Our team, which operates from Lincoln, has many years of collective experience in providing high quality conveyancing* services. In this section, we set out details of the services that we provide, and the costs involved, relating to the sale of a freehold* residential property. By clicking on the relevant links below, you will find details of the other services that we provide, and their corresponding costs:

(Where any word(s) or term(s) are [underlined OR have an * next to them] they are defined in a glossary at the end of this page.)

Overview

This section includes the following:

(i) the key stages that are, or might be, involved in the sale of a freehold residential property and which we can assist you with;
(ii) an indication of who will undertake the work and our legal fees;
(iii) an indication of the cost of any disbursements*; and
(iv) an indication of the likely timescale to complete your sale.

Key stages

Our fees cover all of the work required to complete the sale of your property, including:

Taking your instructions and making contact with the estate agents and buyer’s solicitors; dealing with enquiries and communicating with all parties throughout the transaction
Drafting a contract* and providing title* documents to the buyer’s solicitors
Approving a transfer*, transferring the property from you to the buyer
Providing you with a Contract Report* (and contract documentation in readiness for exchange)
Providing advice to you on all documents and information received
Obtaining a repayment figure for any charges registered against the property
Preparing the file for exchange of contracts*
Agreeing completion* date
Exchanging contracts* and notifying you that this has happened
Preparing a completion statement setting out the financial information relating to your transaction and any balance due to you
Preparing the file for completion
Completing the sale
Dealing with post completion requirements, e.g. repaying all charges, sending the signed transfer and deeds to the buyer’s solicitors and paying the estate agent

Who will undertake the work?

Most sales will be carried out by one of our conveyancing executives. Whoever carries out the work, they will always be supervised by one of our managers. Further details about our team can be found here. We also employ a number of conveyancing administrators who support our conveyancing executives by opening files and helping with initial enquiries etc. Again, they will always be supervised by one of our managers.

Our Fees

Generally, our legal fees are based on the valuation of the property that you are selling. We set out in the table below, indications of our legal fees (not including VAT) based on ranges of property values.

Sale price (£)	Up to 150,000	£150,000 – 250,000	£250,001 - £350,000	350,001 – 500,000	500,001 – 600,000	600,001 – 700,000	700,001 – 1,000,000
Legal fees	700	750	825	925	1025	1225	1225

Where the property value is in excess of £1,000,000, we will provide a bespoke quotation tailored to the circumstances. As a guide, the legal fees will usually be between 0.15 – 0.20% of the sale price (plus VAT).

Our legal fees include any referral fee that is payable to your estate agent which has referred your sale to us. The referral fees that we pay range from £350 to £550. If we act for you, we will tell you the amount of the referral fee that we have paid and confirm who the recipient of that, is.

In addition to the above legal fees, we charge a fee for transferring money, electronically. Although the fee varies, it will not be more than £40.

There are many factors when selling a house (in addition to those detailed above) which we may need to help you with. If it is necessary for us to help you with any of those, additional fees will be incurred. By way of examples, those factors include where the following might apply:

There are defects with the title requiring insurance, statutory declarations* or amendments to the title*
You are repaying a “Help to buy” mortgage*
There is a freehold management company* involved
Repayment of charges registered against the property

If your matter requires additional work that is not covered by the legal fees in the table above, you will be informed of this and what the additional cost will be at the earliest opportunity. Once we know the sale price and full details of your proposed transaction, we will provide you with a full written illustration of the legal fees and anticipated third party costs. We will also confirm our fees for additional legal services related to your sale in case they arise on your transaction. The total costs of conveyancing will be made up of our legal fees, disbursements* and VAT.

Disbursements*

There will always be costs payable to third parties as part of your sale.

It is difficult to confirm exactly what disbursements will be incurred until we know more about your transaction but it is likely that as a minimum we will need to obtain Office Copies of your title which is a copy of your title confirming your ownership, a plan of the property and any other title documents referred to. The cost will be approximately £10 plus VAT.

How long will my house sale take?

Each transaction is unique. You and others in any chain will have different circumstances and requirements. It is, therefore, difficult to estimate how long each step (particularly as some steps may take place concurrently) and accordingly how long your sale will take. However, as an indication, and based on our experience, we find the average time for a transaction covering the steps above is 10 to 12 weeks.

It can be quicker or slower, depending on whether you are part of a chain of sellers and buyers. For example, if you are selling to a first time buyer, it will be quicker that a situation where there are four people in a chain. Such a chain could experience delays if, for example, one person in the chain discovers a defect in the title of the property they are buying and another is struggling to secure a mortgage.

Glossary

Chancel repair policy	an insurance policy which protects the owner of a property against a potential claim liability to pay for chancel repairs to a church
Completion	moving day or the day upon which your transaction completes with the balance of purchase/sale monies being paid and title to property transferred; if there is a chain involved, everybody completes and moves on the same day
Contract	the form of legal agreement prepared in duplicate for signature by the seller and buyer setting out all the legal rights and obligations agreed between them; this is the legally binding document between a seller and a buyer that contains all the terms of the agreement for the sale of a property
Conveyancing	the legal work needed to buy and sell properties
Disbursements	out of pocket expenses paid by us on the client’s behalf to third parties, such as SDLT, HMLR charges and search fees, among others
Exchanging contracts	the point that both parties are committed to the transaction; from the minute that contracts are exchanged, the sale becomes binding; until contracts are exchanged, either party can walk away from the transaction with no legal or financial penalties; at the same time as contracts are exchanged, a deposit is handed over from the buyer’s solicitors to the seller’s solicitors; the balance of the money will be handed over on the completion date, which is agreed at this time as well
Freehold	one of the two current tenures of land recognised by English law; freehold means that you own the property outright, as opposed to leasehold, where you own the property for a specified period of time; freehold property can still, however, be subject to restrictions and covenants, for example to maintain fences, not to be a nuisance etc.
Freehold management company	management company formed to look after the building and communal areas
Help to buy ISA	government scheme designed to help you save for a mortgage deposit to buy a home; to qualify you must be classified as a first-time buyer and not own a property anywhere in the world; savings are tax free as with any ISA product; however, a help to buy ISA provides additional government contributions, boosting your savings by 25%; so, for every £200 you save, you receive a government bonus of £50 (to a maximum of £3,000)
Help to buy mortgage	an equity loan where the government lends you up to 20% of the cost of your newly built property, so you’ll only need a 5% cash deposit and a 75% mortgage to make up the rest
HMLR	the official body responsible for recording the ownership of land. It is now compulsory to register all transactions to do with land at HMLR; although created in 1925, HMLR still does not have records of all the land in the UK, which is why some land is still unregistered
Property Report	having investigated title and reviewed searches we will report to you on those investigations and the terms of the contract; we will also provide documents to sign and return if you are happy to proceed
Remortgaging	changing a mortgage from one mortgagee to another
Registration of ownership	following registration we will apply to HMLR to remove the seller’s charges and register your ownership and your lender’s charge (if any)
Searches	the usual searches we obtain include: Local Search Drainage & Water Search Environmental Search Other searches which may be required include Coal Mining Search, Tin Mining Search and Underground Railways Search
Stamp Duty Land Tax	a tax imposed by the government on property purchases over a certain value
Statutory declarations	a declaration made before a justice of the peace, notary public or other person authorised to administer an oath
Title	the owner’s right to a property
Transfer	a document which transfers ownership of a property from one person to another

Fees for the sale of a freehold property