. At this point we will then request the funds from your new lender.
• On the day of completion we will transfer the funds provided by your new lender to your old lender and/or yourselves. Once this transfer has taken place we will tell you and then send out a completion statement.
• Once you have completed we will complete our post registration formalities, including changing the registration details at the Land Registry. 

Conveyancing Fees

Purchase Fees Freehold Property

Value Added Tax (VAT) 

VAT @ 20% has to be added to our fees and some expenses or disbursements.

£0.00 – £250,000.00	£600.00 plus vat
£250,000.01 – £500,000.00	£700.00 plus vat
£500,000.01 – £750,000.00	£800.00 plus vat
£750,000.01 – £1,000,000.00	£900.00 plus vat
£1,000,000.01 +	£1500.00 plus vat – £2000.00 plus vat

Purchase Fees Leasehold Property

£0.00 – £250,000.00	£600.00 plus vat
£250,000.01 – £500,000.00	£700.00 plus vat
£500,000.01 – £750,000.00	£800.00 plus vat
£750,000.01 – £1,000,000.00.	£900.00 plus vat
£1,000,000.01 +	£1500.00 plus vat – £2000.00 plus vat

Sale Fees Freehold Property

£0.00 – £250,000.00	£600.00 plus vat
£250,000.01 – £500,000.00	£700.00 plus vat
£500,000.01 – £750,000.00	£800.00 plus vat
£750,000.01 – £1,000,000.00.	£900.00 plus vat
£1,000,000.01 +	£1500.00 plus vat – £2000.00 plus vat

Sale Fees Leasehold Property

£0.00 – £250,000.00	£600.00 plus vat
£250,000.01 – £500,000.00	£700.00 plus vat
£500,000.01 – £750,000.00	£800.00 plus vat
£750,000.01 – £1,000,000.00.	£900.00 plus vat
£1,000,000.01 +	£1500.00 plus vat – £2000.00 plus vat

Re-mortgages and Mortgages

£0.00 – £500,000.00	£600.00 plus vat
£500,000.01 – £1,000,000.00.	£900.00 plus vat

Transfer of Equity

£450.00 plus vat

Additional Fees

Completion of Stamp Duty Land Transaction Form	£50.00 plus vat
Acting for Lender (for purchases and re-mortgages only)	£150.00 plus vat
Redemption of each charge (sale only)	£50.00 plus vat
CHAPS transfer (per transaction)	£30.00 plus vat
Drafting a Declaration of Solvency	£90.00 plus vat
Drafting a Deed of Gift	£90.00 plus vat
Dealing with Unregistered Title	£150.00 plus vat
Help to Buy Purchases	£50.00 plus vat
Help to Buy ISA	£50.00 plus vat
Dealing with an Auction Transaction	£750.00 plus vat
CHAPS Fee	£12.00 vat not applicable
AML	£9.95 plus vat per person

Disbursements

Lawyer checker	£12.00 no vat applicable
Official copy documents (e.g., title register, lease etc).	£3.00 per document vat not applicable
Bankruptcy	£2.00 per person vat not applicable
OS1/OS2 (Land Registry Search)	£3.00 vat not applicable
Local Searches (dependent on location of property)	£150.00 – £450.00 approximately vat is applicable
Land Registry Fee	£20.00 to £910.00* vat not applicable

*Land Registry fees are payable on the registration of an application to amend the Register held at Land Registry. Please click on the following link to calculate the fee payable: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hm-land-registry-registration-services-fees

Additional costs and disbursements that may apply

Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT)

Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) may be payable when you purchase a property, extend a lease or where you are transferring a property to someone else (known as a ‘transfer of equity.’)  This will depend on the amount of consideration being paid for the transaction. Please click on the following link which will lead you to the SDLT calculator on the HMRC website to check to see whether SDLT is payable on your transaction and if so how much: https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/calculate-stamp-duty-land-tax/#/intro

Leasehold Sales

A leasehold pack will need to be obtained from the Landlord / Management Company and they will charge a fee for this. We will advise you of these costs once they are confirmed. Licence to Assign fees may be payable to the Landlord/ Management Company should a Licence be required under the terms of the lease and we will confirm the costs once the information has been provided.

Leasehold Purchases

In leasehold transactions fees will be payable to the Landlord /Management company after completion as prescribed in the lease and the leasehold pack(s) which the seller will provide. These include but are not limited to: Deed of Covenant, Notice of Assignment and Charge, Compliance Certificate and Company Membership fee.  These fees will be confirmed as soon as the information is received and detailed within the pack.

Leasehold Transfer of Equity / Remortgage

A notice of Charge or Assignment will need to be served on the Landlord / Management Company following completion where there has been a transfer of equity or a re-mortgage.

A Deed of Covenant may also need to be entered into if prescribed within the lease. These fees will be confirmed once the information has been obtained.

Indemnity Insurance

If, during the course of your transaction, circumstances may arise where you will require an indemnity insurance policy, e.g. due to lack of building regulations approval for works carried out, breach of unknown restrictive covenant, ‘no search’ indemnity or some other issue, then we will advise you of the cost of the policy at the appropriate time.

Timescales

We will always do our best to work to your particular time frame, but this is dependent on the various circumstances and difficult to set out due to the many factors.

Typically transactions take between 6 to 8 weeks for a sale or purchase to proceed to completion depending on the length of any chain involved. This timescale applies from the date of receipt of the draft contract papers for a purchase and the issuing of the draft contract papers for a sale. We have broken down the sale and purchase timescales below.

A re-mortgage or transfer of equity transaction should take between 3- 4 weeks.

Purchases

Exchange of Contracts:  
Approximately 4 – 6 weeks from receipt of draft contract papers and mortgage offer (if applicable)

Completion:
This can vary from simultaneous with exchange of contracts or 1 week to 4 weeks after exchange. In some cases, the parties may agree on a longer period between exchange and completion.

Post completion formalities:
These are concluded within 14 days to 30 days which includes filing the SDLT Return at HMRC, payment of SDLT, lodging the application to register the new ownership at Land Registry and dealing with any other post completion formalities, e.g., serving notices etc on the Landlord / Management Company for a leasehold property.

Sales

Exchange of Contracts:  
Approximately 4 – 6 weeks approximately from issuing the draft contract papers.

Completion:  
This can vary from simultaneous with exchange of contracts or 1 week to 4 weeks after exchange. In some cases, the parties may agree on a longer period between exchange and completion.

Post Completion Formalities:  
On completion any mortgage(s) registered against the property will be redeemed, agent’s invoice will be settled, and any sale proceeds are sent to clients on the day of completion or the following working day.

Who will be dealing with your matter?

Our Property Team consists of Partners and Solicitors. Sundeep Singh Bamrah who is the supervisor and Jasmine Sawali will deal with all matter and details can be found at Our Team page for details of the members of our Property Department.