Costs and fees for a residential mortgage or re-mortgage

For a residential mortgage or re-mortgage, our fee will be the equivalent of 75% of our standard purchase fee for that property (e.g. leasehold or freehold) based on the value of the borrowing. For example if you are borrowing £300 000 on a freehold property our fee would be £596 plus VAT (75% of £795 plus VAT)

Key stages

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

• Taking your initial instructions
• Carrying out all necessary searches required by your lender
• Reporting to you on the conditions of your mortgage
• Arranging for your signature of the mortgage deed
• Collecting any funds from you and arranging for the Lender to transfer funds on the agreed mortgage completion date
• Completing the mortgage ( and repaying any old mortgage )
• Accounting to you for any surplus funds
• Dealing with the registration of the legal charge at the Land Registry.

Our fees

For a residential mortgage or re-mortgage, our fee will be the equivalent of 75% of our standard purchase fee for that property (e.g. leasehold or freehold) based on the value of the borrowing. For example if you are borrowing £300 000 on a freehold property our fee would be £596 plus VAT (75% of £795 plus VAT).

In addition to the above legal fees, the following are payable

• VAT at 20% is payable,
• a fee for transferring money electronically to replay an old mortgage for any same day bank transfer Although the fee varies, it will not be more than £40 plus VAT.
• A file opening fee of £120+ VAT is made for each transaction. This covers the administrative process involved in ID verification and conflict checking in accordance with money laundering and professional rules.

There are many things that may crop up when mortgaging or remortgaging a house which may need to be resolved, additional fees will be incurred if any do occur. For example:

• There are problems shown by the searches that need further investigation
• There are defects with the title requiring insurance, or amendments to the title
• There is a freehold management company involved

If your mortgage or remortgage requires additional work we will let you know as soon as possible, as well as telling you the amount of any additional costs.

Disbursements (payments made on your behalf to third parties)

It is hard to be exact until we have full details of your mortgage but is likely that there will be:

• Office Copies of your registered title (proving your ownership of the property )and any connected documents £9.00
• Land Registry Fees: for registering your lender or new lender’s legal charge on your property are based on the amount of your borrowing. You can assess the fee using the following link: Land Registry Fees Calculator
• Search Fees: the fees will depend on which searches are required. We often order a search package to include the main searches and costs between £200 - £300 and will usually include the following searches:

Local Search: This search shows a number of matters

• Listed buildings
• Conservation areas
• Tree protection orders
• Improvement or renovation grants
• Smoke control zones
• Some Future developments
• Building control history
• Planning control history
• Nearby road schemes and motorways
• Contaminated land
• Radon gas

Drainage & Water Search: This search will reveal for example, the location of public sewers, whether foul water and surface drainage drain into a public sewer and whether sewers are adopted.

Environmental Search: This search will reveal environmental and non-environmental information for example relating to contaminated land, flood risk, energy and transportation.

Planning Search: This search shows the planning applications in and around your new house.

Once we have full details of your proposed mortgage or re-mortgage, 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 purchase in case they arise on your transaction. The total costs of conveyancing will be made up of our legal fees, disbursements and VAT.

Timescales

Each transaction is unique. It is dependent on how swiftly you obtain your mortgage offer and what searches are required by your Lender. As an indication, the average process takes between 4 and 12 weeks