GRIFFITH SMITH CONWAY will always provide you with a transparent quotation in respect of your proposed transaction. We are happy to answer any queries you may have and to provide our terms and conditions with a written quotation
Buying and Selling
Whether you are buying or selling property which is residential our quotation system will assist you in providing a quotation for the costs and the disbursements payable
The Services included in our fees in respect of a Sale
The estimate will allow for all attendances upon you and correspondence with you either by e mail or by Royal Mail or Document Exchange from the outset of your matter until the completion of the sale.
VAT is currently charged at 20% but the VAT will be charged at the appropriate rate at the time of the service.
We charge for the checking of your identity a nominal fee plus VAT per person, and if we are not habitually dealing with the buyer’s nominated solicitors a fee plus VAT for checking the bona fides of such nominated solicitors. Currently that fee is £12 plus VAT Land Registry title documents are charged at cost.
We will deal with the Estate Agents on your behalf and the issuing of contracts in respect of sales and attend to the reasonable number of enquiries raised by the buyers and their solicitors.
We will advise you of any specific difficulties that might arise on perusal of the initial papers and give guidance how best they can be dealt with.
If a statutory declaration is required on the sale we shall not charge any extra for arranging this, or for a statement of truth depending upon the circumstances at the time. If a statutory declaration has to be declared an independent solicitor or other appointed person can charge £5 for the declaration and £2 for each exhibit to the declaration.
If it is necessary to advise that the lease should be extended, then we shall charge for the work undertaken for the lease extension as an additional fee.
Where the lease extension is required and there is a mortgage the lender will most likely charge for the completion of a deed of postponement and we shall arrange this where required.
Where the buyer’s solicitors require an indemnity policy for example an absence of building regulation consent, or planning consent, or absence of consent for alterations which required a consent under restrictive covenants we will arrange this for you, without further charge. We know that many solicitors charge this as an additional charge.
We will in respect of a leasehold sale obtain management information for you to answer the buyer’s requirements, subject to the payment, which is usually required at the outset of the managing agents’ fees.
Where there is a sale of a leasehold sale and there is a transfer at the same time of a transfer of an interest in a freehold company either by a share transfer or membership of the company we will not make an additional charge for organising this.
If however, the sale includes an interest in the freehold in the names of individuals we shall make a charge for arranging this, to include the relevant land registry work of £250 plus VAT
We will obtain redemption figures and redeem the existing mortgage. If there is more than one mortgage we may charge a fee for any additional redemption of mortgage. The additional charge for extra redemptions will be £100 plus VAT per additional mortgage.
Where there are arrears of service charges we will make arrangements for payment with the Buyer’s solicitors and make the payment out of the proceeds of sale, unless they are paid prior thereto. We do try and ensure that ground rent payments are made before completion.
We will attend to the preparation of Transfer documents replying to requisitions on title and effecting exchange and completion. We will prepare the statement for completion for the buyer’s solicitors and the statement for you as the client.
Where a transaction proves abortive in accordance with our terms and conditions we will cost the file on a time basis on our appropriate hourly rate and usually negotiate the fees with you on a generous basis. We do not operate a no transaction no fee. We feel that this would mean that other clients would be subsidizing the situation, thus increasing the costs for all clients.
We will usually account to you on the date of the sale but there may be unusual circumstances which prevent this being possible. E.g. the monies arrive too late in the day to transmit them to you, or the monies are held up for security reasons within the Bank. We will check with you agreement of the Estate Agents’ charges and arrange payment out of the proceeds of sale unless otherwise directed.
We will do everything in our power to ensure that your transaction moves smoothly and are available to give you guidance and advice throughout the sale
The Services included in respect of a Purchase
The estimate will allow for all attendances upon you and correspondence with you either by e mail or by Royal Mail or Document Exchange from the outset of your matter until the completion of the purchase
VAT is currently charged at 20% but the VAT will be charged at the appropriate rate at the time of the service.
We charge for the checking of your identity a nominal fee plus VAT per person, (£5 plus VAT ) and if we are not habitually dealing with the seller’s nominated solicitors a fee plus VAT for checking the bona fides of such nominated solicitors. Currently that fee is £12 plus VAT
We will deal with the Estate Agents on your behalf and we will investigate the seller’s documentation and raise enquiries thereon, and further enquiries arising from replies.
We will arrange the appropriate searches for the transaction and will invoice these at the outset of the transaction. We will only instigate the searches where we are in funds to do so, and only when we are authorized by you to do so.
We will advise you of any specific difficulties that might arise on perusal of the initial papers and give guidance how best they can be dealt with.
If a statutory declaration is required on the purchase we shall not charge any extra for approving this, or for a statement of truth depending upon the circumstances at the time.
