Sale of a Freehold property
Legal Fees
Each fee is tailored to the individual property and particular requirements of your sale. As no property or circumstance is exactly the same we are unable to give you a realistic estimate of costs until we have all the details of your proposed transaction. We can however give you a range of costs.
Our fees for a straight forward sale range from £795 plus VAT to 0.01% of the value of the property for properties selling for £1,000,000 or over subject to a minimum fee of £1500 plus VAT. These figures may vary depending upon the complexities of the transaction. We will give you a bespoke cost estimate at the start of your transaction based on the information that you provide, the features of the property and the timescales involved.
Disbursements
Disbursements are costs related to your matter that we have to pay to a third party to enable your transaction to proceed.
This list is not exhaustive as some payments are not readily available until we have received the contract documentation (more particularly leasehold transactions)
- Official Copy Entries £3 per document. If your title has several documents filed within your given title number we will have to obtain each document.
- Estate Management fees (freehold) or Leasehold/Assignment Sales Pack can range from £90 - £600 pending upon who manages your property.
- Licence to Assigns if applicable (leasehold) can range from £90.00 - £400 again depending on who the Freeholders Solicitors are.
- Bank Transfer Fees - £35 plus VAT
- Identification Administration Fee - £12.50 plus VAT
What our work entails and key stages
The work will entail:
- Taking your instructions
- Liaising with you, the mortgagee (if necessary), the purchasers’ solicitors and estate agents;
- Downloading your Title and associated filed documents from the Land Registry
- Obtaining your original deeds if available;
- Preparing the contract documentation for the Buyers’ Solicitors
- Helping you to satisfy any additional enquiries raised by the Buyer
- Approving any amendments to the terms of the contract of sale including any deposit, Completion date and price payable for chattels;
- Obtaining a mortgage redemption figure;
- Exchanging contracts on your sale and accepting the deposit on your behalf; at this stage you will be committed to the move;
- Upon completion accepting the balance of the sale monies for your property;
- Redeeming your present mortgage and obtaining the necessary discharge form for the Land Registry (this removes the mortgage entry from the title)
- Paying the estate agents fees from the proceeds;
- If necessary, paying any arrears of service charges or ground rent
- Providing you with any monies due from the sale.
Who will look after my transaction?
Please refer to “our People” on the website. Each fee earner has an experienced legal assistant who is always readily available to help you with your matter.
How long with my transaction take?
Timeframes are extremely hard to gauge as each chain can vary significantly. The chain can only go as fast as the slowest link in the chain. The average freehold sale takes between 6 to 10 weeks if there are no unforeseen circumstances. Sometimes the sale can take significantly more or less time. We will of course keep you updated as to the progress of your transaction.
Sale of a Leasehold property
Legal Fees
The costs of a leasehold property are usually higher than the costs for a freehold property. This is because there is significantly more work involved with a leasehold property. Each fee is tailored to the individual property and particular requirements of your sale. As no property or circumstance is exactly the same we are unable to give you a realistic estimate of costs until we have all the details of your proposed transaction. We can however give you a range of costs.
Our fees for a typical leasehold sale range from £1,045 plus VAT to £1,245 plus VAT of the value of the property for properties selling up to £1,000,000 and 0.01% of the value of the property over £1,000,000 subject to a minimum fee of £1500 plus VAT. These figures may vary depending upon the complexities of the transaction. We will give you a bespoke cost estimate at the start of your transaction based on the information that you provide, the features of the property and the timescales involved.
Disbursements
Disbursements are costs related to your matter that we have to pay to a third party to enable your transaction to proceed.
This list is not exhaustive as some payments are not readily available until we have received the contract documentation (more particularly leasehold transactions)
- Official Copy Entries £3 per document. If your title has several documents filed within your given title number we will have to obtain each document.
- Estate Management fees (freehold) or Leasehold/Assignment Sales Pack can range from £90 - £600 pending upon who manages your property.
- Licence to Assign if applicable (leasehold) can range from £90.00 - £400 again depending on who the Freeholders Solicitors are.
- Bank Transfer Fees - £35 plus VAT
- Identification Administration Fee - £12.50 plus VAT
What our work entails and key stages
The work will entail:
- Taking your instructions
- Liaising with you, the mortgagee (if necessary), the purchasers’ solicitors and estate agents;
- Downloading your Title and associated filed documents from the Land Registry
- Obtaining your original deeds if available;
- Preparing the contract documentation for the Buyers’ Solicitors
- Obtaining the leasehold sales pack from the Management Company or Freeholder
- Helping you to satisfy any additional enquiries raised by the Buyer
- Approving any amendments to the terms of the contract of sale including any deposit, Completion date and price payable for chattels;
- Obtaining a mortgage redemption figure;
- Exchanging contracts on your sale and accepting the deposit on your behalf; at this stage you will be committed to the move;
- Upon completion accepting the balance of the sale monies for your property;
- Redeeming your present mortgage and obtaining the necessary discharge form for the Land Registry (this removes the mortgage entry from the title)
- Paying the estate agents fees from the proceeds;
- If necessary, paying any arrears of service charges or ground rent
- Providing you with any monies due from the sale.
