Freehold Residential Purchase Pricing

At Gordon Jones & Company, we recognise that buying a new home is a big commitment – that’s why we will always do our best to make the transaction smooth and efficient.  Whether you are a first time buyer or an investor, we are here to take the stress out of buying and selling residential property.

We have the experience, legal and technical “know how” to help you through the conveyancing process having been in business for over 50 years taking you through each step of your transaction and providing a service that takes the worry out of moving home.  We understand that communication is key, so we will make sure we are available to answer your questions in plain English and keep you up to date with everything you need to know.

We provide a professional, quality service at a fair price.  This is probably your biggest investment in life and we want to provide a first class service and value for money, with no hidden fees.

Our conveyancing team is made up of Solicitors, Chartered legal executives, and support staff, and is supervised by Denise Watkins who is a Director and Head of Residential Property.

Where necessary we can recommend other professionals for example Surveyors, IFAs, Mortgage Advisor and property valuers.

We are proud to be CQS Accredited, issued by the Law Society and we also work on many recommendations from past and present clients

PRICING

We recognise that costs are important and review our cost regularly.  We aim to be price competitive but recognise that the fee involved has to enable us to provide for you a proper and exacting service.

So that you know what the fees are we normally work on a fixed fee basis the details of which will be provided for you before you instruct us to proceed.  Any costs that could have not been reasonably anticipated you will be notified of these and they will be discussed with you and instructions taken and agreement reached.

FEES FOR FREEHOLD RESIDENTIAL TRANSACTIONS

Our fees that are involved in Freehold Residential transactions are based upon the matter being:-

  • A normal transaction with no hidden problems for example a defective title which would need to be resolved before the matter could proceed
  • There are no unforeseeable problems 
  • Everybody involved is cooperating 
  • No Title Indemnity Insurance Policies are needed to remedy defects for example no legal guarantee of a right of way although we would normally expect the seller to pay for these
  • And we are instructed to act for any Lender to whom you have approached for financial assistance

Subject to the above our fees cover all work required to proceed with the matter to exchange of contracts, subsequently completion and then registration at Land Registry and making notification of the matter to HMRC via the Stamp Duty Land Transaction procedures as appropriate to the transaction.

Typically our legal fees for acting for you on the sale or purchase of a freehold residential property range from £575.00 to £950.00 plus VAT and disbursements.  depending upon the value of the property.

All other fees (disbursements) will be for matters such as searches, land registration fees, bank charges on payments of the transmission of purchase monies, mortgage redemption and payments to you.  You will be provided with a quotation as to the normal charges that are known to us before the commencement of the matter in order that you can confirm acceptability before the matter proceeds.

WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED

This Firm runs an open and transparent system including provision of details of our legal fees. We are ready, willing and able to discuss these matters with you at any stage should you have any concerns.  However, we would wish to state that we do not make payment of referral fees (typically to agents introducing work), nor commissions from for example mortgage providers nor mortgage introducers. It is our view that it is often the case that seemingly innocuous referral fees are very often “hidden” in ways that upon closer examination could be seen either wholly or in part in reality paid for by the client.

The following matters are not included in our standard fees and will be charged plus VAT:

Help to Buy Scheme – Equity charges  £100.00

Help to Buy ISA  £50.00

Gifted Deposit  £50.00

Client ID Admin fee (per person)  £6.50

Telegraphic transfer Admin fee (per Transfer)  £30.00

Arranging Indemnity Insurance (per Policy)  £50.00

Our fees may be affected if:

  • you change any instructions part way through a matter
  • any documents that may be requested that are not part of the normal conveyancing i.e. 
  • Declaration of Trust on ownership, any other additional work required by a Restriction on the Title to register you as the owner at Land Registry.

