Residential Conveyancing
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Residential Conveyancing – Moving House?
Who undertakes the work...?
The firm’s Conveyancing work (which includes the sale of freehold or leasehold properties, the purchase of freehold or leasehold properties, re-mortgage of a property you already own or a transfer of equity) are generally undertaken by Stuart Fantham.
Stuart is a Solicitor who qualified in 1988 and has worked both in private practice as well as an in-house property Solicitor for Abbey National plc (now Santander).
Stuart has extensive experience in all residential and commercial conveyancing matters dealing with both simple and complex transactions, both freehold and leasehold as well as shared ownership and new build transactions. In addition to this, Stuart has experience of dealing with matters arising from the ownership of a property within England and Wales even where this does not involve moving house – for example, review of an existing title to the correction of a problem in a Lease. The work we have detailed on our website relates to the general process of moving house (commonly known as conveyancing) and also separately about re-mortgaging (i.e. re-financing a property you already own).
What is involved...?
We generally receive our enquiries about conveyancing by either telephone, by email, sometimes in relation to the latter via a link on our website. Whilst our website does provide you with details of our anticipated fees, we do like to speak with potential Clients not only to establish more information about them and their transaction to enable us to give them the best understanding of our role and the work we can undertake for them but also to explain the various component parts of a quotation which is then provided in writing.
Details of our fees appear in separate tables clearly labelled elsewhere within our website pages.
The steps and services we undertake below assume that we have successfully completed our ID and money laundering checks.
The following information we will be providing relates primarily to the sale or purchase of a freehold property – at the end of each section we have given examples of additional work and services we need to undertake and be involved with on a leasehold sale or purchase.
Freehold Sale
As part of the work you will instruct us to undertake on a freehold sale, we will carry out the following;
- Discuss with you the initial information needed to undertake your sale – for example, is the property held in your sole name or in joint names, is it likely to be a registered or unregistered title, do you have a mortgage and with which lender, which Estate Agents are you using for your sale or is it a private sale and what forms are going to be needed to be completed by you to facilitate the provision of a Contract Package. We will provide those forms to you alongside a written quotation.
- We will review the Memorandum of Sale issued by your Estate Agent to check that the information it provides ties in with the information you have provided to us already whether this be in terms of the price or other circumstances connected with the sale. We can identify the Solicitors acting for the Buyer from that Memorandum of Sale.
- We will have obtained title information for your property – assuming the title to your property is registered, we can obtain this information from the Land Registry portal where we have an account. This will include obtaining Title Registers and a Filed Plan as well as identifying any other documents which the Land Registry have recorded and filed against your title. We will also check the title information tallies with the information you have provided about yourself and your property. In the case of an unregistered title, we will need to receive your Title Deeds (you may be holding these if you have repaid your mortgage or if you still have a mortgage in place, we will need to request these from your Lender with your authority).
- We will then proceed to prepare a draft Contract in accordance with the latest Law Society Standard Conditions and incorporate the information we have obtained from yourselves, your Estate Agents and our title investigations.
- We will prepare a Contract Pack to send to your Buyers Solicitors both by email and by post – this will include the draft Contract, Title Information or copy Deeds, your completed forms (including your Property Information form and Fittings and Contents list) as well as any other associated documentation you have supplied to us.
- We will prepare a draft form of Transfer Deed (this is the document which is used at completion to convey the title from one person to another) and provide replies to some standard form information needed in anticipation of completion (known as Requisitions on Title). We will send these documents to the Buyers Solicitors along with the Contract Pack.
- We will send you at the same time a Contract for you to sign in readiness (this does not commit you to the sale), your part of the Transfer Deed as referred to above and any associated questionnaires needed to complete the information needed for your Buyers Solicitors.
- Your Buyers Solicitors should then be able to review the Contract Pack and will undoubtedly raise enquiries upon the same. We may be able to deal with some of those enquiries ourselves and others will definitely require your involvement and responses. Please remember all responses given are provided to your Buyers Solicitors on your behalf.
