Conveyancing

John Birkby & Co Solicitors will charge a fee based upon the sale or purchase price of your transaction with any additional work (fo example if part of the garden is occupied by the property but not included in the title deeds) charged on the basis of the time taken at an hourly rate of £150 plus VAT per hour.  We provide a detailed written quotation at the outset of your transaction. Unlike some firms we do not charge extra for filling in the Stamp Duty form, or the registration forms.

On a purchase however you will have to pay certain search fees depending on where the property is that you are buying and whether you are buying with a mortgage.  If you are buying a new property the builders will make a charge for providing their documents and if you are buying a flat, the landlord’s agents will probably make a charge for providing information. This list is not exhaustive.
Please remember that these fees are all payable to other organisations. They are not part of your legal fees and are payable whichever firm does your conveyancing.

For full information about our charges, the searches involved and links to obtain stamp duty and registration fees is set out in our guide to conveyancing fees.

If you are buying an empty house and you have no sale then the speed of the transaction will only depend on how quickly you can get your mortgage and how quickly information is supplied by the other side. As soon as you have a chain, the speed will also depend on the same factors for every party in the chain, and the whole chain will only be as quick as the slowest of them.

As a guideline we would suggest that you expect a period of 10-16 weeks.

A chain is where for example, a first time buyer purchases a property from a couple that are also moving to a new property. Their sellers may also be moving, meaning that there are potentially four or five properties in a chain, each with their own solicitors, estate agents, mortgage lenders etc.

A chain can complicate or delay a transaction as all parties need to agree the date to move. It can only proceed when everyone in the chain is ready.

Fiona Goode is Head of conveyancing, a qualified solicitor with nearly 40 years of experience in dealing with the buying and selling of property and the solicitor who will supervise your transaction. Saher Iftikhar will carry out most of the day to day work on your transaction. She joined the firm in November 2023 and has over 6 years conveyancing experience, dealing with all aspects of residential conveyancing including liaising with clients, drafting contracts, raising enquiries, exchanging contracts and completing your transaction and well as keeping both you, the estate agents and any mortgage company fully up to date with the progress on your transaction.

This is the date on which you move into your new property or vacate the old one. On the day of completion, you should be able to collect the keys from the seller and move into your new home.

The precise stages involved in the purchase of a residential freehold or leasehold property vary according to the circumstances. However the key stages include:

• Take your instructions and give you initial advice
• Check finances are in place to fund the purchase and contact lender’s solicitors if needed
• Carry out initial AML (anti-money laundering) checks including seeing your passport and / or driving licence and completing an online AML check.
• Receive and advise on contract documents
• Carry out searches
• Obtain further planning documents if required
• Make any necessary enquiries of the seller’s solicitor
• If leasehold obtain information in relation to the lease, service charge and payment of the ground rent and advise you of any additional fees that will be payable.
• Give you advice on all documents and information received
• Go through conditions of mortgage offer with you
• Arrange to see you to go through the contract and supporting documents
• Arrange for you to sign the contract
• Draft transfer
• Advise you on joint ownership
• Obtain pre-completion searches
• Agree completion date (this is the date from which you own the property and receive the keys and the purchase price is paid to the seller’s solicitor)
• Exchange contracts and notify you that this has happened
• Arrange for all monies needed to be received from lender and you
• Complete the purchase
• Deal with the submission of the stamp duty return and payment of Stamp Duty / Land Tax
• Deal with application for registration at Land Registry
• Serve notice of transfer and mortgage on the landlord if leasehold property.

The precise stages involved in the sale of a residential freehold or leasehold property vary according to the circumstances. However the key stages include:

• Take your instructions and give you initial advice
• Carry out initial AML (anti-money laundering) checks including seeing your passport and / or driving licence and completing an online AML check.
• Send you property information form and fittings and contents form to complete to provide information to the buyer about the property.  If you hold the title deeds these should be supplied to us at this stage.
• Draft the contract documents
• Reply to any necessary enquiries raised by the buyer’s solicitor
• If leasehold obtain information in relation to the lease, service charge and payment of the ground rent and advise you of any additional fees that will be payable.
• Arrange for you to sign the contract and transfer deed
• Agree completion date (this is the date when you need to move out of the property and we will receive the sale money from the buyer’s solicitor)
• Obtain up to date redemption figure from your mortgage company
• Exchange contracts and notify you that this has happened
• Complete the sale
• Pay the amount required to repay your mortgage to your mortgage company
• Notify any estate agents of completion so the keys can be released to the buyer
• Pay estate agents fees and account to you for the balance