Our legal fees

Our basic fees on a standard conveyance can range based on purchase price (these are a guide of common examples and should not be relied upon as an estimate will be provided for individual clients by contacting us on info@stsolicitors.co.uk

VAT is charged at the current rate of 20%.

Purchase price

Up to £150,000

 from £655 plus VAT to £875 plus VAT.

£150,000-£200,000

from £680 plus VAT to £905 plus VAT.

£200,000- £250,000

from £705 plus VAT to £975 plus VAT.

£250,000-£300,000

from £725 plus VAT to £1005 plus VAT.

£300,000-£350,000

from £755 plus VAT to £1075 plus VAT.

£350,000-£400,000

from £780 plus VAT to £1105 plus VAT.

£400,000-£450,000

from £825 plus VAT to £1175 plus VAT.

£450,000-£500,000

from £855 plus VAT to £1205 plus VAT.

£500,000-£600,000

from £1025 plus VAT to £1375 plus VAT.

£600,000-£700,000

from £1125 plus VAT to £1475 plus VAT.

Properties purchased for over £700,000

starting from £1225 plus VAT but must be discussed personally after consideration of the full facts and an accurate quotation calculated upon receipt of the contract documentation. Prior examples of properties being purchased for a £900,000 incurred fees of £1975 plus VAT, properties over £1m incurred fees of £2530 plus VAT, properties over £1.5m have incurred fees of £3030 plus VAT and properties over £2m have incurred legal fees of £4780 plus VAT.

The basic fixed fee specified includes:

1.One half hour appointment to discuss the contract documentation with you or various reports on the contract documentation if you are unable to attend the office
2.Reviewing searches and the legal documents
3.Telephone conversations with you, the seller’s solicitor and the estate agent
4.Dealing with your mortgage lender with regard to satisfying the conditions on the mortgage offer and drawing down the mortgage funds. If you are obtaining a mortgage you should liaise with your financial advisor in this regard as we are not qualified to provide mortgage advice.
5.Correspondence with the seller’s solicitor
6.Up to 4 hours work which is sufficient for the majority of transactions. In the event that the work exceeds 4 hours we will immediately bring this to your attention and endeavour to agree a revised fee.

Examples of Additional Services

– Dealing with Help to Buy ISA £50.00 plus VAT
– Dealing with Help to Buy Wales from £100.00 plus VAT
– LMS fee of £35 plus VAT if your lender requires us to use the LMS Portal. Some common examples of such lenders are as set out below but please note that this list is not exhaustive:

Hinckley and Rugby Building Society, HSBC, Leeds Building Society, Monmouthshire Building Society, NatWest, Newcastle Building Society, Royal Bank of Scotland, Tesco Bank, TSB Bank, Virgin Money, Metro Bank and West Bromwich Building Society

– Freehold with a leasehold garage £150 plus VAT
– Leasehold premium from £300 plus VAT depending on the complexity and volume of the paperwork
– Long lease house and management company from £175 plus VAT
– Freehold with management company from £175 plus VAT
– Dealing with management company from £175 plus VAT
– Declaration of Trusts from £150 plus VAT depending on complexity
– Attending to/reviewing/processing a Deed of Gift from £150 plus VAT
– Preparing/reviewing a key undertaking from £75 plus VAT
– Attending to a restriction from £75 plus VAT
– Dealing with a deed of covenant £100 plus VAT
– Arranging or reviewing a bespoke indemnity insurance policy to deal with a title defect (starting from £150.00 plus VAT in addition to the purchase price of the indemnity insurance policy. )
– Arranging or reviewing a standard conveyancing indemnity insurance policy £50 plus VAT exclusive of the cost of the policy which would be advised depending on its nature.
– Expedition fee (chargeable in the event that you require less than one week between exchange and completion) £100 plus Vat
– Obtaining copies of planning permission starting from £50 plus VAT
– Reviewing a building survey or a home buyer’s survey (not a valuation) from £175 plus VAT
– Advice to third parties such as Guarantors- to be confirmed upon receipt of the paperwork
– If you request us to take over the role of the solicitor acting on the other side in resolving a title defect or obtaining documentation that should be provided by the other solicitor this would be done on an hourly basis.
– A simultaneous exchange and completion starting from £150 plus VAT
– Dealing with solar panels from £150 plus VAT
– Help to buy redemption £100 plus VAT
– Review of unregistered title starting from £250
– Dealing with gifted deposits from £50 plus VAT depending on complexity
– Dealing with an adult occupier from £50 plus VAT
– Review of replacement mortgage offer £25 plus VAT per offer
– Review and report on mortgage offer from £75 plus VAT
– Liaising with third party lawyer from £75 plus VAT depending on amount of work involved
– Property consisting of more than one title from £50 plus VAT

VAT is added to our legal fees at the standard rate currently 20% of the legal fees and will be payable by the client.