- We will also deal with any comments on the draft Contract and Transfer Deed and invite you to assist with any further information/documentation needed from third parties.
- There will clearly be negotiations going backwards and forwards alongside this information gathering by the Buyers Solicitors to a point where your Buyers Solicitors should be in a position to offer you an exchange of Contracts – this is the point at which you become committed to the sale and they become committed to the purchase. By this time, you will probably have agreed any final arrangements connected with the sale, such as whether you are selling an item to the Buyer for a particular price (e.g. a washing machine for £100) and the proposed completion date.
- When all parties are ready to exchange, we will obtain your written authority (by email) to enable us to exchange Contracts for completion on the agreed date. We will then proceed to engage with the Buyers Solicitors and carry out the actual exchange of Contracts which generally takes place by a telephone call between us.
- Once Contracts have been exchanged, we will notify you and your Estate Agents so that they can send us a copy of their commission account which they should also send to you for approval. If you have a mortgage on your property, we will be requesting a final redemption statement to enable us to prepare a completion statement for you to approve.
- Between exchange and completion, we will generally prepare the documentation in readiness for completion and on the completion day itself, we will await funds being received from your Buyers Solicitors into our Client Account. Once they are so received, we will check with you if you are ready to leave your property and we will notify the Estate Agents that the keys can be released.
- We will settle your Estate Agents fees in accordance with your instructions as well as redeeming your mortgage. We will provide evidence of the mortgage redemption to your Buyers Solicitors once this is received from your Lender.
- We will account to you for the balance from your sale in accordance with your wishes – this may be by cheque or by telegraphic transfer to your nominated account.
- We will send the executed Transfer Deed to the Buyers Solicitors along with any other original documents you have supplied which should now belong to your Buyers.
- We will proceed to close your file once all of the formalities have been concluded.
Leasehold Sale
As we have indicated, there will be additional work or services needed to facilitate the sale of a leasehold property for you. These will include;
- When investigating the title to your property, we will need to locate a copy of your Lease – this may be available either from yourself or from the Land Registry.
- One of the additional forms we will provide to you in addition to the Property Information form and Fittings and Contents list is a separate Leasehold Information form for you to complete. This additional document will accompany the Contract Pack sent to your Buyers Solicitors.
- You will be invited to contact your Landlord and Management Company (if they are separate entities) to obtain what is often called a “Management Pack” which contains an independent series of confirmatory pieces of information and documentation needed for your Buyers to review. You will need to liaise with each of your Landlord and Management Company and pay their administration fees – they will generally provide the “pack” to us by email.
- When calculating your completion statement, we will need to receive an up to date statement of your ground rent and service charge payments to facilitate the apportioning of any monies due or payable by either party to the credit of the other.
Freehold Purchase
Assuming we have carried out our initial ID and other arrangements with you as part of engaging with us a Client, as part of the work you will instruct us to undertake on a freehold purchase, we will carry out the following;
- Discuss with you initial information about the property you are purchasing and any particular requirements you may have or enquiries you may wish us to raise.
- We will receive the Estate Agents Sales Memorandum – this will identify who the Sellers Solicitors are and we will check that the basic information contained in the Memorandum of Sale accords with the information you have supplied to us.
- We will introduce ourselves to the Sellers Solicitors and request a Contract Pack from them (you would expect this to include the same information outlined above that you would provide on a freehold sale).
- Once we receive the Contract Pack, we will supply you with copies of all relevant documentation including a copy of the plan for the property. We will ask you to verify that this is an accurate representation of the property you are purchasing so that we can use it, for example, in the submission of the searches required to be undertaken for you.
- We will invite you to make a payment on account of your searches – these will include a Local Authority Search, a Water/Drainage Search, Environmental Search and Chancel Check Search. There may be other specialised searches depending on the circumstances of your transaction. We will collect a fee to cover these searches and then prepare and submit the search request to the relevant providers.
