Services and Pricing
Buying or selling a house can often become drawn-out and stressful, with unnecessary delays.
WYM Legal believes that you should get the right level of service during what can be the most important sale or purchase of your life.
We combine continual communication, extended opening hours and property technology to get the whole process moving as quickly as it can.
Our services & pricing
We offer residential conveyancing support with a first class service in a broad range of services to include the following:
- Sales and purchases of all types of residential property both freehold and leasehold
- Purchases of freehold and leasehold new build property and development site acquisition
- Help to Buy Schemes and investment property purchases
- Remortgaging (residential and buy to let)
We work closely with other professionals (including agents, independent financial advisors, surveyors and tax specialists) to provide an efficient and smooth service.
Getting a quote takes seconds and will give all the financial costings applicable to your purchase.
Estimate quotes:
Please see the following estimate conveyancing quote for one client purchasing a freehold property at the market value of £400,000 with a mortgage: Your purchase conveyancing fees
| Fees | £834.00 |
| Mortgage Fee | £100.00 |
| Telegraphic Transfer Fee | £35.00 |
| SDLT Processing Fee | £20.00 |
| VAT | £197.80 |
| Total | £1,186.80 |
| Legal file set up and completion statement preparation | Included |
| Anti Money Laundering data link posting £26 per person | £26.00 |
| Office Copies | £6.00 |
| Legal Biometric Identification data link posting £14 per person | £14.00 |
| Local Authority, Drainage and Water, Landmark Homecheck Pro Enviro, Chancel 500K | £349.00 |
| Land Registry Search | £3.00 |
| Bankruptcy Search | £5.00 |
| Lawyer Check | £15.00 |
| Stamp Duty Land Tax (Single Property) | £7,500.00 |
| Land Registry Fee | £150.00 |
| Fees and all disbursements together | £9,254.80 |
| Fees and disbursements without Stamp Duty Land Tax | £1,754.80 |
Please see the following estimate conveyancing quote for one client selling a freehold property at the market value of £350,000 with a mortgage fee: Your Sale Conveyancing fees
| Fees | £829.00 |
| Mortgage Fee | £100.00 |
| Telegraphic Transfer Fee | £35.00 |
| VAT | £192.80 |
| Total | £1,156.80 |
| Legal file set up and completion statement preparation | Included |
| Anti Money Laundering data link posting £26 per person | £26.00 |
| Office Copies | £6.00 |
| Legal Biometric Identification data link posting £14 per person | £14.00 |
| Office Copies | £6.00 |
| Lawyer Check | £15.00 |
| Fees and all disbursements together | £1,217.80 |
Stages of buying or selling a property
Each sale and purchase transaction is unique, although the key stages are similar:
Once you have instructed us, we will verify your identity and ensure all of our initial forms are completed.
Where you are selling a property, we will dispatch a contract pack to your buyer’s conveyancer. For purchases, we will receive the contact pack from your seller’s conveyancer.
Where you are selling, we will respond to any enquiries received from your buyer’s conveyancer. For purchases, we carry out searches and raise enquiries of the seller’s solicitor on your behalf.
Where you are purchasing, we produce a Property Report (and a Mortgage Report where relevant).
When everyone is happy to proceed, we will exchange contracts on your behalf. Where you are selling, we wait for the buyer’s conveyancer to send through the deposit and where you are purchasing, we send the deposit to your seller’s conveyancer.
On the day of completion, for sales, we wait for the money to be sent by the buyer’s conveyancer, we pay off any mortgages and return the net sale proceeds to you. Where you are purchasing, we send the purchase money to the seller’s conveyancer.
Finally, where you are purchasing, we pay the Stamp Duty Land Tax to HMRC and we register the property in your name (together with any mortgage where applicable).
Transaction times
In December 2018, the Government published figures indicating that the national average time for a sale or purchase transaction is 16 weeks.
It can be quicker or slower, depending on the parties in the chain. For example, if you are a first time buyer, purchasing a new build property with a mortgage in principle, it could take 4-6 weeks. However, if you are buying a leasehold property that requires an extension of the lease, this can take significantly longer. Our average timeframe is 6-12 weeks, which makes us significantly quicker than the national average.
Introductory fees
We have financial agreements with some introducers but we absorb these costs and do not pass them onto our clients.
Your Conveyancing
What to Expect
The length of time that your conveyancing will take can depend on many factors such as the Legal Title for the property, the length and complexity of any chain, whether there are mortgages involved, whether the property is Freehold or Leasehold, and whether there are any management companies involved. If your property is a house it may be either Freehold or Leasehold, whereas a Flat or Maisonette will usually be Leasehold.
On average a standard Freehold sale or purchase case will take around 6-8 weeks, with Leasehold matters generally taking longer at about 8-12 weeks. Remortgage and Transfer of Equity matters are usually more straight forward and generally take about 3-6 weeks. It can be difficult to predict the precise conveyancing timescale at an early stage in the transaction and we do not therefore recommend placing reliance upon any specific completion dates. Your Conveyancer will guide you as to the progress of your case over the course of the transaction.
