Fees for purchasing a freehold property

Fees for purchasing a freehold property

Our team, which operates from Lincoln, has many years of collective experience in providing high quality conveyancing* services. In this section, we set out details of the services that we provide, and the costs involved, relating to the purchase of a freehold* residential property. By clicking on the relevant links below, you will find details of the other services that we provide, and their corresponding costs:

• Purchasing a Leasehold property
• Selling a Freehold property
• Selling a Leasehold property
• Remortgaging

(Where any word(s) or term(s) have an * next to them they are defined in a glossary at the end of this page.)

Overview

This section includes the following:

(i) the key stages that are, or might be, involved in the purchase of a freehold residential property and which we can assist you with;
(ii) an indication of who will undertake the work and our legal fees;
(iii) an indication of the cost of any disbursements*; and
(iv) an indication of the likely timescale to complete your purchase.

Key stages

Our fees cover all of the work required to complete the purchase of your new property, including:

• Taking your instructions and making contact with the estate agents and seller’s solicitors; checking title to the property; raising and dealing with enquiries and communicating with all parties throughout the transaction
• Receiving, reviewing and advising on contract* & title* documents
• Obtaining, reviewing and reporting on searches* (the searches we obtain will depend on the location of your property)
• Drafting a transfer* transferring the property from the seller to you
• Providing you with a Property Report* (and contract documentation in readiness for exchange)
• Providing advice to you on all documents and information received
• Reviewing the conditions of any mortgage offer with you; dealing with the lender’s specific requirements; and complying with the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook for conveyancers
• Preparing the file for exchange of contracts*
• Agreeing completion* date
• Exchanging contracts* and notifying you that this has happened
• Arranging for all monies needed to be received from the lender and you
• Preparing the file for completion
• Completing the purchase
• Dealing with post completion requirements, e.g. arranging a chancel repair policy*, if required; payment of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT*); and registration of your ownership* at Her Majesty’s Land Registry (HMLR*)

Who will undertake the work?

Most purchases will be carried out by one of our conveyancing executives. Whoever carries out the work, they will always be supervised by one of our managers. Further details about our team can be found here. We also employ a number of conveyancing administrators who support our conveyancing executives by opening files and helping with initial enquiries etc. Again, they will always be supervised by one of our managers.

Our fees

Generally, our legal fees are based on the valuation of the property that you are purchasing. We set out in the table below, indications of our legal fees (not including VAT) based on ranges of property values.

Purchase price (£)	Up to 250,000	250,001 – 500,000	500,001 – 750,000	750,001 – 1m	1m – 1.5m
Legal fees	950	1150	1350	1750	2400

Where the property value is in excess of £1,500,000 we will provide a bespoke quotation tailored to the circumstances. As a guide, the legal fees will usually be between 0.15 – 0.20% of the purchase price (plus VAT at the standard rate).

Our legal fees include any referral fee that is payable to your estate agent which has referred your purchase to us. The referral fees that we pay range from £350 to £550. If we act for you, we will tell you the amount of the referral fee that we have paid and confirm who the recipient of that, is.

In addition to the above legal fees, we charge a fee for transferring money, electronically. Although the fee varies, it will not be more than £40.

There are many factors when buying a house (in addition to those detailed above) which we may need to help you with. If it is necessary for us to help you with any of those, additional fees will be incurred. By way of examples, those factors include where the following might apply:

• There are defects with the title requiring insurance, statutory declarations* or amendments to the title*
• You are purchasing with a “Help to buy” mortgage*
• You are purchasing with a “Help to buy” ISA*
• There is a freehold management company* involved
• We also act for the mortgage lender

If your matter requires additional work that is not covered by the legal fees in the table above, you will be informed of this and what the additional cost will be at the earliest opportunity. Once we know the purchase price and full details of your proposed transaction, we will provide you with a full written illustration of the legal fees and anticipated third party costs. We will also confirm our fees for additional legal services related to your purchase in case they arise on your transaction. The total costs of conveyancing will be made up of our legal fees, disbursements* and VAT.

Disbursements*

There will always be costs payable to third parties as part of your purchase. It is difficult to confirm exactly what disbursements will be incurred until we know more about your transaction but may include:

• SDLT: this is a tax on properties in England based on price and personal circumstances. The rules around SDLT can be complicated. However, you can use this link to either calculate how much SDLT you will need to pay on your new property purchased in England in a straightforward matter, or to obtain an indication of how much you might have to pay: https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/calculate-stamp-duty-land-tax/. Land Transaction Tax is payable on properties in Wales. Again, you can use the following link to either calculate how much SDLT you will need to pay on your new property purchased in Wales in a straightforward matter, or to obtain an indication of how much you might have to pay: https://beta.gov.wales/land-transaction-tax-guide. In any event, you should consider seeking specialist advice about SDLT from a tax advisor.
• HMLR fees: these are the fees charged by the Government for updating you as the legal owner of your new property and registering your mortgage. The fees charged by HMLR to do this are based on the purchase price of the property. You can assess the fee using the following link: http://landregistry.data.gov.uk/fees-calculator.html
• Search Fees: the fees will depend on which searches are required. We often order a search package to include the main searches and costs between £200 – 250 (inclusive of VAT) and will usually include the following searches :