DISBURSEMENTS

These are basically “out of pocket” expenses payable to third parties such as Land Registry fees and search fees.  We deal with these on your behalf as part of the Conveyancing procedure

There may be other disbursements that are part and parcel of the Leasehold procedure. Some of these maybe

  • Land Registry fee – this depends on the price you pay for the property and whether the matter is capable of being dealt with electronically or not – scales are available on the Government HMLR website
  • Stamp duty Land Tax – again this depends on the purchase price and other factors as to whether you are a first time buyer, own another property and other issues – again information is available on the Government HMRC stamp duty Land Tax website.  If the property is in Wales then information can be viewed on the Welsh Revenue Authority website. 

VAT, where relevant, is charged at 20%.

MATTERS THAT WE ATTEND TO

  • Identity and money laundering checks
  • Obtain details of the transaction from the agents (if any) and yourselves
  • Take up contract and supporting documents consider, advise and report to you and to any Lender
  • Make enquiries on the title and matters revealed in the contract
  • Put in hand appropriate searches and advise 
  • Consider the mortgage instructions received and in particular their adequacy and appropriateness for the Lender and yourself 
  • Bring about exchange of contracts
  • Attend upon you or provide detailed contract report preparatory to obtaining your signature to the contract and transfer in readiness for exchange of contracts and completion 
  • Prepare a transfer deed and obtain your signature
  • Prepare mortgage deed and obtain your signature
  • Raise enquiries as to all relevant matters highlighted either by the contract papers or by yourself
  • Carry out all necessary searches of the local authority, appropriate agencies, land charges and land registry
  • Liaise with your Lender with a view to advising and obtaining the necessary funds to coincide with the completion date 
  • Prepare the necessary financial statements in order that you can see the matters and sums involved
  • Ensure the transfer of funds and release of keys
  • Make SDLT return to HMRC and make payment of any stamp duty payable
  • Register the transaction at Land Registry
  • Keep you updated as to progress at relevant times

MATTERS THAT WE DO NOT UNDERTAKE FOR YOU

  • Advising on tax 
  • Advising on insolvency issues
  • Undertake any matters on your behalf which are outside the scope of our retainer without having agreed beforehand  that we should do so and the fees involved

TIMESCALES – HOW LONG WILL THE MATTER TAKE

This is dependent on many interlinking factors.  There are many components to any sale and purchase and more so if you are combining a sale and purchase together.  On a purchase alone we have to await the contract and legal title, we would then go through all the documents and raise any enquiries.  We then await the result of those enquiries and if they are satisfactory, well and good. If not we need to raise other enquiries. Searches are ordered and we await the result of those before we can check them.  If there is a mortgage, we have to await the offer before we can check that. If there is a connected sale or a chain involved then the situation is the same many times over.   

However, in our experience an average time scale is between one and three months to reach completion.   This can be quicker or slower dependant on the chain involved, the factors referred to above and the individual situation of the parties concerned.  It will also depend on matters such as:

  • How quickly you supply us with the information we require
  • The speed of responses from other parties in the transaction chain such as other solicitors, mortgage companies and search providers
  • Any unforeseen circumstances
  • Buying a New build where it is dependent on the Developer to build and complete the property. 

We will discuss with you further on the situation regarding the length of time to reach exchange and completion when we have a better picture of the situation in hand

WHO WILL DEAL WITH THE MATTER?
The matter will be dealt with by Denise Watkins. She is a qualified Solicitor with over 30 years experience.

FINALLY

We appreciate that the one thing on everyone’s mind when moving house is the cost and how quickly you can move. From the information provided hopefully, it gives you a bigger picture.  Our aim to get you moving as quickly and cost effectively as possible. However, the most important matter in the transaction is to ensure that you have a property that is not only problem free when you move in but also remarkable without any problems at the time you wish to Transfer, Re-mortgage or sell.   Obviously regulations and legislation sometimes change and we cannot give any 100% guarantees that nothing will have changed at the time of your transfer or resale but we will do our utmost to ensure that it is the case when you complete. Whilst this may take longer than you wish, in the long run, we are sure that you would prefer that to having something competed purely for speed that gives you lots of problems.