- We will review the Contract and title documentation – we will make any necessary amendments to the draft Contract and return one copy to the Sellers Solicitors. We will review the remaining parts of the Contract Pack and raise any additional enquiries we deem necessary.
- We will prepare a draft form of Transfer Deed (sending you one part to sign in anticipation of completion) and prepare some pre-completion documents including some Requisitions on Title.
- Receive and review mortgage instructions from your new Lender – we send you your Mortgage Deed to sign.
- We will review the responses to the search requests and replies to the enquiries we raised once received – we will then be in a position to prepare a report to you (we may report to you in part during the course of the transaction once searches are received) and assuming you are happy with the documentation/information we have obtained for you, invite you to sign your purchase Contract in readiness for exchange.
- We will discuss with you the provision of a deposit for exchange purposes as well as timescales being proposed for completion. We will obviously also ask you to let us know if you are making payment for additional items at the property (e.g. a washing machine) so that we can ensure this is recorded on the Contract. We will also record any allowances given in your favour on the Contract.
- Once the parties in the chain are ready to exchange, we will obtain your authority (usually be email) to enable us to exchange Contracts in accordance with your instructions. This will involve agreeing and recording in the Contract the completion date.
- Once Contracts have been exchanged, we will need to request mortgage funds from your Lender (assuming you are having a mortgage) carry out pre-completion searches such a Bankruptcy Search (again if you are having a mortgage) as well as a Land Registry Priority Search.
- We will prepare a draft invoice and completion statement for you to approve and collect funds from you in anticipation of completion into our Client Account.
- Your Lender should provide us with your net mortgage advance (where relevant) in time for completion.
- We will check the Replies to Requisitions on Title supplied by the Sellers Solicitors and carry out a Lawyer Checker against their Client Account information.
- On the day of completion, we will prepare and send a CHAPS transfer (telegraphic transfer) to the Sellers Solicitors for the balance due to them. Once we are notified funds have reached the Sellers Solicitors, you will be told that the property has now become yours and you should be able to collect the keys – we hope to let you have our congratulations at this point.
- We will then attend to submission of your Stamp Duty Land Tax Return (or Land Transaction Tax Return in Wales) and make payment of the duty to the relevant authority.
- We will use the Transfer Deed sent to us by the Sellers Solicitors on completion and submit an application to the Land Registry to register the title to the property in your name (along with any mortgage in favour of your Lender if relevant).
- Once registration has taken place, we will notify yourself and provide you with copies of any title documentation and any other remaining documentation on file which you would need to keep in a safe place – we will also send a copy of the title information to your Lender if relevant along with a copy of your Mortgage Deed.
- We will then review any remaining balances which we might be holding for your benefit and reconcile your account by making payment to you of any remaining monies held.
- We will then proceed to close your file.
Leasehold Purchase
In addition to the above, there will be key stages where additional work or services are provided for a leasehold property and these include the following;
- A Lease is simply another title document forming part of the arrangements connected with the ownership of the property you are purchasing – we will therefore review it as part of our title documentation review.
- At completion of your purchase, you may be required to reimburse the Seller for any apportionments of ground rent or service charges they have paid beyond the completion date – these will feature on your completion statement.
- After completion, we will need to serve notice of the change of ownership (known as an assignment) as well as a notice of any legal charge you have over the property on the Landlord and Management Company, provide them with any further information they may need and pay their administration fees.
- We will need to deal with any other documentation your Landlord or Management Company might require – for example a Deed of Covenant or a Share Certificate in your name in the Management Company.
How long will this take...?
Most Estate Agents tell you to expect your transaction to take about 3 – 4 months before you actually move house – this is not a bad guesstimate as of course there are a whole host of factors to determine how long it actually takes to achieve an exchange of Contracts. The gap between exchange and completion is generally agreed between the parties, hence the total amount of time needed before you move house will be dependent on those two elements.
