Sale of freehold property

Our services

A broad outline of the work which we will undertake is as follows:

• drafting the sale contract
• proving title to the buyer’s solicitors
• dealing with replies to pre-contract enquiries
• exchanging contracts
• approving the transfer deed
• completing the sale
• where appropriate, redeeming any mortgage which may be registered against the property.

Additional steps may be required in particular circumstances, eg if the property has been redeveloped. If this happens, we will advise you as to the additional steps required and the likely costs involved.

Our charges

Our charges will cover all of the work necessary to complete the sale of a property. We will provide an estimate of the likely overall costs before we proceed to act for you.

Our legal fees are calculated by reference to the total time spent on the transaction and the hourly rates of the member of the team who deal with it. 

As of 1 July 2019 these are as follows:

• Partners – between £495 and £730 per hour
• Special Counsel – £480 per hour
• Associates – between £300 and £480 per hour
• Chartered Legal Executives, Trainee Legal Executives and Paralegals – between £200 and £295 per hour
• Trainee Solicitors – between £200 and £235 per hour

Please note that these rates do not include VAT or disbursments and our hourly rate may be varied on 1 July of each year. VAT is applied at the rate of 20% on our fees and, where applicable, disbursements.

Our legal fees will always reflect this estimate unless new or unforeseen factors arise, eg if the legal title is defective or part of the property is unregistered, or if is discovered that building regulations or planning permission has not been obtained, or if key documents we request are not provided. Equally, if we instructed or required to do additional work which is outside the scope of work covered by our original estimate our legal fees will also increase. If this happens, we will provide you with a revised estimate of our total legal fees.

As well as our legal fees, our charges will also include additional costs that are payable to third parties, such as Land Registry fees. We handle the payment of these additional costs on your behalf.

The additional costs that will normally be incurred are as follows:

• Obtaining copy title documents between £6 and £35, but can be more depending on the extent of the title
• Estate agent’s fees – between 1 and 3% of the sale price

Our fees are dependent on many factors eg complexity, value and timescales. Our fees are upwards of £2,500 plus VAT and disbursements and we will provide you with a fee estimate for your proposed transaction once we have discussed your requirements with you.

How long will a transaction take?

The length of time required to exchange and complete on a property transaction depends on many factors. In our experience, in the majority of transactions exchange of contracts will take between 2 and 12 weeks from receipt of papers from the seller’s solicitors. Thereafter completion will be dependent on the dates agreed between the buyer and seller but is usually between 2 and 6 weeks from exchange of contracts. The exact lengths of time will depend on a number of factors such as how swiftly parties provide information, how long it takes to obtain search result, how long it takes to arrange finances and the number of parties in the chain.