Conveyancing
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Andrew Kingston & Co. is an accredited member of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme, about which the Law Society says:- “CQS is the quality mark of the home-buying sector and enables consumers to identify practices that provide a quality residential conveyancing service. With so many different conveyancing service providers out there CQS helps home-buyers and sellers seek out those that can provide a safe and efficient level of service.” |
Our aim is to provide an efficient, cost- effective, and stress-free service. It is, unfortunately, well known that moving house can be one of life’s most difficult experiences. We will do all that we can to guide you safely through the whole process from beginning to end.
We pride ourselves that our service is second to none – your work will be dealt with personally by an experienced member of our staff, and you won’t find yourself speaking to a different person each time you call.
We offer competitive fixed prices, and are happy to give quotations by phone or in writing. We were pioneers in publishing our fees on this website, which all solicitors and conveyancers are now required to do. Please call or e-mail us to request a quotation. We will need:–
- your name (and address if you want a written quotation);
- whether you are selling or buying, or both;
- whether the property, or properties, are freehold or leasehold;
- the address or at least the Local Authority area of the property you hope to buy (and the property you are selling, if different from your own address);
- the prices at which you expect to sell and/or buy; and
- the name of any mortgage provider(s) in respect of the sale and the purchase.
Please remember that, in addition to our fees, you will also have to pay for various other things such as search fees, Land Registry fees, Bank transfer fees, and Stamp Duty Land Tax. All of those should be the same or at least similar, whichever Solicitor you decide to use. We pass on all such third party fees at the cost to us – there is no mark-up or profit involved in these items. Unless we are already acting for you in a related transaction or have acted for you very recently, we will need to carry out electronic anti-money laundering searches in relation to you and, in respect of a purchase, in relation to anyone who is contributing money to the purchase price by way of a gift or otherwise. AML searches cost £6.00 per person inclusive of V.A.T. When required, these fees are additional to all the other figures referred to on this page.
Please also remember that if anyone is contributing to a purchase price, by way of gift or otherwise, then if you are taking out a mortgage that fact needs to be disclosed by you to your lender. You should also tell them about anyone else who will be living with you in the property, but will not be an owner of it and named on the mortgage. Unless the mortgage instructions we receive from your lender make it clear that they are already aware of a gifted deposit or an additional occupier, we are also required to disclose that information to the lender. If you did not authorise us to do so, we would not be able to continue acting for you.
Examples of our fees
A freehold sale at a price up to £250,000.00, with one mortgage to repay
| Our fee | £485.00 |
| V.A.T. | £97.00 |
| Land Registry Office Copies | £6.00 |
| Bank CHAPS fee | £24.00 |
| TOTAL | £612.00 |
A freehold purchase at a price up to £250,000.00
| Our fee | £515.00 |
| V.A.T. | £103.00 |
| Local land charges search in Hull (East Riding is £150.00) | £99.00 |
| Drainage & water search (anywhere in Yorkshire) | £54.00 |
| Bank CHAPS fee | £24.00 |
| Land Registry fee (if already registered – see full details below) | £100.00 |
| TOTAL | £895.00 |
| Add Environmental search (if wanted) | £68.10 |
An existing leasehold sale at a price up to £250,000.00, with one mortgage to repay
| Our fee | £585.00 |
| V.A.T. | £117.00 |
| Land Registry Office Copies | £12.00 |
| Bank CHAPS fee | £24.00 |
| TOTAL | £738.00 |
An existing leasehold purchase at a price up to £250,000.00
| Our fee | £615.00 |
| V.A.T. | £123.00 |
| Local land charges search in Hull (East Riding is £150.00) | £99.00 |
| Drainage & water search (anywhere in Yorkshire) | £54.00 |
| Bank CHAPS fee | £24.00 |
| Land Registry fee (if already registered – see full details below) | £100.00 |
| TOTAL | £1,015.00 |
| Add Environmental search (if wanted) | £68.10 |
A mortgage or re-mortgage at a value up to £250,000.00
| Our fee | £350.00 |
| V.A.T. | £70.00 |
| Local land charges search in Hull (East Riding is £150.00) – if required by new lender | £99.00 |
| Drainage & water search (anywhere in Yorkshire) – if required by new lender | £54.00 |
| Bank CHAPS fee (if there is a mortgage to repay) | £24.00 |
| Land Registry fee (if already registered) – £20.00, £30.00 or | £45.00 |
| TOTAL | £642.00 |
Each of these examples does not include the AML search fees of £6.00 per person mentioned above, which will be added whenever they are needed.
If you are being given funds by a third party to use in a purchase, we are required to carry out the same checks on them as on you. We charge £25.00 plus V.A.T. (total £30.00) per person for doing that, plus the £6.00 per person AML search fee.
Our charges are equally competitive for values above £250,000.00. Please note, however, that our fees are higher, regardless of the property price, for dealing with new Leases, or with new-build properties or others (for example repossession sales) where the buyer is required to exchange Contracts within a short period – typically 28 days but sometimes as little as 14 days.