If it is necessary to advise that the seller’s lease should be extended, then we shall charge for the work undertaken for the lease extension as an additional fee. This will reflect the amount of time expended and in some cases this is light, and in others involves a considerable amount of work. We will advise you of the likely cost when we have seen the papers. We would say between £300 plus VAT and £500 plus VAT
When acting for you and a lender, we will advise you on the terms of your mortgage offer and draw to your attention matters which we think are particularly important. At the appropriate time we will issue a report on the title to the lender, and where necessary take their guidance on matters of concern to ourselves. We will arrange for the funds to be available the day before completion so that we can complete your purchase early on the completion date.
Where we require the seller’s solicitors to provide an indemnity policy for example an absence of building regulation consent, or planning consent, or absence of consent for alterations which required a consent under restrictive covenants we will peruse the proposed policy for you, without further charge. We know that many solicitors charge this as an additional charge. Where the seller declines to provide a policy for indemnity but we know that it is in the lender’s requirements or in your best interests we will arrange this for you without further charge. However, the premium would be quoted to you and paid by you, usually at the time the policy is arranged.
We will in respect of a purchase obtain management information for you and advise you thereon and this will include the accounts, the fire risk assessment, and the asbestos survey, and replies to the landlord’s form of enquiries known as LPE1
Where there is a purchase of a leasehold sale and there is a transfer at the same time of a transfer of an interest in a freehold company either by a share transfer or membership of the company we will not make an additional charge for organising this. The company registrars are likely to charge for issue of a share certificate or for a membership certificate and the cost is charged at cost (usually between £80 plus VAT and £120 plus VAT|)
If however, the purchase includes an interest in the freehold in the names of individuals we shall make a charge for arranging this, to include the relevant land registry work of £250 plus VAT. We will also charge the land registry search fee of £3 and the appropriate land registry fee to register the freehold transfer.
Where there are arrears of service charges we will make arrangements for payment with the seller’s solicitors and ensure the payment is made by them out of the proceeds of sale, unless they are paid prior thereto. We do try and ensure that ground rent payments are made before completion. We will where necessary arrange retention of monies from the sale proceeds to cover any potential excess service charge which is likely to arise in respect of the seller’s period of ownership.
We will attend to the preparation of Transfer documents and peruse the replies to requisitions on title and effect exchange and completion. We will where appropriate negotiate with the solicitors the completion time table to exchange and subsequently the date for completion of your transaction. We will prepare the statement for completion for you and where there is a related sale we will provide a consolidated completion statement showing the balance surplus or owing.
We will prepare a stamp duty land tax form, and you will be requested to check its accuracy and to sign the same and return it to ourselves. We do not charge for preparing this document for you, and there are many solicitors who charge this as an extra.
We will register the transfer of ownership and where there is a mortgage with the land registry and deal with any queries that might arise thereon. We will report to the Lender Exchange or LMS where the Lender has appointed such parties to be involved for the lender
The cost of the Lender Exchange or LMS charge for their service is currently about £19 and this charge will be paid by the client. Not all lenders use their services.
We will check with the progress at the land registry where necessary and on completion of the registration will provide you with a copy of the registration and where there is a lender report to the lender with the copy of the registration and with such other documents as the lender may require. It varies from lender to lender
Where a transaction proves abortive in accordance with our terms and conditions we will cost the file on a time basis on our appropriate hourly rate and usually negotiate the fees with you on a generous basis. We do not operate a no transaction no fee. We feel that this would mean that other clients would be subsidising the situation, thus increasing the costs for all clients.
We try and complete purchases early in the day, but where a sale is related to the purchase we cannot guarantee the time we shall receive the sale proceeds and this may delay our onward transmission of the purchase monies.
We will do everything in our power to ensure that your transaction moves smoothly and are available to give you guidance and advice throughout the purchase
Please do not hesitate to raise any queries throughout the process because we wish to ensure that you have a full understanding of the documentation
COVID ARRANGEMENTS
During covid we have been unable to meet clients in person, but normally we would encourage you to meet us face to face. We can arrange to meet on zoom, or facetime if required. We are all working in the office and this does offer you a consistent service and ensures that there is no delay in dealing with your transaction
TIME TABLE
Each transaction is different. We would prefer to advise you about the time table when we have gathered sufficient facts to give you an informed timetable
Sadly not all solicitors are as responsive as others and also managing agents can hold up leasehold transactions sometimes for many weeks before they issue their management packs. One thing we can assure you that 75% or more of our mail is responded to the same day, whether received by e mail or by post. We are finding that Royal Mail is variable in its service and some letters are taking several days to reach their destination, and so where the addressee is near to our offices we do deliver by hand, and also we use the DX which assures us that the post to professional members of the DX is delivered the following day.
We have good knowledge of the parties involved and this does assist us in giving you informed guidance on the timescale involved in the transaction.
We do not recommend that clients go into any commitment until they are satisfied that all their mortgage arrangements are secure.
At the moment some clients are asking us to achieve a completion date before the expiry of the stamp duty land tax concessions. Whilst we are doing our utmost to assist we cannot guarantee that we can meet the deadline which is on the 31st March 2021 unless the chancellor of the exchequer extends the concessions. No indication has been given at this time
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