As of 6 December 2018, new rules require us to provide a range of prices and linked information, including hourly rates, for our residential conveyancing services.
Residential Conveyancing
1. An estimated fee or fixed price quotation for residential conveyancing in relation to privately owned property is based on a realistic time estimate according to the type of property and the matters outlined to us by you, the Client, at the initial instructions stage.
The estimated fee or quotation is based on a charging rate of £250.00 per hour for handling the matter from commencement to final completion and registration at the Land Registry, where applicable.
The Conveyancing Team is principally run by Laurence Ford who is an Associate Member of the Institute of Legal Executives and has been engaged in dealing with both Domestic and Commercial Conveyancing over the last 20 years. He is assisted by Nicki Bahia a qualified solicitor and a very competent secretary Arlene Woollard. All matters are supervised by John Davis Lawson.
2.Please note that in residential sale and purchase transactions our Estimated Fees or Fixed Price quotations will not include the following, which will be charged in addition:
(i) Legal completion being required earlier than 7 working days from exchange of contracts. If, at your request and/or in response to request from your seller or buyer completion is required sooner it will mean that your work will take priority over other clients work and, in this event, an uplift of £125.00 plus VAT per case will be made.
(ii) Arranging any type of indemnity policy (£85.00 plus VAT per policy)
(iii) Dealing with repayment of second/third charges or restrictions or cautions on title (£95.00 plus VAT)
(iv) Dealing with any additional correspondence and time when having to deal with a separate firm of solicitors appointed by your Lender (£165.00 plus VAT)
(v) Negotiations over the price of the property sold/purchased which may require documentation to be altered after the initial instructions are given to us.
(vi) Any negotiations over fixtures and fittings to be included in or excluded from the sale price.
(vii) Consideration or advice relating to a Lender’s valuation or a survey report. If advice is needed on the content of a House Buyer’s Report or structural survey the additional time required will be charged out at the charging rate noted above.
(viii) In the case of leasehold sales or purchases (and where relevant, freehold cases), the estimated fee or fixed fee quotation will not include approaches to or correspondence with Landlord, Managing Agents, Tenant, Management Companies, Residents Associations or any third party body or person save to the extent necessary to obtain up to date written receipts for ground rent and interim service charges. In these cases the right is reserved to impose an additional fee or fees for the work undertaken on your behalf. If you are selling leasehold property it is your responsibility to obtain the information necessary as required under the Leasehold Property information Questionnaire provided to you at the start of this transaction.
(ix) Correspondence with any other persons or parties to give approval to or instructions on a sale or purchase including the requirement for Powers of Attorney or authorities to act for such persons in the transaction. Our normal fee for preparing a General Power of Attorney under such circumstances is £150.00 plus VAT and for any necessary letters of authority £35.00 plus VAT.
(x) If the title to the property to be sold, or alternatively the title to the property to be purchased, is unregistered then a title investigation fee of £150.00 plus VAT on a sale and £195.00 plus VAT on a purchase will automatically be added to the fees given in paragraph 1.
(xi) All or any negotiations over the amount of an existing mortgage or other debt secured on a property (to include negotiations with a Lender as to negative equity) additional time required to deal with such matters will be charged out at the charging rate specified above.
(xii) Obtaining details from third party institutions or companies in relation to new life policies, pension plans and building insurance etc., or obtaining up to date information on existing life policies and plans to be used as security or part security for Mortgage loans.
(xiii) If there is a requirement for the firm to retain or hold a sum of money as a retention a file maintenance charge at the firm’s current rate will be levied for administration purposes for each period of six months the retention is required to be so held. Davis-Law Associates will not accept any liability for losses arising from any banking failure.
(xiv) If we have to order planning or building regulation documents or issue insurance indemnity policies (or similar) in order to satisfy requirements of a buyer’s solicitor.
(xv) Any other matter, which is not apparent at the time our estimate or fixed quote was given, which requires additional work to be undertaken.
(xvi) If a balance of purchase or deposit funds are being provided by way of a gift a fee will be applicable in order to cover the additional work required. Any Lender must be informed and a Bankruptcy search carried out against the person(s) providing the gift. If any part of the balance of the purchase or deposit funds is to be by way of a gift please provide the full name(s) and address(es) of the person(s) making the gift.
3. Following the replacement of Stamp Duty with Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) it is a legal requirement that within 30 days of completion of a property purchase an SDLT Return is submitted to HMRC. Responsibility for submission of the SDLT return is on you, the Client, and you should be aware that the HMRC levy a financial penalty in the event this is not done. You are able to complete the SDLT Return personally if you wish or, if you prefer, you could instruct your Accountant to do so. As a further alternative Davis-Law Associates are prepared to complete the SDLT Return on your behalf and this might be the most expedient solution. A fee of £75.00 plus VAT will be levied by us in the event you instruct us to complete the SDLT Return. Please ensure that you provide appropriate instructions in this respect.
