£400,000 House Purchase Estimate

The total legal costs associated with purchasing a house worth £400,000 are likely to be £9,592.77. This includes:

  • Our fees                    £1375.00
  • VAT on our fees                    £275.00
  • Disbursements
  • Searches Pack           £223.77
  • Mining Search (if required) £41.94
  • Chancel Indemnity Insurance £15.06
  • Bankruptcy Search per borrower £2.40
  • Land Registry Title Search           £3.60
  • Land Registry Fee           £150.00
  • Bank transfer costs £36.00
  • Stamp Duty Land Tax                     £7,500

TOTAL LEGAL COSTS           £9,622.77

Additional Costs

  • Indemnity Insurance – There are occasions when we will advise you that an insurance indemnity policy should be put in place to cover, for example, work done to a property which does not have the requisite Planning Permission or Building Regulations consent. A policy to cover this type of risk may cost approximately £250. We will ask the seller to pay for the policy but if the seller does not there may be an additional cost to you.

Services included in our fees estimates:

  • Carrying out identity checks as required by the Money Laundering Regulations;
  • Advising you throughout
  • Carrying out any searches that we consider to be necessary;
  • Carrying out any optional searches that you require;
  • Considering the contract papers and raising enquiries with the seller’s conveyancers;
  • Ensuring that the title to the property is good and preparing the appropriate documents to convey the title to you;
  • Carrying out all necessary work in respect of any mortgage to be granted over the property including the preparation of the lender’s prescribed documents and obtaining your signature to the mortgage deed;
  • Advising you on the documentation and obtaining your signature to the contract and thereafter exchanging contracts;
  • Preparing and filing a Land Tax Return and arranging for payment of any Stamp Duty Land Tax that is due;
  • Registering your title to the property at the Land Registry (including dealing with any requisitions raised on our application);
  • Reporting to you on completion of the registration and accounting to you for the balance of any funds that we are holding.

 Services which are not included in our fees estimates:

  • Advising you on the tax consequences of the transaction (save taking the steps in respect of Stamp Duty Land Tax described above);
  • Preparing a declaration of trust;
  • Visiting the property or advising on the location of the boundaries as compared to the Land Registry’s title plan;
  • Preparing statutory declarations or statements of truth or deeds of variations;
  • Dealing with a retention or advising on the physical condition of the property.

Please speak to us if you require our assistance with any of the above.

Procedure and Timescales

 There are two important dates in the conveyancing transaction. The first is what is known as the exchange of contracts and the second is completion.

Briefly, the exchange of contracts is the moment during the transaction when the sellers and the buyers become legally committed to concluding the deal. Until that time either party can withdraw. Once the contracts have been exchanged neither party can legally withdraw from the deal without severe financial penalties.

Completion is the date on which the buyers are entitled to have possession of the property, and the date on which the sellers are entitled to receive the money and must vacate the property.

The time between exchange and completion is agreed between the parties to the transaction and the chain of transactions, if there is one and is generally between one and four weeks.

  • Up to Exchange of Contracts – We will receive from the sellers’ solicitor a comprehensive bundle of information about the property, comprising proof of ownership, a list of contents to be included in the sale and a host of other points relating to boundaries, neighbours, planning, rights of way etc.
    In the meantime, you will be applying for your mortgage and having a survey done. We will be check the information provided by the sellers’ solicitor and will also carry out searches on the property, usually Local, Drainage, Mining (if required), Environmental and Chancel Searches.
  • Once we have received the paperwork from the sellers’ solicitor, together with the result of the searches and a copy of your mortgage offer, we will raise enquiries with the seller’s solicitor on any aspect of the paperwork or the property which we believe needs investigating further.
  • When we are satisfied with the replies to our enquiries we will send you a written report to advise you fully about the property and the mortgage offer and, if appropriate, meet you personally to go through the report.
  • The Exchange of Contracts – Once we are satisfied that the property has a good and marketable title we will arrange an exchange of contracts, at which stage the date for moving (the completion date) is inserted in the contract so that both the seller and the buyers are then legally committed to that date.
  • Between Exchange of Contracts and Completion – Following the exchange of contracts all parties involved are aware that the matter is to be completed on a particular day. We will request mortgage funds (if any), carry out pre-completion searches at the Land Registry and prepare a completion statement setting out the sum of money required from you to complete the purchase.
  • Completion – We will on the completion date transfer to the seller’s solicitor sufficient money to buy the property. In return for the money, we will receive the legal transfer document, together with all the other relevant documents for the property.
  • After Completion – We will prepare the Stamp Duty Land Tax Return, submit it to HMRC and pay the Stamp Duty Land Tax due. We will prepare and submit an application to the Land Registry to register you as owner/proprietor of the property and if the property is leasehold we will notify the freehold owner, management company and any managing agents. When we receive the new title document from the Land Registry we will check it to ensure that your details and your lender’s legal charge (if any) have been registered correctly and we will send you the new Land Registry title document and any other relevant documents which should be kept for your reference or for production on any future sale of the property.

See also our   Estimate for £400,000 house sale  and  our   Costs Table , which  gives an indication of our fees for different types and values of transaction.

Get a conveyancing estimate