Factors that can affect the legal fees

(Please would you note that these items are not exhaustive but are common examples)
Locality
Price of the property
Tenure- whether a property is leasehold
Additional or Complex issues surrounding the leasehold
Whether there is a management company
Purchasing the freehold or a share of freehold
More than one title
Additional land
Title defects
Complex or additional legal issue such as road not being adopted by the local authority
Whether the property is a newbuild. Tight timescales and complexity of documentation can result in higher fees, however, if we are recommended by a developer and are familiar with a new site it is worth checking whether we can offer a discounted rate.

Typical Additional Conveyancing Charges on a purchase*

In addition to the legal fees specified above the additional costs apply:

Basic Search package from £125 inclusive of VAT

Mining Search (if required depending on the area) £48.41 inclusive of VAT

Land registry search £3.00 plus VAT of 60p

Land Charges search £2 per name plus VAT of 40p

Telegraphic transfer admin fee £42 inclusive of VAT

Land Registry registration fee depending on the price or value of the property and whether we are able to do an electronic submission starting from £20 (no VAT is payable)

www.gov.uk/guidance/hm-land-registry-registration-services-fees#scale-1-fees

ID check £12 Inclusive of VAT

Lawyercheck to check the identity and legitimacy of the firm of solicitors acting for the seller £19.20 inclusive of VAT

Land Transaction Tax and Stamp Duty Land Tax (depending on price of the property and your circumstances)

Land transaction tax in Wales https://lttcalculator.wra.gov.wales/

Stamp Duty Land Tax in England  https://www.gov.uk/stamp-duty-land-tax

There may be additional searches that we would recommend based on the nature of the transaction and area and we would be happy to discuss your bespoke requirements with you for example

• Company search (if purchasing from a company) £15.00 inclusive of VAT
• Flooding £30 inclusive of VAT
• Ground stability £24 inclusive of VAT
• Commons £12 inclusive of VAT
• Chancelcheck £24 inclusive of VAT

• Office copy of your deeds £6 per title and in addition VAT will be payable
• Copy of lease variable from £5 and in addition VAT will be payable
• Telegraphic transfer bank fee £42 inclusive of VAT
• Administrative fee to redeem an existing charge  £60

Our fees are assessed on a case by case basis and dependent on the mortgage lender’s requirements and level of paperwork involved.

Our legal fees start at £430 plus VAT and in addition there will be additional costs of land registry registration fee (depending on the amount of the loan), search (from £54 inclusive of VAT), or search insurance depending on the mortgage lender’s requirements starting at £14 inclusive of VAT for a loan up to £100,000. We will also need to obtain copies of your deeds starting at £6 and in addition VAT will be payable.

Our legal fees start at £500 plus VAT but can increase depending on a variety of factors such as whether land transaction tax or stamp duty land tax is payable, whether a mortgage lender is involved. In addition the costs set out above relating to a re-mortgage may apply.

The cost of a will ranges from £195 + VAT for a single simple will to £300 +VAT for a more complex one. The same principle apples to a joint mirror will where our fees range from £300 + VAT for simple mirror wills to £500 + VAT for more complex wills.

We will be able to provide you with a fixed fee once we know your requirements.

Our fee will include providing you with a questionnaire so that you can let us know your requirements, a telephone appointment to discuss any queries you may have and a face to face appointment to discuss the will with you to ensure it meets with your requirements and to sign it in the presence of 2 independent adult witnesses from our office. Alternatively we can arrange to send you the will for signature with detailed instructions on how to sign the will. We will provide you with a copy of your signed will. We will also retain the original in our office if you so wish at no extra charge..

