Miscellaneous Charges and Disbursements: Other charges may apply, for example if a deed of covenant, share certificate or insurance is required. If that is the case, then we will advise you as soon as we become aware that this additional work will be required and of any additional costs. Where we incur fees on your behalf, these are referred to as “disbursements”. A disbursement is a charge made by a third party for the provision of a service. An example of a disbursement would be the charge made by the Land Registry to register you as the new owner of the property following completion of your purchase.

Abortive Transactions: If your transaction does not proceed to completion, unless we have reached alternative arrangements directly with you then our charges for the abortive work will be calculated on a pro-rata basis dependent upon the stage the transaction has reached at the time we are instructed not to proceed.

Schedule of Additional Fees: These are fees that will or may be incurred during a transaction. As a result, we bring them to your attention below (the list is not exhaustive). Our full terms of business provide more comprehensive explanations of the fees listed.

Verifying Identity - (Sale & Purchase): There is a charge for this of £59.50 + VAT for each individual electronic enhanced ID check conducted. If the electronic enhanced ID check referred to above produces an unsatisfactory result such that we have to carry out additional steps to verify your ID there is a charge for this additional work of £95.00 plus VAT. Where the identification information provided by you comprises overseas documentation, we charge a fee of £195.00 plus VAT for each ID check carried out.

Bank Charges - (Sale & Purchase): We will raise a fee for each electronic or manual transfer sent and/or received (in most transactions there is usually two of each). The charges are £55.50 plus VAT per bank payment in or out. If more than six financial transactions occur, a reduced fee of £15 plus VAT per additional item will be charged. 

Storage of Papers and Documents - (Sale & Purchase): Our fees for storage are based on a basic fee of £1.00 per month for 6 years plus VAT. The government data regulations require considerable input by us hence we have separated our storage charges from our legal fees to provide greater transparency.

Pre-Completion Searches - (Purchase only): During the purchase process, there are various charges that are incurred with the Land Registry. These include, for example, the fee charged for a priority period and for bankruptcy searches. Rather than detail these individual payments separately, we charge £49.50 plus VAT overall and absorb any charges made by Land Registry.

Anti-Fraud Checks - (Purchase only): We charge a fee of £65.00 plus VAT for this service. The anti-fraud checks incorporate an Anti-Money Laundering Check and the Authentication of Other Parties’ Lawyers.

Source of Funds & Wealth Check (This service is optional) - (Sale & Purchase): We must ascertain how funds have accrued in your chosen account(s). You will have an opportunity to use our Open Banking function for us to obtain this information. Our fee for this service is £35.00 plus VAT which include the third-party provider’s fee.

Anti-Fraud Security Alert (This service is optional) - (Sale & Purchase): This service involves an application to the Land Registry to place a marker on the registered legal title to your property. You will receive email alerts from the LR when certain activity occurs affecting the legal title on your property, allowing you to act if necessary. Our fee for this service is £49.00 plus VAT.

Anti-Fraud Bankruptcy Check - (Sale only): We are under an obligation to the Buyer’s Solicitors not only to confirm your identity but also to verify your financial status as the Seller of the property. To do this, it is necessary for us to carry out a bankruptcy check against each registered owner of the property. We charge a fee of £65.00 plus VAT per registered owner.

Anti-Fraud – Buyer’s Lawyers - (Sale only): To ensure you are not subjected to any potential fraud we check that both the lawyers’ firm and the lawyer within that firm match the details held by the relevant regulator. We charge a fee of £50.00 plus VAT for this service.

Anti-Fraud Restriction Removal - (Sale only): If there is an anti-fraud restriction registered against your property, then we shall take appropriate steps to remove that restriction. Our fee for this service in £395.00 plus VAT.

Land Registry eLodgement Fee - (Purchase only): We charge a fee of £30.00 plus VAT for lodging an application to register you at the Land Registry via their business gateway (in addition to the disbursement charged by Land Registry for registration).

Property Assistance Support Helpline (This service is optional) - (Sale & Purchase): We offer a support helpline service for your own personal and non-commercial use in relation to Breach of contract against the other party to your property transaction, misrepresentation in relation to the property you have purchased or sold and alleged negligence of a professional advisor in your property transaction. The fee for this service is £30.00 plus VAT.

