Buying a Residential Property

While we are able to deal with a residential property transaction quickly, we will always be reliant on third parties including the seller and mortgage lender. Most purchases complete within 10 to 12 weeks. It can, however, be difficult to provide a specific time estimate in a property transaction particularly if you are part of a chain. A chain is where the person you are buying from has a property to buy before they sell your new property to you. The same situation is repeated if the new property of the person you are buying from has owners who also need to buy. If you are in a chain, the transaction can only proceed as quickly as the slowest person in the chain.

Step 1 : Take initial instructions & ask how you are funding the purchase.
Step 2 : We make contact with the Seller’s solicitors requesting they forward the draft contract pack to us.
Step 3 : Carry out searches.
Step 4 : Make enquires about the title to the property and any issues that need to be addressed.
Step 5 : Provide you with a full written advice report on the title and any associated papers received including the results of the searches

Step 6 : Advise you on the conditions of your mortgage offer, if applicable.
Step 7 : We will send the final contract to you for signature.
Step 8 : Send you a Completion Statement and arrange for all monies to be received from your lender and from you.
Step 9 : Agree a date for completion & exchange contracts.
Step 10 : Completion can then take place at which point you will legally own the property.
Step 11 : Deal with Stamp Duty Land Tax & ensure that you are registered with the Land Registry as the legal owner of the property ( Stamp Duty Land Tax / Land Transaction Tax) .

To obtain costs information specific to your transaction, please call us and we can provide this instantly.

We offer fixed fees meaning that you know from the outset what the total cost will be. There are various factors that we will need to discuss with you to enable us to confirm what that fee will be but on average our fees range from £900 – £2,000 + VAT. The purchase of a Freehold property will nearly always cost less than the purchase of a Leasehold property. Our fee will include all the work required to complete the purchase of your new home as outlined above in the typical stages on the basis that there are no defects with the legal title.

We will charge £30 + VAT for every electronic bank transfer that we make on your behalf but only one transfer is usually required.

We will charge £10 + VAT for maintaining an archive of your file.

If you are using a Help to Buy ISA or Lifetime ISA we will charge £50 + VAT to deal with each ISA

Declaration of Trust £150 + VAT

Disbursements

There are charges, known as disbursements, as part of the purchase that are payable by you but that we handle for you.

These include:

Search fees are dependant on the Local Authority and can average at around of £280

A Land Registry fee to register the property. Details can be found by clicking here

Stamp Duty Land Tax if you are buying in England (please click here for a calculator) or Land Transaction Tax if you are buying in Wales (please click here for a calculator).

If you are buying a Leasehold Property, there is likely to be a fee charged by the freeholder for a Notice of Assignment. This will usually be specified in the Lease and can range from £50 – £400. There may also be other charges specified in the Lease including service charges, ongoing ground rent. These vary greatly and we will advise you of those when we have the documents.

Example Total Purchase Costs

Scenario: First-time buyer buying a Freehold property in England for £200,000 with no Help to Buy ISAs.

Legal Costs: £969

Bank transfer charge: £30

Archive Fee: £10

VAT: £201.80

Searches: £280 (including local search, drainage, mining, environmental, chancel, bankruptcy and land registry final search)

Land Registry Fee: £95

Stamp Duty: £Nil

Total: £1,585.80

Important: Excluded Services

We do not advise on tax matters but we can recommend specialist tax advisers if you wish.

No Sale, No Fee

We offer a ‘no sale, no fee’ service. This means that if the matter does not complete for any reason, you will not have to pay our costs for completing the work. You will, however, have to pay any disbursements paid on your behalf.  Any monies paid on account of our costs shall be refunded to you less the value of any disbursements incurred.

Referral Fees

On some transactions, we pay a referral fee to an introducer. This may be your Estate Agent or Financial Adviser. That fee which on average is £100 will not be charged to you and will be payable by Waldrons. Any advice we give you in relation to your property transaction will be independent and you are free to voice questions on all aspects of the transaction.  Any information disclosed by you to us will not be disclosed to a third party without your permission.