Purchase of Residential Property
Our fees are usually dealt with on a fixed fee basis for residential transactions and regularly reviewed to ensure they remain competitive and offer you the best value for your money. A full quotation will always be provided at the outset of any transaction. Matters are reviewed regularly and any developments which may incur additional costs will be discussed with you promptly.
Our fees vary depending upon certain factors such as:
• Whether the property is freehold or leasehold,
• Whether the property is a New Build,
• If the matter is unusually complex.
You can obtain a quotation using our Online Conveyancing Calculator by clicking here. This will give you an indication of the costs involved including our fees and any additional disbursements (costs related to your transaction which are payable to third parties such as HM Land Registry/Management Companies). Please note that we cannot confirm the cost of certain disbursements until we are proceeding with your transaction (such as if the property is leasehold there may be notice fees payable to the freeholder upon completion, these will not be confirmed until we receive the Contract Documentation).
Most transactions will attract Stamp Duty Land Tax (for purchases in England) or Land Transaction Tax (for purchases in Wales). You can calculate the amount of Stamp Duty payable on completion of your transaction on the Government website by clicking here. We will review this and advise you of this cost at the outset of the transaction.
Our Legal fees quoted will include the following;
• Taking your instructions
• Liaising with your mortgage advisor or lenders solicitors (if applicable)
• Receiving and reviewing contract documentation and advising upon it
• Obtaining searches and advising upon them
• Making necessary enquiries with the Sellers Solicitors and obtaining any additional relevant information/documentation
• Reviewing your mortgage offer and advising you upon the lenders conditions
• Reporting to your mortgage lender
• Reporting to you on the important elements of the property and providing you with all relevant documentation for signature
• Liaising with your Sellers Solicitors and Estate Agents to agree a completion date
• Providing you with a full financial statement
• Exchanging Contracts and Completing the purchase
• Submitting your Stamp Duty return and making payment of any SDLT
• Dealing with the registration of the property at HM Land Registry.
Sale of Residential Property
Our fees are usually dealt with on a fixed fee basis for residential transactions and regularly reviewed to ensure they remain competitive and offer you the best value for your money. A full quotation will always be provided at the outset of any transaction. Matters are reviewed regularly and any developments which may incur additional costs will be discussed with you promptly.
Our fees vary depending upon certain factors such as:
• Whether the property is freehold or leasehold,
• Whether the property is a New Build,
• If the matter is unusually complex.
You can obtain a quotation using our Online Conveyancing Calculator by clicking here. This will give you an indication of the costs involved including our fees and any additional disbursements (costs related to your transaction which are payable to third parties such as HM Land Registry/Management Companies). Please note that we cannot confirm the cost of certain disbursements until we are proceeding with your transaction (such as if the property is leasehold we will be required to provide a Management Pack, the cost of which we will confirm with the Management Company/Freeholder as soon as possible).
Our Legal fees quoted will include the following:
• Taking your instructions,
• Sending you the relevant protocol documentation for completion,
• Preparation of a Contract Pack,
• Answering any necessary enquiries from the purchaser’s solicitors,
• Sending you the contract documentation for signature,
• Liaising with Buyer’s Solicitors and Estate Agents to agree a completion date,
• Exchanging and completing the purchase,
• Obtaining redemption statements from your lender and redeeming any remaining mortgage,
• Providing you with a financial statement and sending you the balance of the sale proceeds.
Remortgage of a Residential Property
Our fees are usually dealt with on a fixed fee basis for residential transactions and regularly reviewed to ensure they remain competitive and offer you the best value for your money. A full quotation will always be provided at the outset of any transaction. Matters are reviewed regularly and any developments which may incur additional costs will be discussed with you promptly.
You can obtain a quotation using our Online Conveyancing Calculator by clicking here. This will give you an indication of the costs involved including our fees and any additional disbursements (costs related to your transaction which are payable to third parties such as HM Land Registry/Management Companies).
Our Legal fees cover the work required to complete a standard remortgage of a property you already own as follows:
• Taking your instructions,
• Receiving your mortgage offer,
• Obtaining search indemnity insurance or carrying out searches as required by your lender,
• Obtaining any necessary information,
• Going through the mortgage conditions,
• Reporting to your lender,
• Complying with any restrictions on your registered title,
• Sending the relevant documentation to you for signature,
• Obtaining a redemption figure (if necessary) from your current lender,
• Providing you with a financial statement,
• Applying for monies from your new lender,
• Competing your remortgage,
• Dealing with the application for registration at HM Land Registry.
Selling your property
Initial instructions:
If you have an estate agent, they will provide a memorandum of sale, including details of your buyers and their solicitors who we will then contact. Our client care letter provides details of the conveyancing procedure. It explains the conveyancing process and it will also confirm our conveyancing fees.
Draft contract preparation: We prepare a draft contract and supporting legal pack to send to the buyers solicitors. This will include evidence of your ownership of the property. We will ask you to complete a property information form and a fixtures, fittings and contents form and sometimes an overriding interests questionnaire (which ask questions relating to your property not covered by the property information form).
Once the draft contract has been approved by the buyers solicitors, we will ask you to sign the contract which we will retain on our file pending exchange of contracts.
Your buyers solicitors will carry out all necessary searches against the property and may raise further enquiries with us, which we will discuss with you if necessary.
Prior to exchange of contracts the buyers, if they are getting a mortgage, will need confirmation of the mortgage offer. Their solicitors will receive mortgage instructions together with a mortgage pack containing the mortgage deed and other relevant documentation.
Exchange of contracts:
Once all pre-contract enquiries have been dealt with and the buyers solicitors have completed their searches, contracts are exchanged. The transaction is then legally binding. On exchange of contracts a completion date will have been agreed. If there are several parties in the “chain” of the property transaction the completion date may be several weeks later depending on each party’s circumstances. The buyers solicitors prepare the final transfer deed which we review for approval and then arrange for you to sign.
