Legal Fees – Sales of Freehold / Long Leasehold Property
The legal charges will be our fees for the work which we carry out on your behalf in order to complete the sale of the property in question. In addition to our legal charges there will be various other costs payable to third parties – these additional costs are called “disbursements”. Disbursements will apply whichever law firm you appoint.
Our Legal Fees
| Description | Total |
| Sale Conveyancing Fees price up to £300,000 | £950.00 + VAT |
| £300,000 to £500,000 | £1,200.00 + VAT |
| £500,000 to £700,000 | £1,300.00 + VAT |
| £700,00 to £1 million | £1,800.00 + VAT |
| Over £1 million | £1,800.00 + VAT and +0.1% on top of purchase price |
Standard Disbursements
| Land Registry Official Copies | £6.00 |
| Total | £6.00 |
Additional Fees/Costs
| Description | Total |
| Unregistered Title fee (Note 1) | £125.00 + VAT |
| Help to Buy Fee (Note 2) | £400.00 + VAT |
| Purchase New Build Fee (Note 3) | £250.00 + VAT |
| Lenders’ Solicitors Fee (Note 4) | £200.00 + VAT |
| Gifts or third Party Payments (Note 5) | £150.00 + VAT |
| Declaration of Trust (if standard) (Note 6) | £250.00 + VAT |
| Preparation of Deed of Covenant (Note 7) | £125.00 + VAT |
| Dealing with third party lawyers (Note 8) | £150.00 + VAT |
| Shared ownership sale or purchase (Note 9) | £95.00 + VAT |
| Help to buy ISA/Lifetime ISA (Note 10) | £50.00 + VAT |
| Sale of Help to Buy Property (Note 11) | £250.00 + VAT |
| Leasehold Flat Fee (Note 12) | £300.00 + VAT |
| Leasehold House Fee (Note 13) | £100.00 + VAT |
| Freehold property with Managed Areas/Management Company (Note 14) | £200.00 + VAT |
| Sale of a New Build (Note 15) | £150.00 + VAT |
| Expedition Fee (Note 16) | £60.00 + VAT |
Notes:-
Note 1 – If the property has an unregistered Title this will incur an additional charge of £125.00 plus VAT for the further work involved.
Note 2– If the property is being purchased using the “Help to Buy” Scheme this will incur an additional charge of £400.00 plus VAT for the additional work involved.
Note 3 – If the property being purchased is a “New Build” property, this will incur an additional charge of £250.00 plus VAT for the additional work involved.
Note 4 – Where the Lender is separately represented this will incur an additional charge of £200.00 plus VAT for the further work involved in dealing with the Lenders’ Solicitors and meeting their requirements.
Note 5 – If you are buying with the aid of a Gift or Third Party Payment there is further work that we need to do in additional correspondence with the persons providing the payment, anti-money laundering and identification checks and also if you are buying with the aid of a mortgage we must report the gift/third party payment to your mortgage lender. This will incur an additional charge of £200.00 plus VAT, per gift, for the further work involved.
Note 6 – Where property is being jointly purchased a simple form of Trust will usually be required e.g. under which the joint purchasers hold the property upon trust for themselves as joint tenants or as tenants in common – where more complex trust arrangements are required additional charges will apply and we will provide you with a separate estimate for these.
Note 7 – Where a Deed of Covenant is required for you to enter into to confirm that you will comply with the covenants contained in the title to the property.
Note 8 – If there are additional lawyers required to communicate and liaise with outside the scope of the usual conveyancing transaction.
Note 9 – Where the property is a shared ownership sale or purchase.
Note 10 – If you are purchasing with a HTB ISA or Lifetime ISA.
Note 11 – Where the property being sold is a Help to Buy property.
Where Leasehold property or property subject to a rent charge/chief rent is being purchased additional disbursements may apply in respect of the giving of notice to the ground rent/rent charge/chief rent owner. We will provide details of these disbursements as soon as we are informed of the same.
Note 12 – Leasehold Flat Fee, £300 plus VAT, Dealing with a leasehold flat
Note 13 – Lease House Fee – Dealing with a leasehold house.Note 14- Dealing with a Freehold property with Managed Areas/Management Company
Note 15 – Dealing with additional enquiries and documentation required in respect of a New Build
Note 16 – Expedited Fee when dealing with an exchange and completion within 7 days or less
How long will my house sale take?
This very much depends upon the position of your Buyer – if your Buyer is in a chain you may be waiting several months depending on how quickly the parties in the chain are able to proceed and if the Buyer (and/or any Buyer lower down in the chain) is dependent upon mortgage finance matters may be delayed while all relevant mortgage offers are being obtained.
Stages of the process
- We will prepare contract documentation and supply the same to the Buyers’ Solicitors.
- We will pass through to you Property Information Forms for you to complete and we will assist you with the filling in of any parts of the forms you are unable to deal with.
- The Buyers’ Solicitors will raise enquiries on the property which we will reply to on your behalf.
- We will obtain your execution of the contract and, when the Buyers’ Solicitors are ready, we will arrange for exchange of contracts and stipulate for a completion date approved by you – the gap between exchange of contracts and completion may be between 1-4 weeks – it is not unusual for exchange of contracts and completion to be effected on the same day but it is preferable for there to be a gap so that you have sufficient time to organise your removals etc.
- On completion of the sale we will redeem any mortgages affecting the property on your behalf.
- Following completion we will provide you with a statement showing the net amount of the proceeds of sale after payment of the Estate Agents fees, our charges and disbursements and amounts paid over to redeem mortgages.
- We will make arrangements to forward the net proceeds of sale through to you shortly after completion.