The first element (i.e. the time it takes to achieve an exchange) will vary considerably from transaction to transaction – this may be because of the nature of the title, the timescales required by individuals connected with the chain of transactions, the timing of obtaining a mortgage, queries arising from surveys or defects in title which need to be corrected.
We generally say that we would estimate it takes about 8 – 10 weeks to have an idea when you anticipate being ready to exchange Contracts. Some transactions will take slightly less time than this and a good number will take longer for the reasons sets out above.
As indicated, the actual time before you move is dependent upon this first factor as well as the “gap” the parties between exchange of Contracts and the completion date itself. It is generally also necessary to ensure that there is sufficient time between exchange of Contracts and completion to allow the preparations of a completion to take place – this would include, for example, allowing sufficient time for your mortgage lender to release its mortgage funds to enable you to purchase the property. The average time between exchange of Contracts and completion these days is around 10 days to possibly 3 weeks. However, you can exchange Contracts now for completion in many months ahead as long as that is what is agreed between the parties.
The timing you should allow for your title to be registered at the Land Registry (in relation to a purchase transaction) is largely dependent upon Land Registry turnaround times – at present, these are rather “stretched” and it may be many months before your application for registration is successfully completed. Existing registered titles being transferred to a new owner generally take considerably less time than the registration of, for example, a new plot on a new development. Some of the latter transactions can take in excess of 12 months for the Land Registry to complete.
What does it cost...?
We have provided you with separate guidance on the conveyancing fees associated with a sale or purchase – there are also disbursements to be paid and the figures we have quoted elsewhere on this website either show the VAT recorded alongside the same or do not have VAT added.
Re-Mortgage transactions
A re-mortgage is the term given to what is effectively the re-financing of a property you already own. We also generally use this term to cover transactions where you own a property mortgage free and are taking out a new mortgage to be secured upon the same to a new Lender.
A traditional re-mortgage involves the redemption of an existing mortgage to Lender A simultaneously with securing of an advance on that property in its place in favour of Lender B.
What is Involved...?
Freehold Re-mortgage
A freehold re-mortgage is not dissimilar to a freehold purchase in many respects – although you will be familiar with the title to the property and your ownership of the same, we and your new Lender will not.
We will therefore need to undertake;
- A discussion with you about your arrangements connected with the property and the re-mortgage arrangements.
- Obtain title information for your property. Assuming the title to your property is registered, we can obtain this information from the Land Registry portal where we have an account. This will include obtaining Title Registers and a Filed Plan as well as identifying any other documents which the Land Registry have recorded and filed against your title. We will also check the title information tallies with the information you have provided about yourself and your property.
- Obtain a redemption statement from your existing Lender based on your authority to do so.
- Investigate the title to your property and identify any issues which might cause problems with the matter progressing.
- Receive and review mortgage instructions from your new Lender – we send you your Mortgage Deed to sign.
- Consider and submit any necessary searches.
- Once our title investigation and search information have been completed and checked, we will discuss a completion date with you.
- We will obtain a final redemption figure from your Lender based on that completion date and request mortgage funds from your new Lender again for that completion date.
- We will carry out any pre-completion searches, such as a bankruptcy search against yourself and a Land Registry Priority Search against the title.
- We will prepare an invoice and completion statement in case there are any monies you need to top up or in case there is a surplus once a re-mortgage completes.
- We will proceed to completion and then attend to the redemption of any existing mortgage and accounting to you for any balance.
- We will submit an application to the Land Registry to register the new mortgage and discharge the old mortgage from the title.
- We will let you know once registration has been completed (we also let your Lender know) and we will then close your file accordingly.
Leasehold Re-mortgage
In addition to the above steps, part of the title investigation will of course be the review of your Lease – we will also ask you to obtain information from your Landlord and Management Company about ground rent and service charges to ensure that these are fully up to date.