The buyers solicitors carry out their final searches shortly prior to completion and apply to draw down the mortgage advance monies from the mortgage company.
Completion:
On the day of completion the buyer becomes the new legal owner of the property and you release the keys to the buyer, or your selling agent.
The buyers solicitors remit the completion monies to ourselves through the banking system directly from their bank. We use those monies to pay off any mortgage you may have, pay the estate agents fees and any other liabilities you have instructed us to discharge. We also deduct our own fees, VAT and disbursements.
We send your title deeds and the executed transfer deed to the buyers solicitors. They then attend to registration of their clients title to the property at HM Land Registry.
An average transaction takes in the region of seven to twelve weeks, it can be shorter or longer. The time it takes a transaction to complete very much depends on the nature of the transaction, for example whether the property is freehold, leasehold, has registered or unregistered title and whether a “chain” is involved – that is numerous parties in a chain of conveyancing transactions.
How much will it cost?:
If we have provided a fixed fee quote, this will be the price you pay. Otherwise, please refer to our conveyancing calculator which you can use to provide an initial estimate.
If you are buying a property
Initial instructions:
Once we have received your instructions to act on your behalf and if you are using an estate agent, we will normally receive the memorandum of sale from the agent which will provide details of the sellers solicitors. We will then contact them to request a draft contract for approval. By then you should have received our client care letter which explains the process of buying a property and what you need to do, along with details of our fees and terms of business.
Draft contract package:
The sellers solicitors will send us a draft contract and supporting legal pack which should include all relevant information regarding the property. We will review these and check the title of the seller to the property. Prior to exchange of contracts we will on any restrictions, provisions or other matters relating to the property which you may need to be aware of. We raise pre-contract enquiries with the sellers solicitors and report back to you should we have any queries.
Searches:
Once we have received sufficient information about the property from the sellers solicitors we submit all requisite searches (for example a local authority search and a drainage search). The local authority search only provides information regarding the property and not neighbouring properties, although it will provide vital information such as development plans for the immediate neighbouring area. We will undertake other searches that we consider necessary based on information which you provide, such as a flood risk search.
Mortgage offer:
Prior to exchange of contracts, we need confirmation of your mortgage offer.
Our firm is on the “panel” of most mortgage lenders and if so therefore we would act on their behalf in arranging completion of the mortgage and other related formalities.
The mortgage lender will have undertaken a valuation of the property to establish that the property represents sufficient security for the loan.
If you are not obtaining a mortgage we would advise you to commission a detailed private survey, in which regard we can provide further advice.
Proceeding to exchange of contracts
Once we have received replies to our pre-contract enquiries and our searches, together with mortgage instructions from your lender, we will provide a report on the property and arrange for you to sign the contract, which we will hold on file pending exchange of contracts. Once a completion date has been agreed, contracts will be exchanged, at which stage the transaction becomes legally binding. As this point it is normal for the buyer to pay a deposit, that is normally 10% of the purchase price. Sometimes a reduced deposit is agreed, for example if you have a related sale and you wish to utilise the deposit paid by your buyers, which we can normally use as your deposit on the purchase.
Proceeding to completion:
We will draft the transfer deed (the document which transfers ownership of the property) for approval by the sellers solicitors. We will send you a financial statement which will set out the monies to be received and paid by our firm and any monies we may need from you including our fees on completion.
Completion:
Completion is the date that the property becomes legally yours and you move.
If you have a related sale, we will utilise the monies received on the sale and from your mortgage company and electronically transfer the completion balance to the sellers solicitors bank. Once they have received funds completion will take place and the property keys will be released to you.
Post completion:
Following completion we will complete any necessary stamp duty land tax return and pay the stamp duty land tax. We will then register your title to the property at HM Land Registry and following completion of registration send you a copy of your Title Information document.
How long will it take?:
Buying a property often takes between eight to twelve weeks, but can take less or more time. If there are a number of parties involved in a “chain” we are obviously dependent on the efficiency of those acting on their behalf.
How much will it cost?:
With a fixed fee service we will have provided you with a quote and that is the price you pay. Otherwise, please refer to our conveyancing calculator should you require an initial estimate.
Remortgaging your property
We will ask you to complete a questionnaire to provide information and documentation relating to your property so that we can contact your current mortgage lender to obtain an initial redemption statement (the amount it costs to pay off your mortgage).
Once you receive your mortgage offer and we have received mortgage instructions from your lender we will review the mortgage offer on your behalf and advise you of any conditions that you need to be aware of. We will send you the mortgage deed for you to sign and return to us.
We will check your title to the property in order that we can provide a report on title to the lender, including dealing with any issues relating to your property that may have arisen on the remortgage survey.
We will then discuss a completion date with you and in readiness undertake final pre-completion searches before drawing down the mortgage advance monies and requesting a final redemption statement from your current lender.
On the day of completion we will discharge your current mortgage from monies provided by your new lender and provide you with a financial statement showing any amount that is either due from you or payable to you, to include our fees, VAT, disbursements and any liabilities that you have asked us to discharge.
Following completion of the remortgage we will register the lender’s mortgage at the Land Registry and in due course send you a copy of your Title Information document.
How long does a remortgage take?
On average, it takes four to five weeks to complete a remortgage but the transaction can take less or more time depending on the circumstances. Normally, once a mortgage offer has been received, completion takes place relatively quickly – that is, within two to three weeks. Sometimes other factors affect the length of time it takes to complete the remortgage, for example if you have a leasehold title or an unregistered title to your property.
How much will it cost?
If we have provided you with a fixed fee quote, that will be the amount you pay. Otherwise, please refer to our calculator.