For a purchase:

• Establishing your identity via our standard client identity procedures;
• Obtaining your instructions to proceed with the purchase when we will also require a payment “on account” at this stage and requesting a contract package from your seller’s conveyancer;

• Upon receipt of the seller’s contract package, raising searches with the local authority and the water company with submission of environmental land and chancel liability checks. We will also check the seller’s legal title, contract terms and replies to enquiries relating to the property you are purchasing, raising further enquiries as appropriate;
• Checking the seller’s paperwork is satisfactory and that the search and land check results are also satisfactory;
• Preparing a report to you with the purchase contract and a property transfer deed for your signature and return. We will also include the mortgage deed if applicable and a few other forms for you to complete and return so that we hold relevant information to deal with the stamping and registration formalities after completion. This report will contain all the relevant information and documentation you need to enable your purchase to proceed satisfactorily.
• Liaising with you, your selling agents and the seller’s conveyancer to achieve an exchange of contracts, committing you to proceed with the purchase and the seller to proceed with their sale on agreed terms and to completion of the move, allowing at least one clear working week (2 weeks is considered a reasonable timescale for the work we need to undertake) for the carrying out of all pre-completion steps and drawdown of any mortgage funds;
• Dealing with the standard completion arrangements under the terms of your purchase contract to achieve completion.
• Dealing with standard tax submission and registration formalities to record you as the owner of the new property at the Land Registry and if applicable, your lender as having a mortgage secured over it.

Confirmation of the costs and payments you must make to 3rd parties, (known as “disbursements”) are provided to you at the onset on the basis that we will be carrying out all of the work above with no further costs liability to you. We expect a reasonable amount of chasing to be necessary and we undertake this without any liability to other costs arising. We also expect to liaise with you and other parties to achieve exchange and or completion as reasonably necessary, again without any liability to further costs arising.

However, problems or complications that have to be resolved to enable a sale or purchase to proceed can be encountered after we provide our cost and disbursement figures to you and/or a need for further unanticipated work may arise, particularly so for the sale or purchase of a leasehold property if there are more complex requirements from the landlord or a property management company involving for example title restrictions that have to be satisfied, deeds of covenant, company membership or shareholdings, or the acquisition of a share in a freehold. This can mean that we will need to discuss a liability to further costs or disbursements with you.

Unexpected problems or complications may relate to your property or to the property you hope to purchase and if they arise, we will contact you to explain the particular problem and how we feel it is best resolved and to discuss any further expense you may need to meet.

Good relationships with our clients are important to us so we do not do this unless it is reasonable and proper to do so and we will always tell you if we think there may or will be a liability to further costs so that we move forward with your agreement.

We will provide you with a list of anticipated charges for dealing with further or additional work at the onset of a transaction.

Whilst we do need to speak with you at the onset of a transaction to be able to best advise you on all issues, including costs, we can confirm our costs will be based on the following:

1. For a freehold sale at a price of less than £500,000 – costs are £950 plus vat;
2. For a freehold sale at a price between £500,000 and £1,000,000 – costs are £1,100 plus vat;
3. For a freehold sale at a price between £1,000,000 and £1,500,000 – costs are £1,750 plus vat;
4. For a freehold sale at a price between £1.5 and £2M – costs are £2,000 plus VAT;
5. For a freehold sale at a price of over £2,000,000 – costs are by agreement with your fee earner;
6. For any leasehold sale there is a standard further charge of £500 plus vat;
7. For the redemption of a mortgage simultaneously with the sale, there is a standard further charge of £175 plus vat (excludes Help to Buy);
8. For a freehold purchase at a price of less than £500,000 – costs are £950 plus vat;
9. For a freehold purchase at a price between £500,000 and £1,000,000 – costs are £1,250 plus vat;
10. For a freehold purchase at a price between £1,000,000 and £1,5000,000 – costs are £1,950 plus vat;
11. For a freehold purchase at a price between £1.5 and £2M – costs are £2,250 plus vat;
12. For a freehold purchase at a price of over £2,000,000 – costs are by agreement with your fee earner;
13. For a leasehold purchase there is a standard further charge of £500 plus vat;
14. For the purchase of a new build property, there is a standard further charge of £500 plus vat;
15. For the completion of a mortgage on a property, taking place simultaneously with the purchase, there is a standard further charge of £200 plus vat;
16. For any purchase involving the submission of a Stamp Duty Land Tax Return, there is a standard charge of £50 plus vat and for any purchase registered at the Land Registry via electronic registration (which will reduce the Land Registry fee you pay by 50%) or for registering previously unregistered land there is a standard charge of £50 plus vat;
17. For an electronic transfer of funds via the CHAPS or bank TT system we have a standard charge of £40 plus vat and adopt that means of transmission for the extra security it offers when the payment is in excess of £2,000. When a lower payment is made via the banks BACS scheme at a fixed cost or standard charge of £20 plus VAT.   and for each client identity check we make there is a standard charge of £20 plus vat.
18. For all sale/purchase transactions we evidence an audit trail of steps taken to comply with the Law Society’s ‘CQS’ accreditation standards. This has a fixed cost of £50 plus VAT which will appear on your financial statement/our invoice.

In addition to our legal fees, you will also have to meet the disbursements payable. For a sale, you should expect Land Registry fees to be met, typically around £6-24 and for a purchase, you should expect fees typically around £420 for the searches outlined above, Land Registry search fees typically around £5 to £7, Land Registry registration fees based on the purchase price or value of the mortgage and payment of Stamp Duty Land Tax, primarily based on the purchase price. There is an electronic tax return fee payable of £12 when we submit the relevant purchase data to HMRC. Details of the applicable Land Registry registration fee and of the Stamp Duty Land Tax liability are available via HMRC and Land Registry websites although we will always confirm these to you when we know more about your particular property transaction.