Who will look after my transaction?
Please refer to “our People” on the website. Each fee earner has an experienced legal assistant who is always readily available to help you with your matter.
How long with my transaction take?
Timeframes are extremely hard to gauge as each chain can vary significantly. The chain can only go as fast as the slowest link in the chain. The average leasehold sale takes between 8 to 12 weeks if there are no unforeseen circumstances. Sometimes the sale can take significantly more or less time. We will of course keep you updated as to the progress of your transaction.
Purchase of a Freehold property
Legal Fees
Each fee is tailored to the individual property and particular requirements of your purchase. As no property or circumstance is exactly the same we are unable to give you a realistic estimate of costs until we have all the details of your proposed transaction. We can however give you a range of costs.
Our fees for a purchase of a freehold property with no complexities range from £895 plus VAT to 0.01% of the value of the property for properties £1,000,000 or over subject to a minimum fee of £1500 plus VAT. These figures may vary depending upon the complexities of the transaction. We will give you a bespoke cost estimate at the start of your transaction based on the information that you provide, the features of the property and the timescales involved.
Disbursements
Disbursements are costs related to your matter that we have to pay to a third party to enable your transaction to proceed.
This list is not exhaustive as some payments are not readily available until we have received the contract documentation.
- Searches approximately £350 plus VAT
- Land Registry Fee from £135 depending upon the value of the property
- Bank Transfer Fees - £35 plus VAT
- Identification Administration Fee - £12.50 plus VAT
Stamp Duty Land Tax
Your stamp duty liability will depend upon your personal circumstances (first time buyer, second property, company purchasing etc). If you have any queries regarding your liability please contact us or refer to HMRC’s website: https://tax.service.gov.uk/calculate-stamp-duty-land-tax/
How long with my transaction take?
Timeframes are extremely hard to gauge as each chain can vary significantly. The chain can only go as fast as the slowest link in the chain. We usually say 6-10 weeks on a freehold with no problems within a chain and anything from 8-16 weeks on a leasehold. We will of course keep you updated as to the progress of your transaction.
The work will entail:
- Taking your instructions
- Checking your funds are in place
- Liaising with you, the mortgagee (if necessary), the seller’s solicitors and estate agents.
- Ensuring the seller has good title;
- Agreeing the terms of the contract, including any deposit, completion date and price payable for chattels;
- Making preliminary enquiries of the seller checking whether any alterations have been made to the property, what fixtures and fitting are included in the price and who is responsible for boundaries etc;
- Carrying out pre-exchange checks including a local authority search for details, for example, of any new road plans or planning consents which may affect the value of the property in the future.
- Exchanging contracts on your purchase and paying the deposit on your behalf; at this stage you will be committed to the move. Normally a deposit of 10% of the purchase price is required, but this can be negotiated to a lower amount on occasions. In any event we will require the deposit monies to be cleared funds in order to exchange contracts;
- Preparing a Deed of Transfer to transfer ownership of the property;
- Carrying out a bankruptcy search and a Land Registry search;
- Upon completion paying the balance of the payment for your property and liaising with you and the estate agent to release the keys to property;
- Paying the Stamp Duty fees to the Inland Revenue (if applicable) and completing the Stamp Duty Land Tax Return;
- Ensuring the previous owner’s mortgage(s) is/are discharged and registering your ownership with the Land Registry. Please note that registering the property may take some time, but it will not affect the purchase. I will notify you when the property has been registered at the Land Registry.
Who will look after my transaction?
Please refer to “our People” on the website. Each fee earner has an experienced legal assistant who is always readily available to help you with your matter.
Purchase of a Leasehold property
Legal Fees
The costs of a leasehold property are usually higher than the costs for a freehold property. This is because there is significantly more work involved with a leasehold property. Each fee is tailored to the individual property and particular requirements of your purchase. As no property or circumstance is exactly the same we are unable to give you a realistic estimate of costs until we have all the details of your proposed transaction. We can however give you a range of costs.
Our fees for a purchase of a leasehold property with no complexities range from £1345 plus VAT to 0.01% of the value of the property for properties £1,000,000 or over subject to a minimum fee of £1500 plus VAT. These figures may vary depending upon the complexities of the transaction. We will give you a bespoke cost estimate at the start of your transaction based on the information that you provide, the features of the property and the timescales involved.