Expedited Completion (This service is optional) - (Sale & Purchase): This is defined as any completion date that is 10 working days or less from exchange of Contracts to completion. Undertaking the work more quickly disrupts our processes as we must prioritise your work. As such this will incur an additional charge of £175.00 plus VAT per transaction.

Fast Instruction to Completion (This service is optional) - (Sale & Purchase):

The timescale and corresponding additional fees are as follows:

• Completion within 4 weeks of initial instructions - £1,500 plus VAT

• Completion within 8 weeks of initial instructions - £1,000 plus VAT

• Completion within 10 weeks of initial instructions - £500 plus VAT 

Should we be unable to meet said timescales we will apply the fee that is correct to the timescale achieved however the fee will never be less than £500.00 plus VAT.

Simultaneous Exchange and Completion (This service is optional) - (Sale & Purchase): The work required to exchange and complete simultaneously is considerably more than the standard practice of exchanging and completing sequentially. As such this will incur an additional charge of £350.00 plus VAT per transaction.

Gifted Deposit (This fee is transaction specific) - (Purchase only): If any of your funds are coming from a third party, then we will need to liaise with that person to comply with our AML requirements. Our fees for dealing with this are at least £250.00 plus VAT per gift or third-party payment.

Key Access Undertaking (This service is optional) - (Sale & Purchase): In certain circumstances the Seller may allow access to the property to you as the buyer, prior to completion. If you instruct us that you wish us to negotiate such undertaking our fee for this would be an additional £200.00 plus VAT.

Late Completion Fee - (Sale & Purchase): Should the fixed completion date not be complied with, and we are instructed to deal with the repercussions of a late completion, then we reserve the right to charge a fee of £195.00 plus VAT upon completion.

Altering Parties to a Transaction - (Sale & Purchase): Changing the entities involved in a transaction incurs additional time irrespective of what stage the transaction has reached at the time of the alteration. Our additional fee for dealing with this is £175.00 plus VAT.

Purchasing with a tenant in situ - (Sale & Purchase): Dealing with a property with a tenant in situ does not form part of a usual conveyancing matter. An additional fee of a minimum of £250.00 plus VAT will be applicable.

Indemnity Insurance (This service is optional) - (Sale & Purchase): If we are required to organise a policy for you, we will charge a minimum fee of £125.00 plus VAT. The price of the policy is separate and will usually be dependent on the value of the property.

Fee if property is leasehold - (Purchase and/or Sale Leasehold Transactions): The work required to purchase or sell a leasehold property rather than a freehold property is greater. As a result, there is an additional fee of between £250.00 plus VAT.

Building Safety Act 2022 - (Purchase only): The Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) applies to buildings which are at least 11 meters in height or at least 5 stories. If we are required to carry out additional work in relation to the BSA our additional fee for the work involved will be a minimum of £950.00 plus VAT.

Joint Purchasers (This fee is transaction specific) - (Purchase only): If you are purchasing a property as joint owners, we will charge a fee of £60.00 plus VAT for the additional work required in dealing with this aspect of the transaction.

Joint Sellers (This fee is transaction specific) - (Sale only): If you are selling a property as joint owners, we will charge a fee of £50.00 plus VAT to deal with this aspect of the transaction. This is because additional work and advice is required in a transaction involving two or more sellers.

Searches - (Purchase only): The cost of obtaining an advising on our standard search pack is £399.00 to £549.00 plus VAT depending on location of the property being purchased. Other searches if required have specific costs. These would be transaction specific.

Water & Drainage Search (This service is optional) - (Purchase only): We strongly recommend this search. The cost of obtaining and advising on this report is £60.00 plus VAT (plus the cost of the search). 

Dev Assess Search Report (This service is optional) - (Purchase only): The cost of obtaining and advising on this report is £50.00 plus VAT (plus the cost of the report).

Hazards Search (This service is optional) - (Purchase only): A Hazards search may reveal other adverse issues affecting the property such as the existence of mining, fracking, energy sources in the area in which the property is situated. Our fee for obtaining and providing you with a Hazard search report is £10.00 plus VAT.