We will also need to know from your Landlord and Management Company what fees might be payable in connection with the notification to them of a new mortgage secured on a leasehold title.
At completion, we will serve notice of the change of mortgage to your Landlord and Management Company and pay any fees due.
How long will this take...?
Once we receive your new mortgage offer and assuming not only the mortgage offer is in order but also there are no issues with the title to your property (particularly with a leasehold property) we will agree a completion date with you – we will generally estimate this will be between 2 – 4 weeks from the above steps being fully completed to our satisfaction.
Title Registration of a re-mortgage can take a number of months to complete given the turnaround times with the Land Registry – you should probably expect this to take about 3 months for them to attend to.
SALE TRANSACTIONS
Our professional charges for conducting a routine sale transaction for you appear below. These fees are current as at and we will aim to provide you with a more personalised quotation when we are in communication with you. We may have gained a further understanding of your property or your instructions to enable us to do so. Our fees are therefore intended as the best guide we can provide so you can understand what costs you might incur should you choose to instruct our firm.
| Your Sale Price | Our Fees - £ GBP | Our fees including VAT - £ GBP |
|---|---|---|
| Up to £200,000 | 695.00 plus VAT @ 20% | 834 |
| £200,001 - £500,000 | 795.00 plus VAT @ 20% | 954 |
| £500,001 - £750,000 | 895.00 plus VAT @ 20% | 1,074 |
| £750,001 - £1,000,000 | 995.00 plus VAT @ 20% | 1,194 |
| £1,000,001 - £1,250,000 | 1150 plus VAT @ 20% | 1,380 |
| £1,250,001 - £1,500,000 | 1250 plus VAT @ 20% | 1,500 |
| £1,500,001 + | Please ask for details - based on 0.1% plus VAT @ 20% | |
On a sale transaction, you should expect the following additional payments;
Title Information – if the title to your property remains unregistered, we will usually need to obtain a Land Charges Search against anyone named on your current or historic title. Land Charges Searches currently cost £2 each. If the title to your property is registered at HM Land Registry, we will expect to provide your Buyer’s Solicitors with Official Copy Entries of the Title Registers for your property (currently £3) and a Land Registry Filed Plan (also £3).
Any documents recorded on the Title to your property and available from the Land Registry are also £3 each.
If you are selling a leasehold property, it is common for your freeholder/landlord and/or management company to provide confirmatory information and documentation to enable your Buyers Solicitors to proceed. Whilst you may have some copies of this documentation at home, it is common to expect a “pack” to be provided by your freeholder/landlord as well as also your management company. Depending on the nature of the services provided by those parties, you may therefore be required to pay an administration fee to each of them, i.e. for two packs in total. You may wish to check with your freeholder/landlord and/or management company early on in your transaction.
Other than the costs incurred in actually remitting redemption monies to your Mortgage Lender (or Lenders if you have more than one) by telegraphic transfer/CHAPS, we do not charge for dealing with the work undertaken in redeeming your mortgage.
RE-MORTGAGE
Our professional charges for conducting a routine re-mortgage transaction for you appear below. These fees are current as at and we will aim to provide you with a more personalised quotation when we are in communication with you. We may have gained a further understanding of your property or your instructions to enable us to do so. Our fees are therefore intended as the best guide we can provide so you can understand what costs you might incur should you choose to instruct our firm.
