Purchases Pricing

Residential Conveyancing: Purchases

The Solicitors Regulatory Authority, the body which regulates law firms, require us to provide you with information on our costs in relation to certain legal services which we provide.  This is so that you have the information you need to make an informed choice of legal service provider, and an understanding as to what the total cost of that service may be.

One such legal service is the sale, purchase and mortgage of residential property.

The fees which we charge for residential conveyancing depend on a wide variety of factors including but not limited to whether the transaction is a sale or purchase, where the property is, and whether it is a flat or a house.

We have provided information on the potential costs for sales, purchases and re-mortgages and listed the factors which may cause those costs to increase. However, fees will vary from property to property and can on occasion be significantly more than the ranges given.  We can give you an accurate figure once we have specific information about the property including having sight of the relevant documentation.

This page details our pricing structure for property purchases.

The legal fees you will pay for a property purchase is based on the price of the property, the location of the property and any specific circumstances. The basic legal fee, as shown in Table 1 below, is determined by a sliding scale based on property value. The more expensive the property, the higher that basic fee will be.  This is due to the amount of risk attached to higher value purchases.

Our fees cover all the work required to complete the purchase of your new property, including dealing with registration at HM Land registry and dealing with the payment of the Stamp Duty Land Tax (or Land Transaction Tax if the property is in Wales).

Table 1 below shows the range of fees we can charge for a property of a particular price. For a specific quote, please contact your local office.  The specific circumstances are shown in table 2 and disbursements in table 3

Table 1

For properties valued at over £1,000,000 fees will be charged at the hourly rate of the lawyer undertaking the work on your behalf.  Please contact your local office for a bespoke quotation.

The current hourly rate bands are set out below.  These rates do not include VAT which will be charged at 20%.

We will charge additional fees (on top of the fees referred to above) for  each of the following specific circumstances:

Table 2

There will also be disbursements payable.  These are costs relating to your matter that are payable to 3^rd parties. We handle the payment of these fees to the 3^rd party to both ensure a smoother process and because it is often a requirement of mortgage conditions that we do so.  We have provided links to a Stamp Duty Land Tax Calculator and HM Land Registry’s fee scale so that you have accurate information about the amount of these particular disbursements since they are both dependant upon the price of the property being purchased.

Table 3

Referral Fees: If you are referred to Butcher & Barlow by an introducer where we pay them a referral fee, we will provide you with details of the arrangement and the fee we pay in our client care letter that we will send to you at the beginning of the transaction.  This fee is paid by us  so that there is no additional charge for you to pay.

Portal Fees: Some mortgage lenders send their mortgage offer to us via an on-line portal and there is a charge to access it. Such charge is usually either £15 plus VAT at 20% (£18) or £26 plus VAT at 20% (£31.20) depending on the portal provider that the lender uses.  We will provide you with details of the fee payable, if any, in our client care letter that we will send to you at the beginning of the transaction.

*  There will be additional disbursements payable where a property is leasehold.  These will be set out in the specific lease relating to the property. These disbursements are usually payable to the Freeholder or Management Company (or both). We will advise you on the actual disbursements once we have had sight of the lease and any Management Company and/or Freeholder’s information pack.

Ground rent and service charge are also likely to be payable throughout your ownership of a leasehold property.  Again, we will confirm the amounts upon sight of the lease.

** Local Authority Searches: The price of a local authority search is set by the relevant local authority.  Fees can range from £75 – £200 plus VAT at 20% and we can give you a specific cost once we know which local authority the property falls within.

*** Drainage Search: The price of a drainage search is set by the relevant service provider.  Fees range from £40 – £100 plus VAT at 20% and we can give you a specific cost once we know which provider services the property.

If you are not purchasing with the benefit of a mortgage, or have a mortgage lender which so allows, we can order a personal search bundle.  This includes the Local Authority Search, Environmental Search and relevant mining searches.  These bundles are often cheaper overall than the individual searches. We will advise you on whether this is an option once we know more about your purchase.

Our fees assume that:

• This a standard transaction and that no unforeseen matters will arise including for example (but not limited to) a defect in title which requires remedying prior to completion or the preparation of additional documents ancillary to the main transaction, a first registration of title, or a purchase of part.
• The transaction is concluded in a timely manner and no unreasonable complications arise.
• All parties in the transaction are cooperative and there is no unreasonable delay from third parties providing documentation.
• No indemnity policies are required. Additional disbursements may be required if an indemnity policy is required.
• That the transaction is in the name of an individual only and not a company. If you are purchasing in the name of a company, please call your nearest office for a quotation.
• That the transaction is not tied connected to or related to any commercial transaction. If this is the case, please call our Gadbrook Park office for a quotation.

How long will my purchase take?

How long it will take from your offer being accepted until you can move in to your new home will depend on a number of factors.  The average process will take between 8 and 16 weeks but it can be quicker or slower depending on the parties in the chain, the type of property being purchased (some properties such as flats for example require information to be obtained from third parties) and any complications which may arise in any of the transactions throughout the chain. Our Residential Property Team will talk you through the procedure and likely timescales in more detail once the specifics of the purchase and the chain are known.

You can view the stages of a usual property purchase here.