Leasehold 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, 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.  Often this is your biggest investment and we want to provide a first class service and value for money services, with no hidden fees.

Our conveyancing team is made up of solicitors, chartered legal executives, trainee solicitors and paralegals, 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 have 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.  We work on the principle that cost is not always the only factor that a client would be looking for and price ourselves on our longstanding commitment to clients and our recommendations. 

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.  There will be no hidden extras nor nasty surprises provided that there are no extra instructions that arise or anything that we had not been made aware of at the outset. Any costs that could have not been reasonably anticipated you will be notified to you and they will be discussed with you and instructions taken and agreement reached.

FEES FOR LEASEHOLD RESIDENTIAL TRANSACTIONS

Our fees that are involved in Leasehold Residential transactions by individuals range between £700 to £1000 plus VAT which are based upon the matter below and includes the legal fees to cover the work required to complete the purchase of your property and dealing with any Mortgage that you may be taking out.

The fees included are on the assumption that it is:

  • 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 that would not have been part of the standard procedure
  • Everybody involved is cooperating 
  • No Title Indemnity Insurance Policies are needed to remedy defects (although this is something that we would argue on your behalf should be paid for by the Seller)
  • 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 investigate the title and the Lease, raising and dealing with any enquiries necessary to perfect title, exchange of contracts, subsequently completion and then registration at Land Registry and making notification of the matter to HMRC of the Stamp Duty Land and complete the forms to obtain the Stamp Duty Certificate.  We will also give Notice to the freeholder when the purchase is completed as required under the terms of the Lease.

 All other fees (disbursements) will be matters such as searches, land registration fees, bank charges on payments of the transmission of purchase monies, and payments to you.  You will be provided with an estimate 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.

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

Help to Buy Scheme – Equity charges  £100.00

Shared Ownership  £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, Deed of Covenant if requested by the Freeholder or Management Company, Stock Transfer form if there is a share certificate
  • any other additional work required by a Restriction on the Title to register 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

  • a Notice fee required by the Freeholder/Management Company to place you on their records as the new owner. This is an unknown fee until notified to us once we receive a Management Pack.  The Landlord/Managing Agents may double the required fee if there is a mortgage to be also added to their records.   
  • They may require a Deed of Covenant for which they sometimes charge to record this once prepared by us and signed by you and 
  • a Certificate of Compliance may be charged for.  This is a document that the Landlord grants to certify to Land Registry that certain Restrictions have been complied with.
  • 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%.

STAGES OF CONVEYANCING

  • Carry out identification and Money Laundering checks 
  • Obtain full details of the transaction from you and any estate agent 
  • Obtain contract and legal documentation and raise any enquiries to clarify points that may need clarification and/or obtain further documentation for clarification
  • Report to you and request search fees
  • Carry out whatever searches are necessary, ie. local, water and drainage, planning, Environmental, Mining and report to you on the results when received
  • Review any Mortgage offer applicable to your purchase and report to you
  • When all information is available and we are satisfied with enquiries and search results arrange for an appointment for you to go through all the paperwork and discuss any matters of concern
  • When satisfied with all points arrange for you to sign, contracts, mortgages and any other related documents in readiness for exchange
  • Discuss a completion date, how soon deposits can be forwarded and all aspects relating to the lead up to the completion (moving) date and how any chain of sales/ purchases all fit together
  • Prepare Transfer Deed and obtain your signature
  • Prepare the Mortgage Deed for signature (if a mortgage is required)
  • Carry out Land Charges and HM Land Registry searches and report on any adverse results
  • Raise any further queries on the results of the Land Charges and HM Land Registry searches with the other solicitors and obtain any undertakings required to discharge any entries on the Land Registry title or searches
  • If a mortgage is required, liaise with the Lender, prepare a Certificate on Title for the Lender and arrange to drawdown the Mortgage advance in readiness for completion.
  • If a joint purchase, discuss with you the difference between the situation regarding Joint Tenants and Tenants in Common.  Advise on the difference on both and how they may relate to your particular circumstances and how they affect you in the future. If necessary we would then prepare a Declaration of Trust and wills – the cost of these would be discussed as they are not part of the Conveyancing process for which a cost has already been given
  • Prepare a Statement of Account showing the amounts coming in and going out to obtain a balance for completion
  • Oversee completion arrangements, moneys coming in and going out through our Bank account – forwarding funds to the other solicitors and arranging for release of keys
  • Complete the Inland Revenue form and attend to any payment of Stamp Duty Land Tax to obtain the Stamp Duty Certificate for registration at Land Registry
  • Prepare any Notices required by the Freeholder or Managing Agents and submit these with the required fee
  • Comply with any restrictions set by the freeholder or Managing Agents to obtain the Certificate of Compliance for Land Registry
  • Complete the forms required to register you as the new owners of the title at Land Registry ad forward copy documentation to you and where required, to the Lender

WHAT WE DON’T DO 

  • Advise on tax as this is a specialist area (unless it is an area connected to the purchase i.e. stamp duty land tax)
  • Advise on insolvency matters 
  • Advise on any other matter without first agreeing the fee with you

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:

  • Does the lease need extending?
  • 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 at 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 remarketable 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.