If we are instructed to obtain a Grant of Representation only, without a full tax return or collecting in the assets or acting in the distribution of the estate, our fee will be £750 plus VAT plus a Court fee, currently £273. For up to date guidance on current court fees please would you visit https://www.gov.uk/applying-for-probate/fees

If you require additional copies of the sealed Grant these will be charged at £1.50. VAT is not payable on court fees or on copies of the Grant.

Our fee will include:
An initial consultation by telephone to discuss the estate
Obtaining financial details of the deceased’s assets and liabilities
Preparing the Legal Statement and any other document required to make an application to the Probate Registry
Arranging for you to sign the documents, if applicable.
Submit the application to the appropriate Probate Registry and pay the court fee. This is usually done online.
The process leading up to the submission of the application can take between 6 -12 weeks, depending on the circumstances. Probate is usually granted 3-6 months after the application is made, depending on whether the Probate Registry have raised any queries or if they have a heavy workload.

If you instruct us to administer the estate following the issue of the Grant, our fee will include:
Obtaining your signature to closure forms
Submitting the forms to the financial institutions
Collecting in the assets
Transferring or arranging to sell shares
Transferring or dealing with the conveyancing of the deceased’s property
Preparing the estate accounts
Paying any known debts
Distributing the funds to the beneficiaries.
We do not deal with disputes between beneficiaries and or the legal representatives.

Our fees will be charged at an hourly rate of £275 + VAT. This work will usually take between 10 and 20 hours, depending on what assets are involved. We are also entitled to charge 1% of the value of the estate but this is discretionary and will depend on the assets of the estate. For example, if the only assets are 2 bank accounts worth £500,000 it would not be payable.
Administering a non-taxable estate usually takes between 4 and 12 months, depending on the circumstances.

If the estate is liable to pay Inheritance Tax and you require us to submit a full tax return our fees will range from £1,500.00 plus VAT to £7,500.00 plus VAT plus the Court fee, currently £273, depending on its complexity. Examples of complex applications would include dealing with lost or incomplete wills or where there are missing beneficiaries.

Our fee will include the work stated above for a non-taxable estate but in addition we will:

Where possible calculate the Inheritance Tax payable
Complete the lengthy tax return and accompanying schedules
Arrange for the payment of the Inheritance Tax to HMRC
Submit the application for probate to the appropriate Probate Registry with the court fee.

The process leading up to the submission of the tax return and payment of the Inheritance Tax usually takes between 6 -16 weeks depending on how quickly we can obtain financial information about the deceased. Probate is usually granted 6 – 12 months after submission of the application to the Probate Registry.

If you instruct us to administer the estate following the issue of the Grant or fee will include the work set out above relating to non-taxable estates. The fees for administering the estate will be the same as those for administering a non-taxable estate as set out above.

Administering a taxable estate will usually take between 4 and 18 months, depending on the circumstances.

Each estate is different and the fees will depend on the circumstances of each case. A bespoke quotation will therefore be provided once we have details of the estate.

Our fee for preparing a single Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is £350 +VAT. There is an additional registration fee currently £82 for each power of attorney. You may be eligible for a reduction or an exemption of the court fee depending on your circumstances. This fee is payable to the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG).

Our fee will include:

A telephone consultation to discuss your requirements
Sending you a questionnaire to complete so that we have all the relevant details
Preparing the document
Acting as your certificate provider, if appropriate
An appointment to discuss and sign the LPA
Sending out notices to notified person/s if appropriate
Submitting the LPA to the OPG for registration
Informing you that the LPA has been registered
Storing the LPA at our office if so required or arranging for its collection
Once we receive your completed questionnaire the LPA will be completed between 1 and 3 weeks and an appointment then arranged for you to come into the office to sign the document. If necessary we can arrange to send you the LPA with detailed instructions on how to sign it.

The LPA cannot be used until it is registered by the OPG. Once we submit the LPA for registration the OPG will take between 12 – 16 weeks to register it.

Applying to the Court of Protection for Deputyship is a very procedural and complicated process and can be a traumatic time for all involved.  It will be difficult and impossible to deal with any assets held in the name of the incapacitated person as authorities would only deal with that person, unless there is a deputyship in place.  We can advise you and prepare the applications in the Court.  The cost starts from £1,500.00 plus VAT together with the court fee which is currently £385.00.