Altogether the Conveyancing process for sale and purchase matters includes more than 80 individual steps, some of which you will be actively involved in but most of which will be handled by us behind the scenes. Some of the key stages of your Conveyancing will include:
Quote
Sale
- Use our Instant Quote Generator to get your personalised Conveyancing Quote
- Instruct us online or talk through your quote with our friendly New Business Team
- An Initial payment of £10.00 is taken on account for payment of Land Registry documents and disbursements to get your sale legal process started
Purchase
- Use our Instant Quote Generator to get your personalised Conveyancing Quote
- Instruct us online or talk through your quote with our friendly New Business Team
- An Initial payment of £400.00 is taken on account for payment of searches and disbursements to get your purchase legal process started2
Onboarding
Sale
- Complete your Client Questionnaire and other Onboarding Documents
- Provide us with your ID and Proof of Address
- Complete the Property Information Forms (we will guide you with this)
- Your Estate Agent will provide us with a Memorandum of Sale
Purchase
- Complete your Client Questionnaire and other Onboarding Documents
- Provide us with your ID and Proof of Address
- Provide us with details of how you are funding your purchase and evidence documents (eg. Bank statements)
- Consider whether to take out Title Fraud Indemnity Insurance (our team can give you further guidance on this).
- Your Estate Agent will provide us with a Memorandum of Sale
Pre-Exchange
Sale
- We will draw down Land Registry documents and draft a Contract Pack to send to the buyer’s Conveyancers. We will include your completed Property Information Forms within this pack.
- If there is a mortgage registered against the property we will write to your mortgage lender to Request a Redemption Statement.
- If the property is Leasehold or has a Management Company, we will write to the Landlord and/or Management Company to request a Management Pack. Management Companies often charge a fee for providing this information which usually ranges from between £100 and £400 so we recommend budgeting for these costs.
- Your buyer’s Conveyancer will raise enquiries relating to the property. Some of these will be legal in nature and will be dealt with by us. Others will relate to the property use and condition and will require your input. In Leasehold cases or matters where there is a Management Company involved it is usually necessary to refer several enquiries to the Landlord or Management Company.
- You will be asked to sign a Contract and a Transfer Deed (TR1) which are the legal documents used to sell your property.
- Once all documents are signed and Redemption Statements received, and once the buyer’s Conveyancer’s enquiries have been answered in full we will exchange contracts. It is at this point that the transaction becomes legally binding upon both the seller and the buyer.
Purchase
- We will write to your seller’s Conveyancers advising them that you have instructed us.
- Your seller’s Conveyancers will issue a Contract Pack to us containing the Land Registry documents, the Property Information Forms and legal instruments for transferring ownership.
- We will order the Searches. These will include a Local Authority Search, a Drainage and Water Search, an Environmental Search and a Chancel Liability Indemnity Insurance Policy. There may also be some additional recommended searches which we will advise you of depending upon the geographic location of the property.
- We will investigate the Legal Title using the Land Registry documents and raise a series of enquiries with the seller’s Conveyancers.
- If the property is Leasehold we will also issue a Leasehold questionnaire to the seller’s Conveyancers.
- We will prepare a Legal Report and provide you with any necessary advice regarding the legal status of the property.
- Your mortgage lender will issue a Mortgage Offer to us. We will check this and issue a Mortgage Report to you.
- We will provide you with a Contract, a Transfer Deed (TR1) and a Mortgage Deed to sign. These are to transfer the property into your name and to create a legal mortgage, however they will not become legally binding until we exchange contracts.
- Once your Searches arrive we will check these and provide you with a Search Report. We will also raise any necessary further enquiries with the buyer’s Conveyancers arising from matters revealed in the Searches.
- Upon receiving replies to enquiries from your buyer’s Conveyancers we will check that the responses are satisfactory. If any responses are missing or reveal any legal issues then we will ensure that all matters are dealt with before advising you to proceed.
- If the property you are buying is Leasehold or has a Management Company you may also be asked to sign a Deed of Covenant to confirm that you will comply with certain rules relating to the property. We will advise you further around this in the course of your transaction.
- Once all necessary documents have been received and all replies to enquiries have been satisfied we will ask you to provide a deposit representing 10% of the purchase price.
- We will then exchange contracts at which point both the buyer and seller become legally bound into the transaction.
Pre-Completion
Sale
- We will request a Final Redemption Statement from all lenders with a mortgage registered against the property.
- Completion will take place on the date agreed upon exchange of contracts.
Purchase
- Before completion we will submit some online forms to the Land Registry to ‘reserve’ the property for your registration for a fixed period.
- We will submit a Stamp Duty Land Tax Return Form on your behalf. We will complete this based upon your instructions, however we cannot advise as to the rate or amount of Stamp Duty Land Tax that will be applicable. If unsure you should take independent tax advice before exchange of contracts.
- We will submit a Certificate of Title to your Mortgage Lender requesting the balance of mortgage funds.
- Between exchange and completion you will also be asked to provide us with the rest of the balance towards your purchase.
Post-Completion
Sale
- We will redeem any mortgages registered against the property and settle any estate agents’ fees.
- Once completion is finalised we will send the Transfer Deed to the buyer’s Conveyancers to give effect to the change of ownership.
- Any net sale proceeds will be returned to you, or transferred to your purchase matter should you instruct us to do so.
Purchase
- Once completion has taken place we will pay any Stamp Duty Land Tax that is due. We will follow your instructions as to the sum and rate payable. If you are unsure, you should take independent tax advice.
- We will make an application to the Land Registry to register the new property in your name.
- If the property is Leasehold or has a Management Company there will be additional steps to take for the registration which will involve drafting and serving a number of Notices upon the Landlord and Management Company. They will need to sign these before they can be submitted to the Land Registry. Often Management Companies charge fees for signing Notices which usually range from between £100 to £600. We therefore recommend budgeting for these additional expenses.