The legal fees for buying and selling property will depend on a number of factors such as the value of the properties and whether or not you will have a mortgage. In addition to solicitors fees, you need to take into account disbursements or out of pocket expenses such as Stamp Duty, Land Registry Fees, Search Fees and Bank Transfer Fees.
We are happy to provide a detailed estimate of all the relevant costs by return email. Please click here if you would like to receive an estimate by email without any obligation on your part.
Stevens have invested in the newest technology in order to allow you to keep track of your conveyancing transaction. As the transaction progresses, our system automatically makes relevant information available to you without the need to telephone or chase us up. If you have registered with us for this facility please enter your username and password details below and the progress of your transaction will be displayed.
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The buying and selling of a home will for most of us be the most important financial transaction we ever make. It is therefore essential the transaction is dealt with expertly and reliably. At Stevens we provide a service which is geared to making the process comprehensible to our clients , while being thorough and highly cost effective.
We have specialist teams at both our Haverhill and Saffron Walden offices headed by the conveyancing partner Kate Douch. Each transaction will be allocated to a particular lawyer who has responsibility for the file and who will be happy to explain every stage of the transaction and will keep you informed of progress as the matter goes on. Routine aspects have been computerised, so as to allow us to provide a more efficient service but every letter and every aspect of the transaction is customised to the particular client. If there is anything you do not understand (however daft!) we will happily explain it all over again. We have a direct computer link with H.M. Land Registry which helps to speed up the process.
Buying and selling houses may appear a very long drawn out process but if we are to do the job properly and make sure you end up as the registered legal owner of the property you intend to purchase, it is essential we follow proper procedures. Some of those procedures and the terms you are likely to come across are explained below.
"Conveyancing" means the whole procedure for the transfer of ownership of houses and flats in England and Wales. It is based on the legal requirement that a person cannot be legally bound to buy or sell a property until the contract is "exchanged" by the Solicitors acting for both parties. Conveyancing contracts are not like other contracts: for example you can be bound by a contract to buy, say, a car, just by speaking to the owner and agreeing a price. The requirements in a property transaction are much more formal and until "exchange of contracts" either party can withdraw from the transaction.
Because houses are so expensive it is not usually practicable for a person to own two at a time and because they are so essential no-one wants to be without one at all! This is the cause of the dreaded "chain" which means everyone involved in a particular chain has to make sure the contract for their sale becomes legally binding at the same time as the contract for their purchase. If you do not synchronise your sale and purchase you risk being in a position where you are legally bound to go ahead with your purchase but where your own sale did not go ahead. You would then not have the money from your sale to pay for the purchase but could be sued if you did not go ahead with it. Definitely something to be avoided! Alternatively, you might exchange on your sale and then have the person selling to you refuse to proceed, so you would end up forced to move out of your home but with nowhere to live!
If it is beginning to seem to you a miracle that anyone moves at all, it does work quite well. At one end of the chain there is usually a first time buyer, in other words a person who does not have a property to sell then at the other end there is usually either a house which is empty or where the people for one reason or another are not buying anywhere else. The number of people involved between these two "ends" really govern how quickly a matter will go through but it does make it very difficult for us to estimate how long it will all take. As a very rough guide, if you are selling to a first time buyer, and the people who are selling to you do not have very many transactions ahead of them, then you are probably talking about two to three months from beginning to end. If you are moving to an empty property and do not need to sell, it has been known for it to be done in a day!
It is important to remember that, until contracts are actually exchanged, the date for the move itself (completion) cannot be certain. You should not make any final arrangements for the move before contracts are exchanged and you should certainly not make a firm booking with your Removals Company or, if you are renting, give notice to quit. Of course, people discuss dates beforehand so that there is a date which all the chain is working towards. We would generally advise that it is not very much use trying to decide on a moving date at the very beginning of the transaction. It is usually better to start to decide once mortgage offers have been issued and all the searches done.
There are various common hold-ups in chains and frequently these relate to mortgage offers. The Building Societies have to safeguard their own interests and will usually check an applicant's finances before doing a survey on a particular property, so if a Buyer tells you that they have their mortgage "arranged" they usually mean their finances have been checked - not that they will be able to come up with the money in a week! There is still the hurdle of the survey to be overcome.
An other problem is getting accurate information about the chain. This is where a good Estate Agent can really help. Most Agents who know their job will check down the chain (i.e. speak to the people buying and selling or to their Solicitors) and find out how many are involved. This is one of an Estate Agent's most important functions.
It is not usually the Solicitors who do the checking in the first instance because firstly, our professional rules do not allow us to speak to other solicitor's clients directly (the Agents can) and also, strictly speaking, our etiquette suggests we should only discuss matters with Solicitors immediately above and below us in the chain. In practice, if a chain seems to be sticking for no known reason, we do check as far as we can, but primarily, this is the Agent's job.
The first part of our job involves checking that you will have a "good title" to the property, i.e. that it will became yours on completion and will not be affected by re-development schemes, by the seller's mortgage, by a spouse's rights of occupation, etc.
This part of the job in itself takes a lot of checking; we carry out searches and make sure the searches do not show anything adverse. We also check the contract. We ensure that the moving date suits you and we check which items the Seller is taking and make sure that this is confirmed in writing.
We also deal with the Building Society or Bank, obtaining the mortgage money from them, repaying your existing mortgage, and, after completion, dealing with the stamping of your deeds, registering your ownership with H.M. Land Registry and, if applicable, dealing with your Life Policies.
Before issuing a formal mortgage offer, you Building Society or Bank will require a valuation report from a qualified surveyor. The mortgage lender will arrange this but at your expense. Depending on the arrangements made with the mortgage lender you may be able to obtain a valuation report or a full survey from the same surveyor or you may wish to arrange a separate report. You should discuss this with the mortgage lender.
We will send you copies of documents which are relevant and at exchange of contracts we provide a detailed report on the terms of the purchase. However, we very rarely see the property itself so if, for example, the physical boundaries of the property do not fit with what you have seen documented, it is very important to query it. Sometimes, with older properties, there is just a general reference in the Deeds: "subject to all rights of way, etc. presently used with the property" - and in those cases physical inspection is important, to see if there is a path or something else which would show a right of way. If you see anything which you are not sure about, you should always query it with us.