The firms fees are those fees paid to the firm for carrying out the necessary legal and administration work. On a purchase of a property the work covered under these fees may typically be taking your initial instructions, obtaining and recording your identity information, obtaining contracts papers, investigating title, commissioning the searches, raising additional enquiries, preparing the purchase deed, raising requisitions on title, exchanging contracts, preparing a completion statement, dealing with the requirements of your lender, exchanging contracts, obtaining mortgage funds and the balance required to complete, dealing with the completion formalities, submitting the Stamp Duty Land Tax return, paying Stamp Duty, making an application to register the transaction at the Land Registry, dealing with any Land Registry requisitions, supplying you with a completed registration document, corresponding with the relevant parties in the transaction.

The above information is designed simply to give an indication of the type and scope of work in a particular transaction. There are different aspects to be covered in connection with a sale and some transactions may involve part of the work referred to above with other aspects depending on the type of transaction.

We aim to be as accurate as possible when giving a quotation for costs and the vast majority of quotes we give in relation to the firms work is the fee ultimately paid. However the quotation we give is for a standard transaction dealt with on a routine basis from the point of view of time and assumes that there are no defects in the title or defects with the property which cause disproportionate amount of time to be spent. We therefore have to reserve the right to revise the quotation as the transaction progresses.

Typical issues which can result in disproportionate amount of time being spent, for example but not exhaustively:

• The absence of the appropriate rights of way for a property,

• The absence of necessary rights to use supply pipes,

• Land missing from the legal title,

• Leasehold property,

• Shared Ownership properties with a Housing Association,

• The Government Help to Buy scheme.

A conveyance of a two bedroom housing development house which is 20 years old is likely to be less complex and require less time than for example a country property involving the use of private driveways, rights to use private water and private drainage systems typically the former might involve three hours of solicitors chargeable time, a further two hours of support staff time and costs in the region of £650.00 plus VAT. The purchase of a small piece of land might be perhaps £450.00 plus VAT. Any secretarial time is not charged as extra and is included in the quotation and may involve a considerable amount of additional time. Whereas the country property referred to above may involve six hours of solicitors time and two hours of support staff time plus the secretarial work generated there from with costs in the region of £950.00 plus VAT.

Taking all the above into account, total costs for a conveyance of a straightforward two bedroom housing development house including VAT and disbursements but excluding Stamp Duty/LTT may cost in the region of £1,130.00 whereas a country property may cost several hundred pounds more depending on the peculiarities of the transaction. 

It is however important that you discuss your particular requirements and the nature of the transaction with us because certain types of transaction may be less than the above depending on the particular circumstances.

We do not have a set conveyancing fee applicable to all types of transactions and you should therefore contact the office for a quotation in relation to your particular type of transaction. 

Upon receipt of instructions you will receive a breakdown of the anticipated legal costs and disbursements together with more information by way of terms and conditions and information about the typical progress of a conveyancing transaction. 

We aim, where possible, to provide a fixed fee but where this is not possible time is charged at £150.00 plus VAT per chargeable hour. 

Legal work is carried out by Solicitors or a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executors and support administration work may be carried out by Legal Executives in training and support staff. 



Disbursements for a Conveyancing Transaction

These typically include Local Authority search fees, service suppliers search fees, Land Registry fees and Stamp Duty Land Tax. This is not an exhaustive list but is intended to indicate those types of fees which may be incurred additional to our own fees. Such fees are paid to third parties and are not part of our fees. 

Local Authority search charges vary one from another, Stamp Duty varies depending upon purchase price as do Land Registry fees. You will be provided with full details of the anticipated disbursements for your particular transaction.

To give some examples of the level of the disbursements referred to above:

• Local authority searches typically vary between around £90-£160.00 in this area. 
• An Environmental search would typically be around £61.00.
• Water and Drainage searches typically cost around £60.00 
• The Land Registry searches typically total around £10.00. 
• Copies of the entries of a registered title typically cost around £6.00. 
• A Land Registry fee for a transaction between £100k-£200k for the re-registration of an existing registered property costs £95.00, for first registration this would cost £190.00. A typical registration fee for an existing registered property between £200k-£500k is £135.00 whereas first registration of a similar priced property would be £270.00. 
• Stamp Duty costs vary considerably depending on whether this is a first time purchase, the purchase of a replacement dwelling or the purchase of a second home and current rates are available from HMRC or Welsh Revenue Authority. 
• Local searches, Water and Drainage searches and Environmental searches typically attract VAT as do our own fees whereas Land Registry fees and Stamp Duty do not. Where the VAT is chargeable it is usually at the current rate of 20%.

Standard Conveyancing Service

Purchase:

Taking your initial instructions, obtaining contract papers from the sellers solicitors, considering the contract papers, investigating title and reporting to you on the contents. Raising additional enquiries, approval and/or amendment of the contract, preparing Land Registry Transfer, commissioning local search, water and drainage search and reporting relevant matters, carrying out environmental search and referring to you, raising requisitions on title, consideration of mortgage offer (if applicable) and liaising with the lender and dealing with their requirements, exchanging contracts, preparing completion statement, obtaining mortgage funds, completing transaction, submitting Land Transaction Tax/Stamp Duty return, making application to HM Land Registry to register disposal and dealing with their requisitions.

Sale:

Taking your initial instructions, obtaining title information, preparing contract, deducing title to buyers solicitors, dealing with and taking instructions upon additional enquiries, consideration and approval of Transfer, taking your instructions on the additional enquiries, exchanging contracts, completing transaction, dealing with discharge of mortgage (if applicable), accounting to you.

The standard conveyancing fees do not include the following items which may attract additional fees at the hourly rate (£150.00 plus VAT):

·        Correcting an incorrect Land Registry title plan.

·        Dealing with or correcting missing land.

·        Correcting missing rights e.g. rights of way, rights to water, rights to use supply pipes or easements or obtaining Title Indemnity Insurance to cover those aspects.

·        Other defects in title including title being vested in incorrect parties and errors on the Land Register.

Please note that the above is not an exhaustive list but some examples of problems which can arise. 

Timing of Transactions



Typically on a transaction whether the searches are unremarkable, the legal title is in order and information is provided promptly from more relevant parties, it might typically take 6-8 weeks to achieve a completion.

However, where a chain is involved transactions may be running at different speeds and the longer the chain the longer it takes to achieve a situation where all parties are ready, willing and able to proceed to a formal exchange of contracts and commit to a date. Where all parties in a chain insist on exchanging contracts simultaneously it may take between 8-16 to achieve a completion.



Other factors which may affect the timing include defects in title along the lines of those mentioned above which affect any one of the properties in the chain.