We have attempted to cover the fees associated with the most common services here. If you want to know fees for a service not covered here, please Contact Us.
We have attempted to cover the fees associated with the most common services here. If you want to know fees for a service not covered here, please Contact Us.
We charge fix fee for residential properties for purchase price less than £500,000.00
| Sr. | Services | Fees (VAT Charged at 20%) |
| 1 | Our fee | £950.00 + VAT |
| 2 | Acting for the lender if applicable | £250.00 + VAT |
| 3 | Fee for land transaction tax return | £75.00+ VAT |
| 4 | Admin charges for bank transfers | £30.00 + VAT |
| 5 | Searches | £300.00 Approximately |
| 6 | Bankruptcy search per name | £3.00 |
| 7 | OS1 per name | £3.90 |
| 8 | AML check | £15 |
If Applicable the following charges:
| 1 | Gift admin fee per giftor | £100.00+VAT |
| 2 | Indemnity arrangement fee | £30.00 +VAT |
Whether buying or selling a property, the stages of the conveyancing transaction can be split into several key stages that often overlap.
Each stage can be split into 6 key areas.
First and foremost, you will be provided with a quote and we will get in touch in order to confirm instructions. Upon receipt of your instructions, we will issue our welcome pack providing key information such as client care letters, terms and conditions of business. We will also seek to obtain key documentation and information from you such as; a questionnaire for your source of funds, authority forms, transaction information forms. We will also request ID’s and two proofs of address. If you are selling a property, we will also request your mortgage account details so that we may obtain a redemption statement and we will also forward property information forms for you to complete and return. If you are selling a leasehold property, we will also request sales packs from the management company and the freeholder.
If you are purchasing a property, we will also request proof of funds such as bank statements and payslips that will confirm your source of funds.
Upon receipt of all of this information, we will get in touch with the relevant parties to the transactions, these would be your mortgage brokers, estate agents and other side’s legal representatives to confirm our instructions.
If we are assisting with your purchase, we will request for the draft contract pack from the seller’s legal representatives. We will review this pack and submit our request for search results. Upon receipt of search results, we will raise our enquiries that seek to obtain further information about the property.
Once we receive replies from the seller’s solicitors, we will draft our bespoke report on title for you to read. We will also forward documents that require your signatures. Upon receipt of these documents, we will issue you with a draft invoice and completion statement and carry out any final further source of funds checks before requesting funds from you.
Conversely, for the sale of your property, we will issue the draft contract pack to the buyer’s legal representatives. They will raise enquiries and we will forward same for you to answer. We will assist in removing any legal jargon so that the queries are simplified.
Once draft contracts are approved, we will forward these for your signage along with any pertinent documents that require your signature. The buyer’s solicitors will then report to their client whilst we liaise with all parties related to the transaction in relation to exchange and completion dates.
In the meantime, we will also carry out any final pre-exchange checks such as digital AML checks, bankruptcy searches and official searches against the property.
This is the stage where contracts are finalised and agreed and a completion date is finalised. This is the point where the buyer and seller become legally bound to buy or sell the property. Prior to this stage, there is no binding agreement in place and the buyer can withdraw from the purchase at any time. Once exchange has been finalised, the deposit (usually 10% of the property price) will be used as security for the contract and to ensure that parties complete on the agreed date for completion. If you are purchasing a property, we will also request funds from the lender at this stage.
Upon exchange of contracts, we advise clients to immediately activate their building insurance policies.
This is the stage where you make arrangements for moving in anticipation for completion. In the background, we will be liaising with the lenders to reconfirm that funds will be released in time for the completion date. If you are selling your property, we will also request for confirmation of the outstanding mortgage balance that will be due on the completion date. We will also forward a finalised invoice and completion statement confirming same.
Usually on the completion date, or the day before, we receive the mortgage funds from the lender. We will then remit the completion funds to the seller’s solicitors. Once they receive the funds, completion will be confirmed and the keys to the property will be released to you and you will be able to move into your home. Most transactions “complete” between 12-2pm or as specified within the contract and therefore it is important that you remind your removal company of same.