Local Search: This search is made up of two parts:

• The LLC1 form which is a search of the local land charges register and reveals things relating to the property such as:
  • Listed buildings
  • Conservation areas
  • Tree protection orders
  • Improvement or renovation grants
  • Smoke control zones
  • Future developments
• The CON 29 is made up of standard questions which will reveal the matters relating to the property such as:
  • Building control history
  • Planning control history
  • Nearby road schemes and motorways
  • Contaminated land
  • Radon gas

Drainage & Water Search: This search will reveal for example, the location of public sewers, whether foul water and surface drainage drain into a public sewer and whether sewers are adopted.

Environmental Search: This search will reveal environmental and non-environmental information for example relating to contaminated land, flood risk, energy and transportation.

How long will my house purchase take?

Each transaction is unique. You and others in any chain will have different circumstances and requirements. It is, therefore, difficult to estimate how long each step (particularly as some steps may take place concurrently) and accordingly how long your purchase will take. However, as an indication, and based on our experience, we find the average time for a transaction covering the steps above is 10 to 12 weeks.

It can be quicker or slower, depending on whether you are part of a chain of sellers and buyers. For example, if you are a first time buyer and purchasing a vacant property, it will be quicker that a situation where there are four people in a chain. Such a chain could experience delays if, for example, one person in the chain discovers a defect in the title of the property they are buying and another is struggling to secure a mortgage.

Glossary

Chancel repair policy	an insurance policy which protects the owner of a property against a potential claim liability to pay for chancel repairs to a church
Completion	moving day or the day upon which your transaction completes with the balance of purchase/sale monies being paid and title to property transferred; if there is a chain involved, everybody completes and moves on the same day
Contract	the form of legal agreement prepared in duplicate for signature by the seller and buyer setting out all the legal rights and obligations agreed between them; this is the legally binding document between a seller and a buyer that contains all the terms of the agreement for the sale of a property
Conveyancing	the legal work needed to buy and sell properties
Disbursements	out of pocket expenses paid by us on the client’s behalf to third parties, such as SDLT, HMLR charges and search fees, among others
Exchanging contracts	the point that both parties are committed to the transaction; from the minute that contracts are exchanged, the sale becomes binding; until contracts are exchanged, either party can walk away from the transaction with no legal or financial penalties; at the same time as contracts are exchanged, a deposit is handed over from the buyer’s solicitors to the seller’s solicitors; the balance of the money will be handed over on the completion date, which is agreed at this time as well
Freehold	one of the two current tenures of land recognised by English law; freehold means that you own the property outright, as opposed to leasehold, where you own the property for a specified period of time; freehold property can still, however, be subject to restrictions and covenants, for example to maintain fences, not to be a nuisance etc.
Freehold management company	management company formed to look after the building and communal areas
Help to buy ISA	government scheme designed to help you save for a mortgage deposit to buy a home; to qualify you must be classified as a first-time buyer and not own a property anywhere in the world; savings are tax free as with any ISA product; however, a help to buy ISA provides additional government contributions, boosting your savings by 25%; so, for every £200 you save, you receive a government bonus of £50 (to a maximum of £3,000)
Help to buy mortgage	an equity loan where the government lends you up to 20% of the cost of your newly built property, so you’ll only need a 5% cash deposit and a 75% mortgage to make up the rest
HMLR	the official body responsible for recording the ownership of land. It is now compulsory to register all transactions to do with land at HMLR; although created in 1925, HMLR still does not have records of all the land in the UK, which is why some land is still unregistered
Property Report	having investigated title and reviewed searches we will report to you on those investigations and the terms of the contract; we will also provide documents to sign and return if you are happy to proceed
Remortgaging	changing a mortgage from one mortgagee to another
Registration of ownership	following registration we will apply to HMLR to remove the seller’s charges and register your ownership and your lender’s charge (if any)
Searches	the usual searches we obtain include: Local Search Drainage & Water Search Environmental Search Other searches which may be required include Coal Mining Search, Tin Mining Search and Underground Railways Search
Stamp Duty Land Tax	a tax imposed by the government on property purchases over a certain value
Statutory declarations	a declaration made before a justice of the peace, notary public or other person authorised to administer an oath
Title	the owner’s right to a property
Transfer	a document which transfers ownership of a property from one person to another