Residential Sales Pricing

At Gordon Jones & Company, we recognise that selling or buying a new home is a big commitment – that’s why we will always do our best to make the transaction smooth and efficient.  When you sell a property there are important decisions to make and we have to ensure that all the legal requirements are met.

We have the experience, legal and technical “know how” having been in business for over 50 years 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 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 also have many recommendations from existing 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 RESIDENTIAL SALE TRANSACTIONS

Our fees that are involved in Residential sale transaction by individuals range between £700 to £1000 plus VAT which are based upon the matter below and include the legal fees to cover the work required to complete the purchase of your property and dealing with any Mortgage that you may have that needs to be redeemed.

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 in the title
  • And we are instructed to act for any Lender to complete the redemption of the existing mortgage on your property (if there is one)

WHATS NOT INCLUDED 

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

Redemption of a Help to Buy Equity charges (each one)*  £100.00

Redemption of any other Mortgage (ie.2nd or 3rd Charge  £100.00

Client ID Admin fee (per person)  £6.50

Telegraphic transfer Admin fee (per Transfer)  £30.00

Arranging Indemnity Insurance (per Policy)  £50.00

*When redeeming a Help to Buy Equity charge you must obtain a Valuation of your property.  Currently, the administrators for the Help to Buy Scheme when redeeming are a company called Target who will also charge you fees.  The information can be obtained on the website by inserting redeeming my Help to Buy Equity Charge

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. 
  • any other additional work required by a Restriction on the Title to be removed at Land Registry.
  • If crucial documents are not available and these need to be located or obtained

DISBURSEMENTS

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

Fees for Office copies of documents from Land Registry £6.00

There may be other documents at Land Registry that are required 

But we would discuss that with you if necessary

There may be other disbursements that are part and parcel of the sale particularly if it is a Leasehold procedure. Some of these maybe

  • a Leasehold pack required from the Freeholder/Management Company to deal with the buyers enquiries.  This information would not be available until we have contacted the Freeholder/Management Company as they all differ.
  • An Age Verification form may be required by the Freeholder or a Direct Debit form completed.  There may be charges for these

This is not an exhaustive list but we would discuss with you at the time that we are notified of any other disbursements. 

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 details of your title and verify these
  • Prepare and submit contract documents to the buyers solicitors
  • Advise you on and reply to enquiries that are raised by the buyers solicitors 
  • Obtain any documents that are not with the deeds that the buyers solicitors may request – dependant on what these are there may be an additional charge which we would discuss with you.
  • Obtain your signature to the contract and negotiate a completion date (moving date)
  • Supervise exchange of contracts and advise you
  • Approve the Transfer deed and obtain your signature
  • Reply to any requisitions raised by your buyers solicitors and give any undertakings required to discharge any mortgages
  • Obtain the amount required to discharge any mortgage or equity charges 
  • Supervise completion arrangements and release of keys 
  • Discharge outstanding loans and any estate agents account
  • Prepare a Statement of Account and account to you for any surplus funds
  • Forward the signed Transfer and any deeds to the buyers solicitors
  • When the discharge document arrives from the Mortgage Company (or letter confirming it has been discharged at Land Registry) forward this to the buyers solicitors and discharge our Undertaking 
  • Prepare the file for closure

WHAT WE DON’T DO 

  • Advise on tax as this is a specialist area
  • 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 more so if you are combining a sale and purchase together.  On a sale alone we have to await the information to prepare the contract and legal title, we would then deal with any enquiries raised by the buyers solicitors or send any to you that cannot be answered from the deeds.  Answer the enquiries. We then be waiting for the buyers solicitors to confirm if they have any further queries after receiving the result of searches or if they have any further enquiries.  

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 or mortgage companies 
  • Any unforeseen circumstances
  • On leasehold properties how quickly the freeholder/managing agents provide the information pack on the Lease.

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/sell. From the information provided hopefully it gives you a bigger picture.  Our aim to get you moving/sold at quickly and cost effectively as possible. However, the most important matter in the transaction is to ensure that you have no ongoing problems. We cannot of course give 100% guarantee due to regulation changes or if leasehold any service charge issues that arise after completion but we can guarantee that we will do our utmost to know that we have done everything possible at the stage of completion that we are capable of to complete your matter.