Purchase
Buying and selling property can be a stressful process. Our aim is to take the stress out of your next move. We are accredited members of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS), a recognised quality standard which reflects the skill and expertise our practice has achieved to provide quality advice to you in respect of your conveyancing transaction.
What Happens
- We receive contract papers from the sellers solicitors for our consideration and approval
- We raise ‘additional enquiries’ (questions not covered in the contract papers)
- We carry out relevant searches
- We receive your mortgage offer in writing from your mortgage lender. We are under a duty to report any issues which arise in the purchase of your property to the mortgage lender
- We approve the contract papers and ask you to sign the contract and give us a deposit (usually 10% of the purchase price)
- Completion dates are discussed and when agreed contracts are exchanged
- After exchange, you must supply us with a copy of the up to date Schedule and insurance policy
- We will send you a completion statement after exchange of contracts so you can arrange to send us funds to complete. If you are taking a mortgage, we will request the mortgage advance in time for completion
- On the day of completion, we will send the balance of the purchase price due to the buyer’s solicitors
- If Stamp Duty Land Tax is payable, we will complete a Land Transaction Return to send to the Inland Revenue on completion together and pay the stamp duty which is due from your funds
- We will register the property in your name and send you a copy of the Title held by the Land Registry
- The average time to completion is 8-12 weeks, it can be less or more and the time taken will depend on the number of factors including parties involved, length of the chain and the complexity of the issues encountered.
- We shall retain a scanned copy of your file following completion of your transaction for a minimum period of 6 years
Our Charges
Our charges vary from £950 to £4,500 plus vat (charged at 20%) and disbursements for a straightforward purchase. Our charges increase as the purchase price goes up.
Additional Charges
We may be required to carry out additional work or deal with issues on your behalf which may not be known at the start of the transaction. If this is the case, we shall charge an additional fee for the extra work involved. We shall advise you beforehand what the additional charge will be. The following are examples of issues that will attract an additional fee. This is not a complete list and there may be other issues for which we will make an additional charge:
| A. | Arranging an Expedited Completion – where we are asked to arrange for completion either on the same day as contracts are exchanged or less than 10 working days (including the days of exchange and completion) between exchange of contracts and completion | £225* |
| B. | Arranging a Defective Title/Search Validation Indemnity Policy | £75* |
| C. | Drafting or checking a new deed of covenant | £175* |
| D. | Where the leasehold property you are buying includes a share in the freehold. There could also be the Deed of Covenant fee referred to in ‘A’ above if that is required under the lease. There may also be additional Land Registry fees if the changes to the freehold title have to be registered |
£175* |
| E. | If the freehold property you are buying or selling includes a use and obligation to share the cost of maintenance of amenity lands – investigating the extent of liability and costs and requirements for transfer of the membership of any management company | £175* |
| F. | If the property you are buying or selling contains more than one title (sometimes eg a house and a garage on a separate plot have two separate title numbers). – investigating the additional title and dealing with additional enquiries on a sale and making additional searches and enquiries on a purchase | £195* |
| G. | If we are asked to hold a retention on completion e.g. because there are unknown service charges at the date of completion | A retainer of £150* to keep |
| H. | If you are selling a leasehold property where a pre-assignment leasehold information pack is required from your Landlord or management company. – no additional charge except the fees which are charged by the Landlord or management company to produce the information pack which you must pay in advance in addition to any on account payment that you have given us | – |
| I. | If we are asked to check the terms of a rental agreement of a buy to let | £225* |
| J. | If there are special conditions on your mortgage offer which have to be investigated and satisfied (e.g. confirming that an existing mortgage has been paid off) | £125* |
| *All prices are subject to 20% Vat. | ||
We reserve the right to review our fees if a transaction becomes complicated. This will be discussed with you in advance. Wherever possible, our conveyancing work is carried out on the basis of the estimate provided. Within this estimate we will include all conventional work associated with a typical conveyancing transaction. However, sometimes issues arise during the course of a transaction which are not normally part of the conveyancing process and for which we have to make an additional charge. Some items occur more often than others and for these items we have standard fees which are set out above. However please note that this list is not exhaustive.
Your sale will be dealt with by Bhavna Desai who is a qualified solicitor who has specialized in conveyancing for over 20 years and has a wealth of experience. Please do not hesitate to contact her on 0208 767 7718 or by email, to b.desai@broadwaysolicitors.com.
