Our Prices

Our conveyancing fees vary depending on a number of factors. The type of property (house/flat), the tenure (freehold/leasehold/commonhold), the age of the property (old/new build), the location (relevant to the cost of searches) and its price/value are all examples of aspects of a property transaction that affect the overall costs.

As a consequence, it’s very difficult for us to provide a firm estimate of costs without obtaining some basic information from you. However, we’ll always provide you with a written bespoke estimate at the outset of any transaction that you’re contemplating.

From the outset we’ll be as transparent and open about the potential costs as is possible having regard to the information you give to us. Furthermore if, during the course of a transaction it becomes apparent that additional work is necessary that wasn't envisaged when our initial estimate was given, we’ll draw this to your attention before any additional charges are actually incurred so you can decide whether to incur those costs before they are incurred.

Our average legal fee to act in the purchase of a property is £800 plus 20% VAT (£160) (£960 inclusive of vat). Please note that our fees are offered as fixed fees – our fees for property purchases are not based on hourly rates – we know that you need to know how much you'll have to spend. They will be based on the time that we expect to incur and will have regard to our expertise. The average fee quoted includes acting for a buyer and also their lender if a mortgage is involved – the majority of lenders will instruct us to act for them in relation to your mortgage so another law firm doesn't have to be involved with consequential additional cost to you. This average fee includes submitting a SDLT return. Please note that we charge more for dealing with a flat than a house as transactions involving flats are more complex and time consuming.

We also charge an additional fee for obtaining and advising on information obtained by searching records held by the Land Registry, Local Authorities, Drainage and Water Authority, Environmental Agencies and the Coal Authority. The objective is to obtain information for you and to protect your interests and to put you in a position where you can make an informed decision on proceeding with your property purchase. 

This additional fee will always be payable if you're taking out a mortgage as your lender will insist that the searches are undertaken to protect its interests. Our average fee in relation to obtaining and advising on searches is £320.00 plus 20% vat (£64) (£384 inclusive of vat), but it can be more in certain areas where there are more searches to undertake (such as mining) and/or the Local Authority search charge is high. If you don't need a mortgage and try to save costs by not having searches you're taking a risk that may prove costly to you if the searches would have revealed something that would have affected your decision to buy the property or the price you've paid.

Other additional Fees

These can include the below and will be noted on the quote provided to you;

Electronic Money Transfer Fees - £45 plus VAT at 20% (£9) (£54 inclusive of VAT)

ID Checks – £15 plus VAT at 20% (£3) (£18 plus VAT)

Land Registry Fees (Land Registry Searches and Bankruptcy Searches) £20 plus VAT at 20% (£24 inclusive of VAT)

Our fee does not include payments that we make to third parties on your behalf which are commonly referred to as Disbursements. 

Timescale - Typically eight to ten weeks but delays can happen.

Key stages

• Receive instructions from you
• Receive details of the purchase from the estate agents
• Receive contracts from the seller’s solicitor
• Raise any queries over the documents
• Request and receive the searches on the property (raise any further queries on these if necessary)
• Receive your mortgage offer (if applicable) and review
• Check all replies and report to you on the property you are purchasing
• Receive signed documents from you
• Agree completion date and ask the lender for mortgage funds (if applicable)
• Exchange with the agreed completion date inserted
• Complete the purchase on the contractual completion date
• Register your details at the Land Registry

Yes, there could be. 

Our fee: If there is more work for us to carry out than we envisaged at the outset based on the information you provided we may have to revise our estimate. However, if that proves to be the case we would advise you before the additional work is undertaken so that you can decide whether to incur that cost. An example would be if the property you are intending to buy has a major defect or if you omit to tell us that the property is a leasehold flat or a shared ownership property. The additional fees would be in the region of £250 plus 20& VAT (£50) (£300 inclusive of VAT) 

Payments to third parties may arise: These are called Disbursements and the amount of these payments varies from property to property. Examples are as follows:-

Land Registration fee: This is the fee that the Government Land Registry charges to register you as the new owner of the property and is based on the price you pay. A registration fee will always be payable. Note: most properties are already registered in their own individual title and the application is, therefore, to update that register. However, if the property isn't already registered in its own separate title, the Land Registry charge a higher fee as there is more work to be carried out to create a new register. The fee doubles. Examples of this are new builds and also purchases of a property that has been owned by the current owner from before the date when registration was first necessary.