Land Registry Scale fees – the Land Registry will make a charge for registering your new mortgage on the Title Registers as evidence of your Lenders security over your property. They would also need to remove any existing mortgages which have been repaid. Land Registry fees are based on a scale which they have set – information on this is available on their website and we have endeavoured to replicate these below.
| Your New Mortgage Sum | Our Fees - £ GBP | Our fees including VAT - £ GBP |
|---|---|---|
| Up to £500,000 | 450.00 plus VAT @ 20% | 540 |
| £500,001 - £1.000,000 | 675.00 plus VAT @ 20% | 810 |
| Above £1,000,000 | 995.00 plus VAT @ 20% | 1,194 |
PURCHASE TRANSACTION
Our professional charges for conducting a routine sale transaction for you appear in the table below. These fees are current as at and we will aim to provide you with a more personalised quotation when we are in communication with you. We may have gained a further understanding of your property or your instructions to enable us to do so. Our fees are therefore intended as the best guide we can provide so you can understand what costs you might incur should you choose to instruct our firm.
| Your Purchase Price | Our Fees - £ GBP | Our fees including VAT - £ GBP |
|---|---|---|
| Up to £200,000 | 695.00 plus VAT @ 20% | 834 |
| £200,001 - £400,000 | 795.00 plus VAT @ 20% | 954 |
| £400,001 - £600,000 | 895.00 plus VAT @ 20% | 1,074 |
| £600,001 - £800,000 | 995.00 plus VAT @ 20% | 1,194 |
| £800,001 - £1,000,000 | 1150 plus VAT @ 20% | 1,380 |
| £1,000,001 - £1,250,000 | 1295 plus VAT @ 20% | 1,554 |
| £1.250,001 - £1,500,000 | 1395 plus VAT @ 20% | 1,674 |
| £1,500,001 + | Please ask for details – based on 0.125% plus VAT @ 20% | |
Stamp Duty Land Tax – when purchasing a property, Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is generally payable based on two main factors (1) the purchase price or consideration and (2) your circumstances.
Because we do not know of your personal circumstances until we have spoken with you, we cannot predict what your SDLT might cost. However, a very useful calculator is available online. We have attached a link here.
Using this tool, you should be able to calculate the SDLT you might be expected to pay dependent upon the purchase price, whether you are a first time buyer, whether you are purchasing a property in additional to an existing property and so on. If you would like us to look at this calculation with you, you are welcome to give us a call.
Land Registry Fees – the purchase price of your property determines the fee which the Land Registry will charge for registration of your title. In certain circumstances, the Land Registry may offer you a 50% reduction in your Land Registry fees if the application is submitted by us electronically. We do not charge for doing this for you.
Search Fees – there are a host of searches which we will need to undertake on your behalf or on behalf of your Lender and we have summarised the main categories below;
1. Local Authority Search – as we cannot predict on this website the location of the property you are purchasing, we have given you some typical Local Authority Search fees below.
You should be able to verify the current fees for the Local Authority covering the property you are purchasing by checking on their website or speaking to their Land Charges Department on the telephone.
2. Water/Drainage Search – again, this depends on the location of the property you are purchasing. We have given you some typical Water and Drainage Search fees in the short table below.
3. Environmental Search – a basic Environmental Search currently costs £46.80 – the fees charged by the search provider verify from time to time and you or your surveyor/valuer may identify the need for further search information to be obtained.
4. Land Charges/Land Registry Searches – depending on whether your title is unregistered (for which Land Charges Searches are undertaken per name appearing in the title) or registered (for what is known as an OS1 Search is undertaken against the Title Registers on behalf of the purchaser or lender) will determine the costs you will incur.
Current Land Charges and an OS1 Search fees appear on the Land Registry website – these are usually £2 per name for Land Charges Searches and £3 per OS1 Search.
5. Bankruptcy Searches – Your lender will expect us to undertake a Bankruptcy Search against each of the named individuals taking out the mortgage on the property being purchased or mortgaged. The current fees for doing so appear on the Land Registry website – this is currently £2 per name.
Other specialised searches may be required depending on the nature of the property, its location or the advice you receive from others – you can ask us for those costs at the relevant time.
LAWYER CHECKER
Where we send funds to the Sellers Solicitors, we would like to verify the Client Account Details of the firm in question. We currently rely on Lawyer Checker to do this for you – the current cost of this paid to them is £18 plus VAT (£21.60 in total) per search.