DevCheck Planning Service (This service is optional) - (Sale only): This is a service available to sellers of premises where there may be, attached to the property, a potential development opportunity. The cost of this service is £50.00 plus VAT (plus the cost of the search).

Flood Search (This service is optional) - (Purchase only): If you instruct us to carry out a Flood Search, our fee will be £50.00 plus VAT (plus the cost of the search) for obtaining and providing the search result to you.

Other Searches (This service is optional) - (Purchase only): If you instruct us to carry out other searches, our administration fee will be £50.00 plus VAT (plus the cost of the search) for obtaining and providing that search result to you.

Search Validation Insurance (This service is optional) - (Purchase only): We can arrange said insurance for £160.00 plus VAT per policy including our professional fee of £50.00 plus VAT to arrange usually within 24 hours.

Planning Documentation from Local Authority (This fee is transaction specific) - (Purchase & Sale): We charge a fee of £99.50 plus VAT for obtaining copies of planning or building regulation documentation from the Local Authority (plus any costs that the Local Authority may charge).

Acting for Lender (This fee is transaction specific) - (Purchase Only): This cost will apply if you are taking out a mortgage to fund your purchase. If we are instructed to act for your lender, then our fees for doing so will be borne by you. Our estimated fees for this additional work will be between £240.00 plus VAT.

Panel Mortgage Fee (This fee is transaction specific) - (Purchase & Sale): If you have a mortgage, we are required by your Lender to deal with Lender Exchange/ LMS/ Mortgage Providers in the processing of your mortgage redemption. Our charge for dealing with that mortgage panel/provider is £55.00 plus VAT. This includes any charge that we pay to the lender.

Help To Buy ISA / Lifetime ISA (This fee is transaction specific) - (Purchase only): If you are purchasing with a Help to Buy ISA, we will make the bonus payment request on your behalf. We are entitled by the Help to Buy ISA scheme to charge £50.00 plus VAT. A separate charge of £50.00 plus VAT will be added to your final bill in relation to the work required to deal with your Lifetime ISA.

Chancel Repair Liability Check (This fee is transaction specific) - (Purchase & Sale): As a church can still register a notice at any point up until a priority search is made before completion, it is essential that a check is carried out against the title. We charge a fee of £35.00 plus VAT for this service.

Transactions where the Land is Unregistered (This fee is transaction specific) - (Purchase & Sale): There is an additional cost of £495.00 plus VAT incurred if the property you are purchasing or selling has an unregistered title. This is due to the additional work required.

Transactions where a Retention is needed (This fee is transaction specific) - (Purchase & Sale): Our additional estimated fees for dealing with a retention will normally be at least £550.00 plus VAT.

SDLT Processing Fee (This fee is transaction specific) - (Purchase only): We will complete and submit the Return on your behalf. The cost of undertaking this work, including completing the Return, will be £99.00 plus VAT.

Leasehold Management Pack (This fee is transaction specific) - (Purchase & Sale): If the property is leasehold, it will be necessary to obtain up to date service charge information from the freeholder/ management company/ managing agent. There will usually be a charge by the provider for the information. The additional work will attract a fee of £295.00 plus VAT (plus the cost of the pack).

Supplementary Management Company Pack (This fee is transaction specific) - (Purchase & Sale): If information regarding the property is held by more than one management company it will require additional/duplicate work for which an additional fee, which will usually be a minimum, of £200.00 plus VAT per supplementary pack required (plus the cost of each pack).

Lease Rentcharge (This fee is transaction specific) - (Purchase only): A Rentcharge is an annual or periodic sum payable to a third party who may not hold any other interest in the property. If there is a Rentcharge further investigation will be required to ensure you are protected. Our fee for this additional work will be a minimum of £175.00 plus VAT.

Freeholds where there is a Service Charge or a Management Company is involved (This fee is transaction specific) - (Purchase only): Some freehold properties are subject to a service charge. It is often hard for us to know or find out quickly what a managing agent or owner/freeholder will charge, but we will let you know as soon as we are made aware. Our estimated fees will be a minimum of £295.00 plus VAT.