In relation to purchases, you may also have to pay Stamp Duty Land Tax. SDLT starts at £250,000.00, and above that is charged as:- 5% of the portion of the price from £250,001.00 to £925,000.00; plus 10% of the portion of the price from £925,001.00 to £1,500,000.00; plus 12% of any portion over £1,500,000.00. For a first time buyer of a property to live in, the starting point for SDLT is £425,000.00, and then 5% of the portion of the price up to £625,000.00. This applies where all the buyers have never previously owned an interest in any property in this Country or elsewhere. First time buyer relief is not available if the purchase price is over £625,000.00.
If you or your spouse or civil partner will, on completion of your purchase, own or have an interest worth more than £40,000.00 in any other property in this Country or elsewhere, then an additional 3% SDLT will be payable, in addition to the standard rates listed above, on any purchase price above £40,000.00. This also applies to anyone who is not a UK resident, who will pay an extra 2%. There are various complicated requirements and exemptions regarding SDLT, and we will of course advise you on this once we have full details of the transaction. What has to be paid by way of SDLT will be the same no matter who your Solicitors are, since it is a tax set by the Government, not by us. We are simply required to act as their unpaid tax collectors, since your purchase cannot be registered at the Land Registry without proof that an SDLT Return has been submitted on your behalf. We make no additional charge for doing this.
The Land Registry fee paid by a purchaser to register the change of ownership varies according to the price paid. Land Registry fees for purchases are £20.00 up to £80,000.00, £40.00 up to £100,000.00, £100.00 up to £200,000.00, then £150.00 up to £500,000.00, £295.00 up to £1,000.00.00, and finally £500.00 above that. These fees are however increased (in most cases more than doubled), if your solicitor cannot submit the application through the Land Registry’s on-line portal, rather than by post. In practice, that can be done in all cases where the property is already registered with the Land Registry, in its own right. In cases where the title to the property will only be registered once you have bought it, which includes new-builds and Right to Buy, the higher Land Registry fees will apply.
The £24.00 Bank transfer fee is payable for each transfer made, for example if there are further mortgages to be repaid on a sale or you wish the proceeds to be sent directly to your Bank instead of having a cheque.
Some mortgage lenders send their instructions to solicitors through a company called Legal Marketing Services Limited. They charge an administration fee of £30.00 including V.A.T., which will be re-charged by us to you if it applies to your mortgage.
You should also remember that in leasehold sales, and some freehold sales on modern estates, there will be fees to be paid to the freeholder or management company, who deal with the shared parts of the property or estate. These are for them to provide answers to a standard set of questions (in leaseholds these are called “Leasehold Property Enquiries” or “LPE1”. For freeholds they are “Freehold Management Enquiries” or “FME1”). They will set their own fees under the terms of the Lease or Transfer entered into when the property was new. On the purchase side of these transactions, there are likely to be fees payable to the freeholder or management company, for example to give them notice of the purchase and any new mortgage, or to obtain a consent required by the Land Registry. Owners of leasehold properties must pay ground rent and service charges to the freeholder or management company for so long as they own the property. Owners of freehold properties involving a management company will have service charges to pay, but not ground rent. Ground rent was abolished in June 2022 for any new Lease created from then on.
Otherwise, what is listed above covers our entire service and everything that can be predicted in advance. There are no hidden extras and no small print. Occasionally, something else may crop up relating to a problem with a specific property. Examples of unusual or unforeseen issues are that the property is in fact leasehold when you expected it to be freehold, or the seller has only possessory Title at the Land Registry. In the unlikely event that such issues do arise we will of course let you know and provide a revised Quotation if need be. Other possibilities are that it may become necessary in the course of the matter to purchase copies of missing documents from the Land Registry or Local Authority, or to take out indemnity insurance against any defects in the Title or the other documentation. It is usual for the seller to pay to resolve any such issues.
What are the searches for?
A Local Land Charges search is normally regarded as essential. It gives details of planning permissions and building regulation approvals, records of any breaches of these, nearby public highways or footpaths or road or railway schemes, planning obligations affecting the property, grants or charges repayable to the Council, known land contamination, conservation areas, etc. As recommended by the Law Society, we obtain official searches from the Council themselves, so that they are responsible for any wrong answers. Some solicitors use “personal searches” done by someone called a search agent, who looks at the Council’s records and gives the answers. They are cheaper, but the Council will accept no responsibility for them, and some mortgage lenders will not accept them. Each Council sets its own fees, but in Hull they are £99.00, and £150.00 in the East Riding.
A drainage and water search from Yorkshire Water costs £54.00 (or £56.40 for properties that are new-build or for any other reason have not yet been mapped by Yorkshire Water). Other water authorities have different fees. This is also regarded as essential, not just to confirm that the property is connected and how much you will be charged, but also to establish such things as the location of the pipes and sewers, which cannot be built over.
