Price Transparency.
However, we understand and appreciate that every matter is unique, every client that we have the honour of representing has their own individual circumstances and so it is always best to enquire and one of our experienced and knowledgeable team will be pleased to offer you a no obligation, comprehensive, quotation.
Our firm’s fees range from £50.00 inclusive of VAT when completing an ID1/ID2 form for Land Registry purposes to £10,000.00 inclusive of VAT when acting for you in the purchase of a large commercial facility.
Our fees are linked to the property value based upon the risks involved and the complexity of the legal Title. We charge on a fixed fee basis for most of our Residential Conveyancing work.
Our fees are payable on Completion. In relation to commercial property, we offer some fixed fees and for everything else, we charge an hourly rate of £220.00 plus VAT which is in-line with Law Society guidance (chargeable as 10 units of 6 minutes or part thereof).
You will be advised in advance of the best possible rate we can offer for what you are trying to achieve.
Typical expenses in relation to your existing property will include Land Registry “Title Deeds”. Each document is charged at £3.60 and for a Freehold property, you will normally only need 2, but it is possible that there may be other documents held by Land Registry that are also needed. When dealing with a Leasehold property, you should expect us to obtain at least 5 documents on your behalf.
If you are selling or re-mortgaging a Leasehold property, it is usual that we would need to obtain certain information from your Landlord/Freeholder/Managing Agent. This will come with a charge from that third party, more often than not and the fees for provision of the information ranges from £0.00 to £1,500.00+.
Costs information will not be available to us when we provide our initial estimate, so we’ll let you know what you are being charged by the relevant third party as and when we know.
Rest assured, charges that are made by the third party are not marked up or added to by us in any way – what we pay to the third party for the information is what you will be asked to give us.
If you are buying or re-mortgaging a Leasehold property, often the Lease contains a requirement to serve notice of the change of ownership and/or the new Mortgage upon the Freeholder, for which they are entitled to charge a fee. We will deal with the service of notices for you as part of the purchase/re-mortgage but we won’t know what that fee is until the matter is underway. We don’t add anything to these either and so, you pay the fee that is requested by the third party Landlord/Freeholder/Managing Agent.
When dealing with property, certain taxes may become due. If buying or transferring property, you may have to pay Stamp Duty Land Tax (England) or Land Transaction Tax (Wales). More information is available here:- https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/calculate-stamp-duty-land-tax/#/intro https://gov.wales/land-transaction-tax-calculator
If selling and it is not your main residence, you may need to see an accountant able to advise in relation to any potential Capital Gains tax liability. Further information is available here:- https://www.gov.uk/capital-gains-tax
But, beware, there are very short and strict timeframes in providing information to the Revenue and paying any associated taxes that fall due. We will advise and assist to the extent we are permitted or we will ask you to seek independent advice from a tax expert if your circumstances dictate.
Any change of legal ownership of property needs to be registered at HM Land Registry. Land Registry will make a charge based upon the type of application and the value of the property being transferred. These fees range from £20.00 to £910.00 and will be advised to you based upon your personal circumstances. New Mortgages need to be registered too and the fees being charged by Land Registry to register the new Mortgage range from £20.00 to £250.00. Again, we will let you know beforehand what you will need to pay.
We source Local and other searches from our search provider and continue to ensure these are made available at the best possible prices.
Searches are ordered online and delivered to us electronically. We send them to you when we report to you with the contract for signing. The cost of the searches range from around £50.00 to around £300.00.
If we need to send funds on your behalf using the CHAPS method, our fees to do so are £42.00 per payment inclusive of VAT.
We are able to offer fixed fee pricing for Grant-only applications in taxable and non-taxable estates and for preparing Post-Death Variations, as set out below.
In all other cases, our fees for undertaking estate administration work are calculated based on time spent at an hourly rate of £220 and, where appropriate, a percentage uplift may be applied to reflect the value and complexity of the work involved and the consequent responsibility on the firm. The maximum value percentages applied are 1% of the gross value of the estate less the value of the deceased’s residence and 0.5% of the value of the deceased’s residence. VAT is then added at the prevailing rate, currently 20%.
In addition, disbursements may be payable, such as Probate Registry fees (approximately £280), statutory notices (approximately £200) and various search fees (approximately £3 to £10 plus VAT each).
In all cases an upper estimate of our overall costs or our fixed fee, as well as any anticipated disbursements, will be set out in our initial engagement letter and the hourly rates will be confirmed in our terms of business, which are sent to you for your approval at the outset and before any chargeable work is undertaken.
All estate administrations are different, and the likely costs and timescales can vary considerably due to a number of factors. However, by way of illustration, in our experience our fees for obtaining a Grant of Probate and administering an uncontested estate comprising UK assets only (including one residential property) would be in the region of £5,000 plus VAT and disbursements.
Timescales are impacted by certain factors beyond our control, such as the length of time it takes for the Probate Registry to issue the Grant, obtaining HMRC tax clearances and selling property. However, in our experience the average duration of a non-taxable estate administration would be in the region of 6 – 8 months or 12 months for a taxable estate.
