Property Sales & Purchases

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Our costs


Why Wilsons?

With an experienced team of solicitors the Wilsons Residential Property team is able to assist in all manner of property transactions.  Partner Jon Ashbridge heads up the team working with Kate Stockdale and Samuel Harley in the Salisbury Office.

Our aim is to ensure that your transaction, whether it is a sale or purchase, freehold or leasehold, proceeds as quickly and smoothly as possible.

We offer flexibility with our pricing, helping to ensure that our clients obtain value from our services.  Whilst we provide the option of working on an hourly rate basis (rates between £75 - £350 plus VAT depending on the qualification and experience of the person undertaking the work) the vast majority of our clients choose for the work to be carried out on a fixed fee basis.  The level of the fee depends on the nature of the transaction and the services levels you would like us to provide (e.g. the seniority of the solicitor dealing with the matter).

Unless expressly stated otherwise, all of the fees and disbursements referred to would be subject to VAT, payable in addition, calculated at the standard rate of 20%.

Key factors:

A key factor in determining our fixed fee is the value of the property and below is an indication of the range of our likely fees on that basis:
 

Property value Freehold Property (plus VAT) Leasehold Property (plus VAT)
<£250,000 £1,500 - £2,850 £1,900 - £3,250
£250,001 - £500,000 £1,750 - £3,250 £2,200 - £3,700
£500,001 - £750,000 £2,000 - £3,650 £2,500 - £4,150
£750,001 - £1,000,000 £2,500 - £4,500 £3,000 - £5,000
£1,000,001 - £10,000,000 £3,500 - £18,000 £4,000 - £22,500
>£10,000,001 From £15,000 From £19,500

 

In determining the level of the fixed fee we will need to consider whether:

  • the matter is a sale or purchase;
  • you will be purchasing with a mortgage;
  • you choose a lender who requires additional work or who instructs their own solicitor;
  • you are purchasing a new build property;
  • you selling and buying as part of a part-exchange option;
  • the title to the property is registered with the Land Registry;
  • you wish to choose the solicitor who will be dealing with your matter; and
  • you need us to prioritise your matter.

Disbursements:

In addition to our fees there will also be a number of additional disbursements, which will vary depending on the property value and location and whether you are buying or selling. An indication of these additional costs can be found here.

Additional pricing options:

We have a number of additional pricing options which can be applied to the above estimates.

Service Level Guarantee
We aim to provide an exceptional level of client service.  For our clients, we believe that exceptional service is linked to our availability, prompt phone and email responses, unequivocal and commercially pragmatic advice, clear explanations, clear written communications, utmost courtesy and respect and general ease of doing business with us.

If you do not consider that you have had exceptional service from us during the course of your transaction engagement then we allow you to reduce our fee by up to 10% – no strings attached other than the remaining balance must be paid on the completion, or within 14 days of the bill being delivered.  All we ask is that you let us know why you have chosen to reduce the fee, as this will help us improve client service in the future.

Abortive and Success Option
We appreciate that some clients would like us to enter into an element of risk-sharing in the event that the matter on which we are working on for you does not proceed to its conclusion.

The abort/success fee is designed to provide a framework for the sharing of that price risk between you and us. Where you chose this option, we will apply a 40% discount in the event that the matter goes abortive.

However, if the matter we are working on for you proceeds to its conclusion then we will be entitled to charge you an uplift of 10% to the agreed fix fee.

Work involved:

The work involved in a standard purchase includes the following steps:

Pre-exchange

  • Receiving the contract papers from the seller's solicitor.
  • Undertaking an extensive review of the legal title to the property.
  • Where the property is leasehold, we will undertake a review of the lease to ensure that we make you aware of any onerous clauses or restrictions.
  • Carrying out a search with the Local Authority and analysis of the results to ensure amongst other things, that all necessary planning permission and Building Regulations approvals are in place; whether the property abuts a publicly maintainable highway; the results of any Tree Preservation Orders, details of any nearby road schemes, details of any proposed compulsory purchase, and whether there are any orders in place that would create further liabilities.
  • Carrying out further searches in relation to drainage and water supply, environmental history, and other locally relevant matters such as mining.  Analysing the search reports on receipt to ensure that there are no onerous liabilities attached to the property.
  • Liaise with the seller's solicitor in relation to any enquiries we need to raise.
  • When the client needs a mortgage to purchase the property, we will review the mortgage offer and ensure that the property is suitable for the lender. Where necessary this may involve reporting certain points to the lender for their approval.
  • We will provide you with a report on the property to cover all the documents we have reviewed.
  • We will progress the matter to exchange and then through to completion.

Pre-completion

  • We will provide you with a completion statement showing a breakdown the finances relating to the matter.

Post-completion

  • Once the purchase has completed, we will submit a return to HMRC to account for any stamp duty to be paid and we will ensure that any indemnity policies are in place from the date of completion including the indemnity policy to cover potential chancel repair obligations.
  • Where the property is leasehold we will deal with the post-completion formalities to include serving notice on the freeholder.
  • We will arrange for the transfer to be registered at the Land Registry and provide the client, and the lender, with copies of the updated title documents.

The work involved in a standard sale includes the following steps:

Pre-exchange

  • Undertaking an extensive review of the legal title to the property. 
  • We will compile the contract papers and liaise with the clients where necessary in relation to the Property Information Forms and the property title deeds.
  • Where the property is leasehold, we will contact the Management Company and/or the Landlord to obtain their pre-sales papers.
  • We will deal with any enquiries raised by the buyer's solicitor and liaise with the clients where necessary.
  • We will agree the deposit arrangements and progress the sale to exchange.

Pre-completion

  • We will obtain a redemption statement from the existing lender, where applicable and provide you with a completion statement which will confirm the net sale proceeds.

Post-completion

  • Following completion, we will arrange for all the legal documents and any title deeds to be sent to the buyer's solicitor and for any existing mortgage to be discharged.
  • We will report to the clients on the conclusion of the sale.

It is difficult to provide a timescale for each of the above stages as this can change depending on a number of factors. However, it is currently taking on average 6 to 8 weeks to carry out the pre-exchange tasks. The pre-completion timescale will depend on the wishes of all the parties in the chain as well as the notice any lenders require. This can be as little as a couple of days but is usually around 2 to 4 weeks. The post-completion work for a sale can be carried out relatively quickly (1 to 2 weeks) but unfortunately the Land Registry currently have a large backlog of applications. It may be some time (as much as 18 months for some applications) before we are able to report to you following the registration of your purchase transfer and finally close our file.

 What is not included:

  • Financial advice including the effect if any of the lifetime mortgage on welfare benefits or alternatives to the Lifetime Mortgage.
  • Taxation advice.
  • The effect of the Lifetime Mortgage on your Estate following your death including tax and Inheritance issues and probate advice.
  • Advice or preparation of a Declaration of Trust or similar instrument to govern the details of your co-ownership of the property with anyone else.
  • Rectifying any issues with the Lease if it is defective.
  • Issues that would fall within the area of expertise of an expert witness.
  • Tax or accounting advice.
  • Advice on any law other than English law.

In the event of tax or trust implications arising in this matter Wilsons has a specialist tax and trust department that would be pleased to offer you further advice on these tax issues.  Such work would be the subject of a separate scope of work and such work and engagement terms.

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