Disbursements
Disbursements are costs related to your matter that we have to pay to a third party to enable your transaction to proceed.
This list is not exhaustive as some payments are not readily available until we have received the contract documentation.
- Searches approximately £350 plus VAT
- Land Registry Fee from £135 depending upon the value of the property
- Bank Transfer Fees - £35 plus VAT
- Identification Administration Fee - £12.50 plus VAT
- Notice of Transfer fee varies depending upon the landlord and/or management company. You should budget around £300 to £500 to cover these costs
- Notice of charge fee varies depending upon the landlord and/or management company. You should budget around £300 to £500 to cover these costs
Stamp Duty Land Tax
Your stamp duty liability will depend upon your personal circumstances (first time buyer, second property, company purchasing etc). If you have any queries regarding your liability please contact us or refer to HMRC’s website: https://tax.service.gov.uk/calculate-stamp-duty-land-tax/
How long with my transaction take?
Timeframes are extremely hard to gauge as each chain can vary significantly. The chain can only go as fast as the slowest link in the chain. We usually say from 8-16 weeks on a leasehold without any problems. We will of course keep you updated as to the progress of your transaction.
The work will entail:
- Taking your instructions
- Checking your funds are in place
- Liaising with you, the mortgagee (if necessary), the seller’s solicitors and estate agents.
- Ensuring the seller has good title;
- Agreeing the terms of the contract, including any deposit, completion date and price payable for chattels;
- Making preliminary enquiries of the seller checking whether any alterations have been made to the property, what fixtures and fitting are included in the price and who is responsible for boundaries etc;
- Carrying out pre-exchange checks including a local authority search for details, for example, of any new road plans or planning consents which may affect the value of the property in the future.
- Exchanging contracts on your purchase and paying the deposit on your behalf; at this stage you will be committed to the move. Normally a deposit of 10% of the purchase price is required, but this can be negotiated to a lower amount on occasions. In any event we will require the deposit monies to be cleared funds in order to exchange contracts;
- Preparing a Deed of Transfer to transfer ownership of the property;
- Carrying out a bankruptcy search and a Land Registry search;
- Upon completion paying the balance of the payment for your property and liaising with you and the estate agent to release the keys to property;
- Paying the Stamp Duty fees to the Inland Revenue (if applicable) and completing the Stamp Duty Land Tax Return;
- Ensuring the previous owner’s mortgage(s) is/are discharged and registering your ownership with the Land Registry. Please note that registering the property may take some time, but it will not affect the purchase. I will notify you when the property has been registered at the Land Registry.
Who will look after my transaction?
Please refer to “our People” on the website. Each fee earner has an experienced legal assistant who is always readily available to help you with your matter.
Residential mortgage/ re-mortgage
For a residential re-mortgage, our fee will be equivalent to 75% of our standard purchase fee (including the additional fee for simultaneous mortgage) based on the value of the borrowing. For example, if you are borrowing £500,000, our fee will be £746.25 (plus VAT) (75% of £995 (plus VAT)).
Our fee covers all work required to complete the re-mortgage of your property, including repaying any existing mortgages or charges secured against your property. In most cases this will be the same work that is carried out on a purchase.
In addition to our fees, you will need to pay some disbursements. 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 and we will ask you for payment on account of disbursements when we accept your instructions. This payment on account is usually £400.
The likely disbursements that you will have to pay for a re-mortgage are:
- Official Copy Entries £3 per document. If your title has several documents filed within your registered title, we will have to obtain each document.
- Searches - this varies from local authority to local authority.
- Land Registration fees (no VAT is payable) the fees are scaled according to the amount you are borrowing but can range from £20.00 - £125.00
- Land Registry searches to protect your/lender interest £4.00
- Land Registry charge search (bankruptcy search) £2.00 per person
- Notice of Charge fee (leasehold) can vary between £40.00 - £100.00
The work will entail:
- Taking your initial instructions
- Carrying out all necessary searches required by your lender or arranging no search indemnity insurance if this is acceptable to the lender.
- Reporting on the conditions of your mortgage offer.
- Sending the mortgage deed to you for signature.
- Arranging for all monies needed to be received from your lender and you.
- Completing the re-mortgage.
- Sending any surplus funds to you
- Dealing with the application for registration at the Land Registry
Timescale
This is really down to how quickly we receive your mortgage offer from your lender and all the relevant documents required from any third parties. The average process takes between 6-12 weeks.
Other transactions and Additional costs
Additional fees will be added for the following, but not limited to, transactions:
Newbuild properties
Help to Buy Schemes
Share ownership properties
Lease extensions
Buying a share of the freehold
Acting for a lender
Title defects
Sales and purchases of part of a property
Transfers of Equity
“VAT“ stands for Value Added Tax and the current rate of VAT is 20%