SDLT: Commonly known as Stamp Duty. This is a tax charged by the Government that has to be paid by us on your behalf if a payment is due. The price you pay is relevant, but there are other factors that determine whether there's a liability and the amount. There is an on-line Government calculator that you can use as a basic guide but the provisions are complex and you should consider taking specialist advice if you are facing a large bill – like the majority of Solicitors we are do not have tax expertise on tax.  Please also bear in mind that the Government introduces changes to SDLT when it makes a budget statement and the changes are often immediately effective with little or no opportunity to avoid. 

Freeholders/Managers Information fees: Another disbursement but one that warrants a special mention – Freeholders and/or managers charge fees to register a Notice of Transfer. There is no standard fee, they all change different amounts so we cannot specify the amount involved at the beginning of a transaction. Always applies if the property is leasehold. It may also arise if the property is freehold and there's a specific requirement in the Deeds to give notification to a management company or similar. The fee varies depending on what the deeds say and/or what the third party demands. Often the fee is between £100 plus 20% VAT (£120 inclusive of VAT) and £300 plus 20% VAT (£60) (£360 inclusive of VAT)

Notice of mortgage fee: If you take out a mortgage then your lender will require that any party that should be notified of the change in ownership is also notified of your lender's interest. This is in addition to the Notice of Transfer fee but may be a similar amount. Again, the fee charged by the third party is usually between £100 plus 20% VAT (£20) (£120 inclusive of VAT) and £300 plus 20% plus VAT (£60) (£360 inclusive of VAT) 

Deed of covenant fee: If the deeds require that you enter in to a direct covenant with a third party then that party may charge a fee for dealing with the Deed. This might for example be a covenant by you to pay a service charge. Usually it's between £100 plus 20% VAT (£120 inclusive of VAT) and £300 plus 20% VAT (£60) (£60 inclusive of VAT)

Certificate of compliance fee: A Certificate of compliance from a third party is sometimes required under the terms of the Deeds, particularly in the case of flats. This might, for example, have been registered so that the third party can ensure that when a property changes hands its requirements are dealt with and that any rent and/or service charge for communal areas has been paid up to date. Again, the fee is usually between £50 plus 20% VAT (£10) (£60 inclusive of VAT) and £250 plus 20% VAT (£50) (£250 inclusive of VAT). 

No. When we issue an estimate all our fees are listed clearly so you know what you’re paying from the outset. Also, unlike some solicitors, we don’t charge extra for acting for your lender. Some of the fees payable to third parties are variable and the exact amount due may only become known as the purchase progresses.

We always provide a written estimate at the outset of a transaction. This will be based on the information provided by you to us at that time. This reflects the fact that we know that you need to budget and also to ensure that there's no misunderstanding between us at a later time.  We hope you will be delighted with our services and will use us again and appreciate that will not be the case if you feel that we have let you down over costs. We can write to you with the fee estimate or email it to you. 

In the case of residential conveyancing, we usually offer a fixed fee. We quote a fixed fee for the work normally undertaken in a standard case and will provide you with a list of additional fixed fees that we would charge if you require additional work to be undertaken. An example of additional fees for our time would be the preparation of a Declaration of Trust or a Will. 

We will always honour the fixed fee quoted unless the information relied upon by us at the time of the estimate was incorrect or it subsequently becomes apparent that there's an aspect of the transaction that will significantly affect the amount of time that has to be spent by us. In either case we will notify you of any such development before we proceed further so that you can decide whether to incur additional expense. Examples of circumstances that might change the cost would be if the property is a flat, not a house as you initially informed us. For a free quote and breakdown of related Disbursements known at this time, please use our quote enquiry form.

In addition to receiving instructions direct from buyers and sellers, we also work alongside brokers, referrers and property agents who refer clients to us. If we've agreed to pay to them a referral fee for recommending us to act for you then we'll disclose the amount to you and we'll pay the amount involved to the referrer out of our fee.