If you are selling your property:-
Once we receive funds, we will clear all known outstanding balances in respect of the property that you have instructed us to clear, such as outstanding mortgage balances, outstanding service charge and ground rent and deduct our fees before returning any balances to you. We will also forward the legal documentation that you have signed to your buyer’s legal representatives. At this juncture, your instructions will have been completed for the sale.
If you have previously instructed us in respect of filing your Stamp Duty Land Tax return on your behalf, we will complete the tax return. We advise that you instruct us to file this on your behalf, as there is a strict 14 day timeframe to complete the return. However, please note that we are not tax advisors and therefore will only proceed with your instructions and information provided by you.
If the property is Leasehold, we will also notify the freeholder’s and any related parties in respect of a Notice of Transfer and if applicable (charge). We will also forward any other documentation that they may require.
Once the Tax return is filed and upon receipt of the legal documentation from the seller’s legal representatives, we will make an application to Land Registry and inform them of your ownership and confirm any interested parties such as lenders. Land Registry timescales to update the title usually differs and therefore we will advise you accordingly.
Land Registry will then notify us that the application has been accepted and you will then receive the updated title register and any other relevant documentation that we may hold for your property. At this stage, your instructions for the purchase will also have been completed.
Please click on the hyperlinks for further information as to why you should choose us for your sale and purchase transactions.
For all properties above £500,000 we charge fix fee of £.025% of the value of property.
On all our costs we charge vat currently @20%.
All disbursements including stamp duty, land registry fee, searches costs, aml checks etc will be paid by the client.
This estimate will be affected by any difficulties that may arise during the course of the transaction and if that happens, we may have to increase our charges. We will inform in advance before we incur any additional costs and provide you with a revised estimate.
This is a difficult question to answer as it is dependent on many factors. We make every effort to ensure that your matter proceeds and completes as expeditiously as possible. If all goes according to plan we typically advise all clients that most transactions usually take between 8-12 weeks upon receipt of the draft contract pack to reach the post-completion stage.
Timescales can be affected by (but not limited to):
- Issuance of mortgage offer
- Survey results which have an adverse entry
- Title issues such as incorrect entries on Land Registry documentation
- Length of the chain above and whether all parties in the chain are ready, willing and able to complete
- Any adverse entries within the search results that need resolving
(For leasehold transactions)
- Lease extensions/variations
- Issuance of the freeholder sales pack
- Issuance of the management company sales pack otherwise known as answers to LPE1 enquiries
- Replies to enquiries from the management company
Should any circumstances arise which will unduly prolong completion of your matter, we will keep you informed of this along with the reason for the delay and will provide you with a new estimate of the time to complete. However, until contracts are exchanged, these estimates are dependent on the outstanding issues being resolved.
Guideline hourly rates
| Fee earner | Hourly Rate (ex. VAT chargeable at 20%) | ||
| Solicitors and legal executives with over 8 years’ experience |
| ||
| Solicitors and legal executives with over 4 years’ experience |
| ||
| Other solicitors or legal executives and fee earners of equivalent experience | £185 p/h | ||
| Trainee solicitors, paralegals and other fee earners |
|
Guideline hourly rates
| Fee earner | Hourly Rate (ex. VAT chargeable at 20%) | ||
| Solicitors and legal executives with over 8 years’ experience |
| ||
| Solicitors and legal executives with over 4 years’ experience |
| ||
| Other solicitors or legal executives and fee earners of equivalent experience | £244 p/h | ||
| Trainee solicitors, paralegals and other fee earners |
|
We may quote a fixed fee based on our hourly fee earner hourly rates based on an approximation of the number of hours. Generally, it takes between 4-8 hours of work to complete a general application, however this varies. This means that on average costs are between £500 and £6,000 depending on the application.
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