Residential Conveyancing
Ask for a quotation for your home sale and/or purchase. We shall be happy to provide you with full details (with no obligation on your part) if you provide the following details.
Home Sale
(a) Sale Price
(b) Address (or simply location if you prefer)
(c) Current Mortgage Lender/s and approximate amount/s outstanding
(d) Whether Freehold or Leasehold
Home Purchase
(a) Purchase Price
(b) Address (or location with Postcode)
(c) Approximate amount of mortgage required and name of lender if known
(d) Whether Freehold or Leasehold
If you would like to have a word with us about your conveyancing needs, then please phone Ian Ashley on 01782 599992 - email ianashley@chesworths.co.uk or Stephen Boden on 01782 599992 - email steveboden@chesworths.co.uk or Jacqui Mayer on 01782 599992 - email jacquimayer@chesworths.co.uk
Domestic Conveyancing
We are able to provide a service to act on your behalf to deal with the conveyancing on a domestic house sale or purchase. The fees which we quote to you at the commencement at the transaction cover the work required to complete the purchase or sale including, in the case of a purchase, dealing with registration at the Land Registry, dealing with the payment of the Stamp Duty if the property is in England, Land Transaction Tax if the property is in Wales. In a sale transaction it also includes redeeming any mortgage or mortgages, settling Estate Agents fees and distributing the money to those entitled.
Freehold Sale
In respect of the sale of a property with a registered title our minimum fee is £500 plus VAT and a fee for a copy of the title to the property from the Land Registry, which is currently £8.45. It may be the case that the registered title reveals other documents which need to be called from the Land Registry and this costs an additional fee of up to £10 per document. If the sale of the registered property also includes redeeming a mortgage or mortgages, then additional costs would be involved, and costs quoted would be specific to the particular transaction depending on the number of lenders. We also charge £25 plus VAT per bank transfer involved in the transaction. When you have made a decision to sell your property and know the likely sale price please consult one of our team for a bespoke quotation based on all the relevant facts.
If the title to the property which you are selling is not registered at the Land Registry then there is additional work to be done in checking the title to the property, copying all of the deeds and producing a Schedule of them to accompany the Contract. This is usually a more complicated process and usually more costly. A typical minimum fee for an unregistered sale at the lower end of our scale would be £550 plus VAT and out of pocket expenses, which would involve producing a Land Charges search against the names of persons on the title who are selling and a search to establish that there is no Caution against the title to the property. These searches vary but generally do not exceed around £10.
In all sale transactions, whether registered title or unregistered, the sellers have to fill in an information form about the property and its contents and we do not complete those forms for you or with you as they are to be completed by the property owner. Our role will be to establish the title, draw the Contract papers and issue them, approve the Transfer document which the buyers’ solicitor will send in the course of the transaction, arrange to see you (if possible) to sign the documentation for the transaction and then complete it and pay any monies due to you in accordance with your instructions. If the property has a mortgage secured on it we would also obtain a settlement figure from the lender and discharge the mortgage and produce evidence of the same to the buyers’ solicitors.
Freehold Purchase
We are able to assist you in the purchase of a freehold domestic property. To provide you with an absolute reliable figure please contact a member of our team who will take details of precisely what is involved when he is providing you with the appropriate information.
As a general guide, our starter fee for a purchase without mortgage at the low end of the scale is usually £600 plus VAT and if a mortgage is involved, then depending on the lender and their requirements, usually an additional £100 plus VAT would be charged for dealing with the mortgage. Once we know the precise details of the price of the property, it’s location and your mortgage arrangements we can provide you with a bespoke quotation.
In a purchase transaction it is usual to conduct searches and these vary depending on the location of the property and the local authority concerned but usually the searches are up to £300. A Land Registry fee on completion of registering the title at the Land Registry is payable and this varies based on the price of the property with an average fee between £190 and £270. There is a money transfer fee of £25 plus VAT where we have to send funds electronically during the transaction and it may be the case that Stamp Duty applies to the transaction. This is calculated based on your personal circumstances and transaction, but you may wish to visit the HMRC’s website and look at the Stamp Duty Calculator to give you some indication of the likely Stamp Duty of the proposed transaction. Stamp Duty is a complicated area with many variables with different rates payable for second or subsequent property purchases as additional properties and less being payable for first time buyers and it is therefore impossible to generalise on the Stamp Duty liability on a purchase.
The length of time a purchase transaction takes depends on many factors but a usual average time-scale would be between 8 and 12 weeks from commencement. It could be quicker if there is a small or no chain involved, but it could take longer if the property is a new build or there are problems found with the property when surveyed or difficulties found on the title or amongst the Contract papers which require the sellers to take steps to remedy them.
Freehold Purchase
The key stages of the standard residential purchase are as follows:-
- Take instructions and give initial advice.
- Check that finances are in place to fund the purchase.
- Receive and advise on the Contract papers.
- Conduct the appropriate searches.
- Request any further documents required from the sellers’ solicitors such as Planning Permissions or Building Regulation Approvals.
- Make any other necessary enquiries of the sellers’ solicitors.
- Advise you on all the documents received.
- Advise on mortgage offer.
- Attend upon you to advise on signing the Contract and Transfer and to discuss a date for completion.
- Exchange Contracts and let you know when this has happened.
- Call in funds from mortgage company and yourself.
- Complete the purchase.
- Deal with Stamp Duty.
- Deal with Land Registry application for registration.