Purchasing a Property
Residental Conveyancing
Buying a Property
The main features of our service will include:
Unlimited advice regarding the completion of our Welcome Pack protocol documents, such as our Application Form and Purchase Questionnaire.
Approval of ID documents as required by Anti-Money Laundering Laws.
Submitting any legally required property searches such as, Local Authority Search, Water & Drainage Search, as required by your lender or requested by you.
Raise any legally required enquires. This can include in-depth legal matters, such as right of way issues, covenants, specific lease requirements.
Processing a thorough title check on the property’s title.
Prepare and issue a detailed Report on Contract to you, including a report on the contract itself, mortgage offer and search findings.
Request and obtain any funds from your lender for the day of completion.
Process the legal exchange and completion to include, obtaining funds from your lender, issuing funds to the seller’s solicitor, confirming keys can be released.
The Purchase Process
The exact stages involved in the purchase of a residential property will vary according to the circumstances. However, the key stages we will need to carry out for your purchase are:
- Take your instructions and give you initial advice
- Deal with Anti-Money-Laundering requirements and Identity checks
- Check that finances are in place to fund purchase and the source of those funds
- Receive and check Contract and Title documents
- Carry out Local Authority, Water & Drainage and Environment Searches
- Obtain further planning documentation if required
- Raise initial Enquiries with the Seller’s solicitors
- Report to you with a Search Report
- Receive and check your Mortgage Offer
- Report to you with a Mortgage Report and the Mortgage Deed for signature
- Receive and check Replies to Enquiries
- Check Stamp Duty Land Tax payable and prepare the Return
- Report to you with a Contract Report and the Contract & SDLT Return for signature
- Obtain 10% deposit monies from you
- Agree the purchase Completion Date with you and the Seller
- Exchange contracts and notify you that this has happened
- Remind you to effect buildings insurance cover if freehold
- Arrange for the mortgage advance monies to be received from Lender
- Prepare final Completion Statement and send to you
- Arrange to obtain the remaining monies from you
- Submit and check pre-completion Searches
- Complete the purchase of the property
- Deal with the submission of the SDLT Return and pay the Stamp Duty
- Deal with application for registration at the Land Registry
- Deal with any post-completion leasehold requirements
PURCHASE COSTS
At the outset of the transaction, we will provide our best estimate of the likely legal costs, government taxes and other disbursements which are likely to arise. Please note these may vary if the matter becomes protracted or where complications arise. If this happens, we will discuss with you the impact of this upon your legal costs.
The following is a guide only to likely fees:
Purchase Legal Charges
Below £200,000.00 – upon application £200,000.00 to £500,000.00 – from £1,095.00
£500,001.00 to £1,000,000.00 – from £1,295.00
Above £1,000,000.00 – upon application
Mortgage Loan – £250.00 to £750.00 (depending upon the amount and the Lender’s terms)
AML and Identity check – £40.00 per person
Stamp Duty Land Tax Return – £125.00
Processing fee for Bank Transfer – £40.00 per transfer Lawyer Checker – £45.00
In addition, if the property is unregistered land, leasehold, shared ownership or a company purchase, or if you will be receiving a Gifted Deposit, there will be additional supplements to cover the additional work involved. We will quote these at the outset and, once instructed, will also supply a copy of our charges for Additional Legal Services in case any of these should arise during the course of the transaction.
Our basic charge for a newbuild property (regardless of price) is £2,300.00 for a freehold or £2,700.00 for a leasehold because of the more complicated legal work and much larger amount of paperwork involved.
VAT currently at 20% is payable upon all our fees and charges.
Disbursements
Disbursements are costs related to your transaction that are payable to third parties. We handle these payments on your behalf. Those such as Stamp Duty Land Tax (click here for the Stamp Duty Land Tax Calculator), Land Registry fees (click here for the Land Registry Fee Scale 1) and Leasehold fees paid to managing agents will vary depending upon the value of your purchase, your personal circumstances and the requirements of the particular managing agents. All of these will be estimated to you once the circumstances are known.
There are also likely to be the following disbursements:
Pre-Contract Searches – between £300.00 and £600.00 plus VAT
Land Registry Title Entries – £3.00 plus VAT per item
Land Registry Priority Search – £3.00 plus VAT per title
Bankruptcy Search – estimated £6.00 plus VAT per person
Companies House Registration Fee – £15.00 per mortgage
Non-Standard Transactions or Disbursements
These will need to be quoted individually and may not follow the above estimates.
Call: 0208 848 9988
Contact the Residential Conveyancing Team
Our Residential Team
