Residential Home Sales

The SRA Transparency Rules require all regulated law firms, who publish as part of their usual business that they offer certain services, to supply information on the prices they charge for those services. For pricing on other types of work, we can provide an estimate upon request.

Our team has over 50 years of collective experience in delivering high quality work in all matters relating to freehold and leasehold sale transactions. The team has particular expertise in residential conveyancing transactions for all varieties of properties.

We have 10 key client-facing individuals who may work on your matter, with a strong technical team and separate management team in place to ensure we give you the best possible service. Rebecca Kibby is the partner with overall responsibility for the work carried out within Conveyancing Services, regardless of who works on your matter. Rebecca’s details are at this link and details of her team can be found here.

Sales can vary greatly in both price and complexity. Your sale will be dealt with by people whose expertise is appropriate to the task in hand.

You will see that there is a difference between freehold and leasehold properties which will affect your costs:

1. Owning the Freehold of a property means owning the property outright, including the land it’s built on.
2. Owning a Leasehold property means you own the property for the length of your lease agreement with the Freeholder.  When the lease ends, ownership returns to the freeholder unless the lease is extended (and there are different ways in which you can extend a lease, including a statutory right under the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 (as amended)).

Our legal fees are fixed for a standard sale, but we may also charge additional fixed fees for supplemental activities that can be associated with your instruction.

Our legal fees cover all of the work required to complete the sale of a property, including redeeming any charges (eg mortgages) registered against the property.

Our legal fees are as follows, but please note that transactions can become more complex than originally thought (for example if the property is unregistered and the title deeds have been mislaid, there are significant defects in the title that cannot be covered with indemnity insurance, there are uncooperative third parties, etc). If so we will of course contact you to ensure you are kept updated with any additional unexpected costs before they are incurred.

We will also charge the following fixed fee:

Electronic money transfer fee – £35 + VAT – this fee is charged for the same day bank transfer that is required when redeeming any registered charges (eg mortgages) on completion.

Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure your transaction proceeds smoothly. The expected disbursements associated with your sale are:

1. Land Registry fee – £12 – this is the expected cost of obtaining an up to date copy of your title and any relevant ancillary documents from the Land Registry at the outset.
2. Leasehold Properties – where you are selling a leasehold property your Landlord or Management Company are likely to charge a fee for obtaining an information pack from them. This includes up to date insurance documents, service charge accounts and details of any disputes, etc. The usual cost is between £100 and £300 plus VAT. This fee varies from property to property and can on occasion be significantly more than the range given above. We can give you an accurate figure once we have confirmation from the Landlord or Managing Agents.
3. Indemnity Insurance – to be confirmed if required. These fees vary from property to property, depending on the issue being indemnified against. We can give you an accurate figure and will seek your instructions on payment of the cost ahead of exchange and completion.

If you were selling a freehold property for £500,000 with a mortgage to redeem, the anticipated fees and disbursements would be:-

How long it will take from a sale being agreed until completion of your sale will depend on a number of factors. The average process takes between 6 and 12 weeks.

It can be quicker or slower, depending on the number and approach of the parties in the chain. For example, if you are selling your property to a first time buyer with a mortgage agreed in principle and you have no related purchase, it could take 4-6 weeks.

However, if you are selling a leasehold property and there is a lengthy chain, this can take significantly longer, between 3 and 4 months.

The precise stages involved in the sale of a residential property vary according to the circumstances. However, below we have suggested some key stages that are included:

1. Take your instructions and send our initial documentation to you to complete and return
2. Obtain appropriate identification documents from you
3. Obtain an information pack from your freeholders (if you are selling a leasehold property)
4. Draft the required contract papers and send to the Buyers solicitors
5. Obtain your instructions on and reply to any enquiries raised by the Buyers solicitors
6. Obtain further planning or other third party documentation if required
7. Send final contract to you for signature
8. Agree completion date
9. Exchange contracts and notify you that this has happened
10. Provide you with an itemised statement of the funds due back to you (or from you as appropriate) on completion
11. Obtain your signature to the Transfer deed ahead of completion
12. Apportion any service charges or ground rent to the completion date (if applicable)
13. Receive funds from Buyers solicitors and complete the sale
14. Deal with post completion formalities including repaying any existing charges and paying any estate agents (if applicable)

Some transactions will involve additional features which will result in your Conveyancer having to carry out additional work. We will charge an additional fee in the following scenarios:

• Help to Buy Equity Loan – £300 + VAT – where you are redeeming or porting a Government or Armed Forces Help to Buy equity loan, an additional fee of £300 + VAT will be charged (per equity loan).
• Unregistered – £300 + VAT – if the property you are selling is unregistered, we will make an additional charge of £300 + VAT to account for the additional time in compiling and reviewing the title documentation.

Where your transaction has been referred from London and Country Mortgages, you will already have had full sight of our legal fees and the associated disbursements from London and Country before deciding to instruct Foot Anstey. The fees and disbursements vary and differ from the above. We will reconfirm the fees and disbursements as soon as the referral has been received, as well as confirmation as to the amount of referral fee being paid from our fees to London and Country Mortgages.