Share in Management Company (This fee is transaction specific) - (Purchase only): In certain circumstances, you may be required to become a shareholder/member of the management company. We charge a fee of £150.00 plus VAT for dealing with the transfer or creation of the share in your favour or in adding you as a member of the management company.

Notices/Deed of Covenant (This fee is transaction specific) - (Purchase only): All leasehold and some managed freehold properties are subject to the requirement that formal written notice is given to the freeholder and/or Management Company of any transfer or new mortgage affecting the property. The additional work involved in our preparing and serving notices of transfer and mortgage is £95.00 plus VAT per notice (plus any charges levied by the freeholder and/or Management Company).

Transactions which become abortive (Abortive Purchase only):

If the transaction becomes abortive after:

1. the initial stage, before contract papers have been sent by the seller’s Solicitors to us, the abortive charge will be 20% plus VAT of the estimate given to cover the administrative cost of collecting documents and information from you, reviewing the same, opening the file as well running a closing procedure to archive the file; (please note that in the event of an auction purchase the abortive charge will be 50% of the overall estimated fees given that a lot of the work is carried out on an urgent basis shortly following your initial instructions). Please note, in addition, the full fees relating to the Electronic Enhanced ID check(s) and File Storage will also be payable. These will usually be £59.50 plus VAT (per person) and £72.00 plus VAT respectively.

2. any contract papers have been sent from the seller’s Solicitor to us, any searches being applied for (whether or not results have yet been received); any enquiries being raised (whether all replies have been received or not), the abortive charge will be 50% plus VAT of the estimated legal fee given and any additional fees identified before the matter goes abortive with the exception of fees relating to Electronic Enhanced ID checks, Banking Charges and File Storage which will be payable in full.

3. any contract, lease, search or title reports have been sent by us to you advising on search results, your obligations as a borrower (if applicable) or documents and information relevant to the transaction and the property, the abortive charge will be 75% plus VAT of the estimated legal fee given and any additional fees identified before the matter goes abortive with the exception of fees relating to Electronic Enhanced ID checks, Banking Charges and File Storage which will be payable in full.

4. contracts have exchanged but before completion has taken place (except where Notice of Completion has been served on you by the seller), our abortive charge will be the full fee plus VAT in accordance with the estimate given and additional fees identified.
   

Redeeming the Mortgage – (Sale only): If there are any mortgages or third-party charges secured against the property, we will take steps to repay them from the sale proceeds. Please note there will be an additional fee which will usually be a minimum of £250.00 plus VAT per charge redeemed which will be included in our final invoice.

Share of Freehold – (Sale only): If you are selling a leasehold property of which you are also registered as either a shareholder of the company that owns the freehold or, you are one of the shared freehold owners, we shall draft additional documentation to be provided to the buyer’s solicitor for approval and to register their clients’ ownership of the same. Our fee for dealing with this aspect of the transaction will be a minimum of £250.00 plus VAT.

Land Registry Documents Fee – (Sale only): During the sale process, there are various charges that are incurred with the Land Registry. The fee charged for provision of an official copy of the legal title to your property, the Land Registry filed plan and other documents that affect the title. Rather than detail these individual payments separately, we will include in our invoice to you an overall charge of £85.00 plus VAT and absorb any charges made by Land Registry.

Transactions which become abortive - (Abortive Sale only):

If the transaction becomes abortive after:

1. the initial stage before contract papers are sent to the buyer’s solicitors, the abortive charge will be £295.00 plus VAT to cover the administrative cost of collecting documents and information from you, reviewing the same, creating your matter on our case management system and a file as well running a closing procedure to archive the file;

2. any contract papers have been issued to the buyer’s solicitor, redemption statements obtained, enquiries have been raised by the buyer (whether all replies have been returned or not), the abortive charge will be 50% plus VAT of the estimate given and any additional fees identified;

3. the sale report has been sent to you or contracts, transfers and appropriate documents have been signed, the abortive charge will be 75% plus VAT of the estimate given and any additional fees identified.

4. contracts have exchanged but before completion has taken place (except where Notice of Completion has been served on you by the buyer), our abortive charge will be the full fee plus VAT in accordance with the estimate given and additional fees identified.