Residential Property
Buying a house is often the largest financial commitment you will ever make. Buying and selling a property can be very exciting, but at the same time it can be extremely stressful. At Jeffreys & Powell, we aim to take the stress out of conveyancing whilst striving to protect your interests at all times.
Our team of experienced solicitors in our residential conveyancing team have over forty years of collective experience. We will endeavour to take the hassle out of the complicated conveyancing process, keeping you and any other parties involved in your transaction fully informed throughout. We pride ourselves on being able to unravel complex issues and tailor our advice to your particular needs, ensuring the highest quality of service.
We can act on your behalf in respect of:
Residential sales
Residential purchases
Mortgages and re-mortgages
We do not apply our hourly charging rate to residential conveyancing matters. Instead, we charge for this work on a fixed fee basis, depending upon the value of the property concerned. This is intended to reflect the importance of the transaction to you, as well as the complexity of the matter for us. Our costs cover all aspects of the transaction, including dealing with registration at the Land Registry and submission and payment of any Stamp Duty or Land Transaction Tax.
Our fixed legal costs will also include dealing with any Land Transaction Tax/Stamp Duty Land Tax Return, redeeming your existing mortgage, completing your new mortgage, and registering your title at Land Registry at the conclusion of the transaction. We do not make separate charges for these elements. However, if we are not on your mortgage lender's panel, you may have to instruct a different solicitor to act separately for you in respect of your mortgage. If that is the case, that solicitor will advise you of their costs separately.
We do not charge for receiving payments by bank transfer. With effect from the 1st April 2022,we will charge for transferring funds electronically, which will be £12.00 for each bank transfer of an amount in excess of £10,000.00, and £5.00 for any amount below £10,000.00. These amounts will be disbursements which will be charged as disbursements in your bill, and in addition to our fixed costs and VAT.
Our fixed scale costs are as follows:
OUR FIXED CONVEYANCING legal fees
(all excluding VAT @ 20%, and all excluding disbursements)
Freehold
Property Value Sale Purchase
Up to £200,000.00 650.00 750.00
VAT 130.00 150.00
£200,001.00 - £350,000.00 750.00 850.00
VAT 150.00 170.00
£350,001.00 - £500,000.00 850.00 850.00
VAT 150.00 170.00
£500,001.00 - £750,000.00 950.00 1050.00
VAT 190.00 210.00
£750,001.00 - £1m 1050.00 1150.00
VAT 210.00 230.00
£1m - £2m Costs to be agreed
VAT Charged at 20% of agreed fees
£2m and over ¼ of 1% of Value
VAT Charged at 20% of agreed fees
Leasehold
Property Value Sale Purchase
Up to £200,000.00 850.00 950.00
VAT 170.00 190.00
£200,001.00 - £350,000.00 950.00 1050.00
VAT 190.00 210.00
£350,001.00 - £500,000.00 1050.00 1150.00
VAT 210.00 230.00
£500,001.00 - £750,000.00 1150.00 1250.00
VAT 230 .00 250.00
£750,001.00 - £1m 1250.00 1350.00
VAT 250.00 270.00
£1m - £2m Fees to be agreed
VAT Charged at 20% of agreed fees
£2m and over ¼ of 1% of Value
VAT Charged at 20% of agreed fees
Re-mortgages
We will charge a fixed fee of £400.00 plus VAT of £80.00 for residential freehold re-mortgages, and £500.00 plus VAT of £100.00 for leasehold residential re-mortgages, unless the matter is unduly complex, in which case we will agree a fixed fee with you before we start our work.
In addition to our fixed conveyancing legal fees, there are other costs (known as disbursements) which will be charged separately and in addition to our legal fees. These include:
the cost of searches - standard searches include local authority & land charges, water & drainage, chancel check and environmental searches. The fees for these are set by the search provider and vary from area to area, and include VAT. These can range from £300.00 to £500.00 inclusive of VAT. In some cases, more in-depth searches may be warranted, such as a flood report, and the cost of these will also vary by area, and include VAT.
the cost of electronic ID checks at a cost of £5.40 inclusive of VAT per person. We are required to check your identity as a matter of fraud prevention. In some cases, we may need to carry out additional ID checks, and will advise you of the cost (if any) before incurring such cost.
the cost of official copies of the title registers, Land Registry plans etc - these may be required for a number of reasons and are not subject to VAT. Normal costs would be in the region of £3.00 - £10.00 per item.
other additional costs might include indemnity insurance for title defects, copies of planning consents, copies of building regulation certificates etc. We will always advise you of the costs of these before incurring the expense on your behalf.
if the property you are selling or purchasing is leasehold, there may be further disbursements in addition to the above, the details of which will largely be set out in the Lease, but which could include such things as:
Notice of Transfer fee (which may or may not include VAT, and can range from £50.00 to £200.00)
leasehold precontract enquiries/management pack the cost of which is set by the leaseholder/management company and which may or may not include VAT, and range from £250.00 to £450.00
Deed of Covenant fee (set by the management company and may or may not include VAT and range from £100.00 to £300.00)
Notice of Charge fee (if there is a mortgage) again set out in the lease, and anything from £50.00 to £200.00
Certificate of Compliance fee, again set out in the lease, and anything from £50.00 to £500.00 and may or may not include VAT.
We will be able to advise more fully on these disbursements once we have had sight of the lease, as well as details of the Leaseholder/management company requirements.
Land Registry fees payable to register your title to your property - it is a legal requirement that your title to your property is registered after you purchase it. The Land Registry has fixed costs for this, none of which are subject to VAT, and which are calculated by reference to the value of the property. You can check the current fees at
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hm-land-registry-registration-services-fees
Depending on the value of the property you buy, you may also have to pay Land Transaction Tax (LTT) if the property is in Wales, or Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) if it is in England. The rate and amount of tax you will pay will depend on where the property is, the value of the property, as well as whether you or any joint purchaser own other property in the UK or abroad.
You can calculate the SDLT here:
https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/calculate-stamp-duty-land-tax/#/intro)
You can calculate the LTT here:
https://gov.wales/land-transaction-tax-calculator
We will make every effort to progress your transaction as quickly as possible, however, there are a number of factors which will impact upon the length of time the transaction will take. The average transaction is currently taking between 12 and 16 weeks, although each transaction will be different, and will largely depend on the number of parties within the chain, as well as the differing stages at which each party in the chain is in their particular transaction. Other things which might delay progress are for example how quickly you receive your mortgage offer, whether any party wishes to have a survey done, the length of time taken by others in the chain to respond to pre-contract enquiries, and how long the search providers take to provide responses to your searches. A leasehold sale or purchase will take much longer to complete than a freehold sale or purchase.
We want to give you the best possible service. However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we have provided then you should inform us immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.
In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues at this stage. If you would like to make a formal complaint, then you can read our full complaints procedure on the Complaints Procedure page of this website. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.
You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
What do to if we cannot resolve your complaint
The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.
Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:
within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or
within one year of you realising there was a concern.
You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.
Legal Ombudsman Contact details:
Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm.
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
