Generally, we charge fixed fees for conveyancing based upon the price of the property you are selling or buying. However, there can be additional fixed charges depending on the type of property (for example leasehold, unregistered property) and whether you will be relying upon a mortgage to help you buy and/or need to pay off any mortgage secured on your existing property. Therefore, it is difficult to give you an exact price until we have obtained all the information from you but we hope that the following guidance will give you some idea of how much it will cost you to use Double & Megson to help you sell or buy your home and the other expenses which apply but which are payable to third parties (referred to as Disbursements – see below).
Sale and Purchase
Based upon the property price up to one million pounds, our fees typically range from £550.00 to £1,500.00 plus VAT. If you are selling or buying for more than one million pounds, then our fee would be a percentage of the price to reflect not only the work we do but also the insurance risk we take for dealing with a high value transaction (typically we would charge between 0.2% to 0.25% plus VAT for a purchase and 0.15% plus VAT for a sale).
Additional Costs (if applicable)
More Common (relevant to most transactions)
| Sale | Purchase | |
|---|---|---|
| New Build Property | £70.00 plus VAT | £70.00 plus VAT |
| Redeem Existing Mortgage | £70.00 plus VAT (per mortgage) | Not applicable |
| Taking out New Mortgage | Not applicable | £150.00 plus VAT |
| Completing Stamp Duty Land Tax form and submitting to HM Revenue and Customs | Not applicable | £75.00 plus VAT |
| Electronic Transfer of Funds (to you/your mortgage company/solicitors) | £36.00 plus VAT (per transfer) | £36.00 plus VAT (per transfer) |
| Shared Ownership/ Leasehold Conveyancing Fee | £200.00 plus VAT | £200.00 plus VAT |
| Help To Buy Loan | Not applicable | £75.00 plus VAT |
| Help To Buy ISA | Not applicable | £50.00 plus VAT |
Less Common
| Sale | Purchase | |
|---|---|---|
| If title to the property is unregistered | £70.00 plus VAT | £70.00 plus VAT |
| Arranging/approving indemnity insurance policy | £50.00 plus VAT | £50.00 plus VAT |
| Statement of Truth/ Statutory Declaration (for example to deal with a defect in title | £70.00 plus VAT | Not applicable |
| Dealing with third party solicitors (for example matrimonial dispute, lender’s solicitors, management companies) | £100.00 plus VAT | £100.00 plus VAT |
| Declaration of Trust | Not applicable | £200.00 plus VAT |
| Expedition Fee | £150.00 plus VAT | £150.00 plus VAT |
Re-mortgages and Equity Releases
For re-mortgages, we charge £475.00 plus VAT and costs of relevant searches required by your lender.
We have experienced solicitors who can provide expert advice on your equity release mortgage. Our costs range from £600.00 to £750.00 plus VAT. Searches would only be required if you are taking out equity release to buy a property.
Disbursements (mainly applicable on purchases)
These are costs payable to third parties such as search fees, Stamp Duty Land Tax, Land Registry fees etc which we will process and pay on your behalf as part of our service to you. Most disbursements will be exactly the same no matter who deals with your conveyancing as they are payable to government organisations. However, searches are obtained from private companies and prices can vary slightly depending on what search packs solicitors/conveyancers have been able to negotiate with search providers.
We will provide you with a breakdown of the prices for the searches relevant to your transaction based upon the location of the property you are buying and give you details of the disbursements payable to Government bodies but you can also refer to the following websites:
| Stamp Duty Land Tax | see HM Revenue and Customs’ website |
| Land registration fees | see Land Registry’s website |
There are additional disbursements payable if you are buying a leasehold property but we would not be aware of those until we receive that information from the seller’s conveyancers.
Disbursements (when selling your property)
If you are selling a leasehold property then you may have to pay for a landlord/management pack which can typically cost between £250.00 to £450.00 plus VAT but when selling a freehold property, there would be minor disbursements only of between £6.00 to £20.00.
Exclusions
We do not give tax advice. If you are concerned about tax implications of your sale or purchase, please speak to your accountant or other tax specialist.
Although we have tried to be transparent about all possible fees which may arise during the conveyancing process, it is difficult to give you a price which fits all transactions (no matter how complicated). However, where there is likely to be additional costs, we will let you know as soon as we become aware (for example if there is a defect in the title which needs rectifying). We will explain the extra work involved and give you an estimate of the additional costs.
Our job is to sell or buy your home. This would include some chasing up and communication with Estate Agents and other third parties. We will also update you when key milestones have been reached. However, if we are up against unrealistic timescales or we are expected to give you and your Agent’s regular updates and also chase up your sellers or buyers’ solicitors regularly then this would have the impact of increasing our costs. Alternatively, you can choose to pay our expedition fee of £150.00 plus VAT.
In the past we have tried to avoid entering into referral arrangements with Estate Agents/intermediaries. However, we found that we were losing our valued clients who were being referred elsewhere. Therefore we do pay referral fees to retain local clients. These can range between £100.00 and £150.00 plus VAT per transaction. So far we have not passed on these introducer fees to our clients. However, we are not sure how long we can maintain this and so we wish to encourage all our clients to make contact with us directly and not via Agents /other intermediaries.
How long will my sale/purchase take?
This depends on a number of factors such as:
1. Whether you are selling or buying a freehold property or a leasehold property or a shared ownership property.
2. Whether you are selling or buying independently or whether your sale and purchase are related transactions that need to be completed simultaneously.
3. How long the rest of the chain is.
4. Whether you are a cash buyer or whether you or others in the chain are relying on a mortgage to fund the purchase.
A typical sale or purchase with no complication or delays will take between eight to fourteen weeks (longer with leaseholds and shared ownership properties). A typical re-mortgage will take between six to eight weeks. A typical equity release will take four to six weeks.