Buying or selling a property in Essex or London?

This firm is registered with H.M. Government as an eligible conveyancer for its Help to Buy ISA scheme so we can act for you when you have found a property to buy under that scheme.

If you wish to change your mortgage to another lender or switch to a different mortgage scheme with the same lender or if you wish to raise money on the security of your property, we can assist you with the legal processes and liaise with any separate firm of solicitors or conveyancers which may be appointed by the mortgage lender.

In particular, many people of retirement age now seek to raise capital on their homes by way of some form of "equity release" scheme. We would urge anyone thinking of such a scheme to obtain independent financial advice before committing to any particular scheme but once you have obtained that independent financial advice, we can assist you with all of the legal processes involved.

If you own a property jointly with another person or persons and wish to transfer the ownership to your sole name or if you currently own a property in your sole name and wish to transfer the ownership to hold the property jointly with someone else then we can assist you with all of the necessary legal processes and draft the necessary documents.

If other members of your family are contributing towards a purchase for you or if you are contributing towards the purchase for another member of your family then we would strongly advise that there should be a Trust Deed to protect the interests of all the parties and to clarify those interests. We can prepare a Trust Deed, liaise with all parties and their separate advisers and deal with all the necessary Land Registry requirements.

In order to make the process faster for you, we have provided explanatory notes for you to download and forms for you to complete before visiting our offices. These can be found by clicking here.

No two conveyancing transactions are identical; some involve less work than others. It is the practice of this firm to only charge for the work that is actually carried out so the charge for a simple, straightforward transaction will usually be lower than that for a more complicated transaction. Our charges are based on the following elements: -

• £25.00 for every email or letter sent.
• £15.00 for every email or letter received.
• £25.00 for every telephone call made or received (longer telephone conversations will be charged at the following hourly rate).
  
• £250.00 per hour for time otherwise spent on the file.
  

• The average cost for a standard, straightforward residential sale or purchase of freehold, registered title would be £2,000.00 plus VAT & disbursements.
• The average price for a standard, straightforward residential sale or purchase of a leasehold, registered title would be £2,300.00 plus VAT & disbursements.
  
• If the title is unregistered in either case the total fees are likely to increase by about £200.00 plus VAT.
  
• Leasehold transactions are more likely to become more complicated involving an increase in the costs above the average fee mentioned above.
  
• “New Builds” usually involve a lot more work than the purchase of an existing property so our costs would be expected to be considerably higher (about an extra £600 - £1,000 + VAT)
  

All of the costs mentioned above are of course subject to VAT at the prevailing rate applicable (currently 20%). The costs mentioned above are quoted net of VAT so this must be added into the calculations).

The “disbursements” to be charged are payments to third parties so this firm has no control over the amounts but you would normally expect to have to pay the same disbursements whichever firm you instruct to undertake the work. The actual amounts will depend upon the details of the specific transaction. On a sale, there are very few disbursements, mainly consisting of Land Registry fees for obtaining office copy entries: these would be expected to be only about £7.80 (inclusive of V.A.T.) for a freehold sale or £19.50 (inclusive of V.A.T.) for a leasehold sale. It is worth noting however that the landlord may well charge a significant fee for providing additional information which would be required by the buyer (the amount of fees to be charged will depend upon your landlord and it is not something over which we have any control or influence). The disbursements on a purchase will typically be much higher because these will include Stamp Duty Land Tax (if applicable) at the prevailing rate and Land Registry fees, neither of which is subject to V.A.T. but both of which are dependent upon the value of the transaction. If you require a formal estimate of the disbursements once the transaction has been agreed and a purchase price fixed, please let us know and we will be happy to provide this. However, any information which we give at the beginning of the transaction would be limited by the amount of knowledge available to us at that stage about the individual transaction.

Where any funds are required to be transferred electronically (for example on the redemption of a mortgage or on the purchase price paid to the seller), there will be additional bank fees which will involve costs of £25.00 plus VAT for each such electronic transfer.

Most lenders prefer to instruct their own solicitors so if you are obtaining a mortgage advance to assist you with the cost of the purchase, you will need to budget for additional fees to be paid to the lender’s solicitors (those fees are outside our control or influence). However, there would normally be an additional charge in the region of £150.00 - £250.00 plus VAT for our additional work in liaising with the lender’s solicitors. If the lender decides to instruct this firm to act for it in the transaction as well (which is becoming increasingly unusual), our costs for acting for the lender would be slightly lower (£100.00 - £200.00 plus VAT depending upon the requirements of the specific lender).

We also undertake commercial conveyancing but commercial transactions are even more unique than residential transactions, so it is difficult to provide an average cost since they differ to a very significant extent. However, conveyancing costs are generally significantly higher for a commercial transaction than for a residential transaction because more work and documentation is involved.