4. Leasehold Properties
If it becomes necessary to hold any retention on account of unpaid maintenance/ground rent at the point of completion and if a retention is unavoidable, we will make a charge for dealing with this and advise you at the time as to the likely cost.
It might be necessary to enter into a Deed of Covenant (if the lease requires it) and in this event, we will charge an additional £95.00 plus VAT to deal with the document preparation and execution.
5. Most completions operate like clockwork but occasionally, due to circumstances beyond your and our control, there may be a need to negotiate with other lawyers and parties in the chain in regard to late completion and the associated ramifications. This cannot be predicted in advance and if we are involved in protracted communications with other parties in regard to delayed completion, we reserve the right to make a charge in this respect.
6.In a straightforward transaction with no unusual problems arising the procedure (briefly) is as follows:
YOUR SALE
1. We take your instructions and send you Property Information Forms to complete and return.
2. We received the Memorandum of Sale from your Estate Agent.
3. We obtain up to date copies of the title registers to your property.
4. We prepare the draft contract and send to your buyer’s solicitors with Property Information Forms.
5. Your buyer’s solicitors, having carried out their own searches, submit pre-contract enquiries, which we respond to.
6. If you have a mortgage, we obtain a preliminary redemption statement.
7. Once the terms of the contract and the transfer are agreed, we send them to you for you to sign.
YOUR PURCHASE
1. We take your instructions.
2. We received the Memorandum of Sale from your Estate Agent.
3. Your seller’s solicitors send us a the draft Contract and Property Information Forms.
4. We carry out searches – a Local Authority search, Drainage & Water search and an Environmental search. Results can take 2-3 weeks to be returned to us.
5.Having considered the draft contract, supporting papers and search results, we submit pre-contract enquiries to the seller’s solicitors.
6. If you are buying with a mortgage, we receive instructions from your lender and report to you on the mortgage.
7. When we receive replies to pre-contract enquiries, we prepare a Report on Title for you and send you the contract and transfer to sign. You will need to pay the deposit, usually 10% of the purchase price, to us when you return the signed documents.
At the same time your Seller’s Solicitors and Buyer’s Solicitors will be carrying out the same procedures for their clients.
When all of the above steps have been completed and if your Seller and Buyer are ready you will be in a position to exchange Contracts (this will legally bind both you and your Seller and Buyer to complete the transactions).
When contracts are exchanged you will need to pay a deposit of 10% of the price of the property which you are purchasing. If you are also selling a property we should be able to use the deposit being paid by the buyers of your existing property towards the deposit on the property you are purchasing, meaning you will only need to pay the balance of the sum due.
If you do not think you will have a 10% deposit (or the balance, if you are selling a property) available at exchange of contracts, you need to let us know straight away.
You should now discuss with the Seller and Buyer the date you would like to move, bearing in mind that we need on average a further fourteen days between exchange of Contracts and completion to finalise our preparations for completion.
Also if two or more people are buying together you need to decide how to own the property i.e. Joint Tenants or Tenants in Common.
AFTER EXCHANGE OF CONTRACTS AND BEFORE COMPLETION (MOVING DATE)
You will now have a date for completion and you should make arrangements with your Removal Firm and with your Seller and Buyer to have the gas and electricity meters read and the telephone transferred etc. on completion day. You should also deal with Council Tax and the utility services.
We continue with the transactions as follows:
YOUR SALE
1. We reply to any final questions raised by the buyer’s solicitor.
2. We obtain a final redemption statement.
3. We provide you with a completion statement showing the net sale funds available at completion.
YOUR PURCHASE
1. We carry out final pre-completion searches.
2. We report to and request the mortgage advance from your lender – please note that lender’s require at least five clear days notice to release the funds.
3. We provide you with a completion statement showing the balance required from you to complete the purchase – all funds must be with us by close of business the day before completion.
COMPLETION (MOVING) DAY
You should not need to see us on the moving day. Your Buyer’s Solicitors will transfer the sale price to our bank and we then date and send them the transfer deed.
We then send the purchase price to your Seller’s Solicitors and they will send and date the transfer date for that property and send it to us.
The keys to your new property are usually available between 12.00 noon and 2.30pm on the date of completion.
After completion we send the Stamp Duty Land Tax Form to the Inland Revenue, register your ownership, together with any mortgage, at the Land Registry.
This is a short summary of our work and we hope it helps you to understand what we are doing for you. If you require any other information, please call us.