An environmental search costs £68.10, anywhere in England. This is usually optional, but strongly recommended. One of the most important issues dealt with by such searches is flood history and flood risk, and the consequences for the insurability of the property. Quite apart from the question of insurance, the effects of flooding are of course extremely serious in terms of the impact both on the property and on anyone living in it. You need to be sure that you will be able to obtain insurance under a normal domestic policy which includes flood risk cover at a premium, and on terms, that are acceptable to you. Environmental searches also deal with:- (a) past and present land use leading to a risk of contamination or infilled ground; (b) any current activities in the area which might lead to contamination or other health risks, including landfill and waste sites, overhead or underground cables and telephone transmitters; (c) whether the location is designated a “Radon Affected Area” (radon is a naturally occurring gas which can be a health risk in a house or other enclosed space); (d) whether there is a history of coal or other mining in the area – if so a Coal Authority or similar search will also be needed; (e) whether the area is known to have natural underground cavities, which can result in “sinkholes”; and (e) any known infrastructure projects in the immediate area. This search does not involve a physical inspection of the property, and so it does not affect the need for you to employ a surveyor to inspect it for you.
Other searches can be carried out if you wish, or if they are necessary in certain parts of the Country. For example, an Infrastructure Report will reveal any planned windfarms in the area, or projects such as HS2. In appropriate areas (for example South or North Yorkshire) a Coal Authority search is required. We will, of course, tell you if you are buying in an area where additional searches are needed, and confirm the cost. If you wish any other searches to be carried out, such as an Infrastructure Report, please discuss this with us.
If an estate agent is involved in the sale, or you are using a mortgage broker, then they will often recommend a solicitor. Before making a decision, you should remember two things. The first is that an estate agent’s job is to do the best they can for their client, who is almost always the seller of the property, not the buyer. The second is that it is now common for solicitors to pay estate agents and brokers what is called a referral fee, for each client they send them. There is nothing legally wrong with this, but conflicts of interest can arise. The referral fee cannot be passed directly on to you, but the solicitor who pays it must presumably take it into account when deciding how much to charge for their services. You might want to ask the estate agent whether the solicitor they recommend will be paying a referral fee, should you decide to instruct that solicitor. All solicitors and conveyancers are now required to publish on their website information as to whether they pay referral fees. Andrew Kingston & Co does not pay referral fees to estate agents or mortgage brokers, or indeed to anyone. That is one reason why our fees can be so competitive.
Some solicitors are still quoting on purchases for insurance against Chancel Repair Liability. This applies where the owner of land or property has a legal responsibility to pay to repair the Chancel of a Parish Church. The Government gave the Church of England until 13th October 2013 (and later if the land has not been sold after that date) to notify the Land Registry which properties are affected. The parishes were ordered to register if they could, and most (if not all) of them did so by the October 2013 deadline. It remains possible to do a search, at a cost of £24.00, but the result is almost always that the land might be liable, which is no real help at all. The deadline of 13th October 2013 means that once you complete and register your purchase, the Church can no longer apply to register any Chancel Repair Liability against it. Obviously, in the unlikely event that they applied before completion, you would not go ahead with the purchase. This means that the issue should now be a problem for existing owners of land, more than for purchasers.
Timescales and Key Stages
How long the process takes depends on a number of factors, for example the length of any “chain” and how quickly each party in it can be ready to proceed. On average, conveyancing takes between six and twelve weeks from receipt of your instructions to the completion day (on which ownership changes and the buyer receives the keys). However it can take longer, and can occasionally be quicker, depending on the circumstances of the individual matter. For a chart showing the typical key stages of an average transaction, please click here .
Help to Buy
We are able to deal with Help to Buy ISAs and Lifetime ISAs. We charge £50.00 plus £10.00 V.A.T. for dealing with each ISA.
Right to Buy
For freehold “right to buy” purchases in Hull or East Yorkshire, our fees are £400.00 plus V.A.T. of £80.00. Leaseholds are £500.00 plus V.A.T. of £100.00. In other parts of the Country, our standard fees as set out above will apply. Search fees, Land Registry fees, and other outpayments are the same as for any other purchase, as listed above. Hull City Council charge fees for providing the draft Transfer and plan, but East Riding of Yorkshire Council do not.
Transfers of Equity
A Transfer of Equity is the legal name for a transfer of a property from two or more joint owners, into the name of just one of them. It also applies when a property owned by one person is to be transferred to them and someone else, as joint owners. If the property is subject to a mortgage, the lender’s permission needs to be obtained first. If they agree, and if they will not require that searches need to be done as if the property was being purchased for the first time, our fee for a transfer of equity is £300.00 plus V.A.T. of £60.00. Land Registry fees are payable. These depend on the value of the property and start at £23.00. Other outpayments may be needed, which depend on the exact circumstances of the transfer.
This work is carried out by Sameera Sheikh, Kerry Hornby, Liam Brown, Rachel Burr and Donna Francis – please see the “Meet the Team” page for details of their qualifications and experience.