We do hope you will find the calculator below useful.  Please note that while we have provided our website managers with our fee scales, we are unable to check that they have been input correctly into the calculator below. We believe the figures generated by the fees calculator below to be correct but occasionally inaccuracies do occur. You are welcome to call us to check. 

Some firms of solicitors and conveyancers pay fees to estate agents for client referrals. If an estate agent has recommended that you use a particular firm of solicitors or conveyancers, it may be because that firm will pay the estate agents a fee for that recommendation. All conveyancers including solicitors are required by law to disclose referral fees upfront.

We pride ourselves on trying always to deliver excellent and bespoke client service.  Estate agents do recommend us but we do not pay referral fees. We believe our policy means that we can give you best impartial advice without regard to relationships with estate agents.

Our fee calculator above gives you our standard price for acting for you in the sale and/or purchase of property having the value that you have agreed.

We find that properties in our area do present a number of title issues out of the ordinary. Herefordshire was one of the last areas to become subject to compulsory registration and there is still a relatively high proportion of unregistered titles in and around the county. At the time we give our initial fee estimate, we are not able to anticipate what issues may arise in connection with your transaction.

We have tried to identify some of the reasons why we can find we become involved in extra work below and give an indication of the likely extra fees associated with those issues. Should any issues arise, we will try to tell you as soon as possible to let you know what our additional charges are likely to be, if any.

We will charge a minimum of £150 plus VAT for each of the following:

•  to deal with a deed of covenant (whether for your benefit or the other side);

•  if the title is complex;

•  to deal with a statutory declaration;

•  if enquiries of two local authorities are required;

•  if you require advice associated with change of use or altering/extending a building;

•  for each non-standard contract or transfer clause; and

•  to secure a refund of Stamp Duty Land Tax.

We will charge a minimum of £200 plus VAT if all or part of the title if the title is leasehold.

Hourly rates

We charge by reference to the time we spend when we do work that is extra to what we have given an estimate for and when we are charging our fees on a time spent basis.

Our charges are based on the time spent on your case by those individuals who are designated as fee-earners.  Time is charged in units of up to 6 minutes in respect of specified activities.  For example, a short letter or email in or out is usually charged as 1 unit; 20 minutes work is charged as 4 units. This time recording method is the same as generally adopted throughout the solicitors’ profession and is the only method permitted by most legal case management software systems including our own. It is our policy to be fair and so we do not charge for every action on a file eg an exchange of emails where each communication is only a few words we may charge as a single unit and one email sent to multiple recipients we will charge for as one email. 

We will not charge you for covering letters from you which are simply sending us documents we have requested. We do appreciate such letters addressed to the member of our firm who is acting for you as this helps us to allocate documents to the correct person or file quickly. When responding to our emails please press reply or copy and paste the subject line from our email into yours so your email will automatically be filed on your electronic file. 

Secretaries and other support staff are not fee-earners and their time is not charged to you.  Our rates and fees are always quoted exclusive of VAT. 

Our normal hourly rates are as follows:

Time spent travelling or waiting is charged at half the above rates. Travel by car is chargeable at the rate of 45 pence per mile. Other travel and parking costs are chargeable at the cost incurred subject to the addition of value added tax at the prevailing rate when applicable. Time spent by us on legal research is recorded on your file but is free of charge. Time spent reporting to you on the outcome or conclusion of our research is chargeable at the above rates. These rates are reviewed from time to time. We will notify you of any changes before they take effect. 

We charge different rates on some estate and other matters where a member of this firm acts in a personal capacity as executor, trustee or attorney and when we use a value element. See our estate administration service and fees page. 

The buying process

We have put together a step by step general guide to the conveyancing process for buyers which we hope you will find helpful:

1. When you inform us that you would like us to act for you in your purchase, we will send you an initial letter confirming your instructions and outline our terms of business. We will ask you to sign and return our terms of business and produce your identity documentation. You will need to provide us with money on account to cover the cost of searches which your lender (if you have one) requires are done before they release mortgage monies; our initial letter will explain more about this. If you are not having a lender, we will normally advise that you obtain the usual searches in any event.  

2. Once we have signed terms of business, we will write to the seller’s solicitor to confirm our instructions and request the contract pack. If you are purchasing a property with someone else, we will ask you to complete forms with your instructions as to how you would like the property to be held i.e. joint tenants or tenants in common. We will also ask you to provide proof of funds to ensure that you have the required amount of money to purchase the property.

3. When we receive the contract pack from the seller’s solicitor and your mortgage offer (if applicable), we will submit the searches (the solicitor requires the property plan provided by the seller to submit the searches). We will review the contract pack and raise any required questions with the seller about the property. We will also report to you as we go along and ask you to read through the forms provided by the seller and raise any concerns you may have. When we receive the search results, we will report to you and ask you to read the search report and highlight any concerns you might have so that we can raise enquiries with the seller. If you are having a mortgage, we will also review the mortgage documentation and report to you any important conditions. 

4. Once we have made all necessary enquiries and you are satisfied with the responses, the next stage is for each party to review and sign the contract and other relevant documents. You will also be asked to sign the mortgage deed (if you are having a mortgage) and approve the Stamp Duty Land Tax return (which we will prepare for you). We will also prepare a completion statement which shows how much money you are required to pay ahead of exchange of contracts. You will be asked to agree a “completion date” with the seller. We will ask you to make arrangements to insure the property effective from the date of the exchange of contracts.

5. Once an exchange and completion date is agreed, you will be required to pay us the costs of the purchase as detailed on the completion statement. Once we have the purchase monies in cleared funds in our client account, we can proceed to exchange of contracts. The exchange of contracts is a process where each solicitor obtains their clients express authority to “exchange contracts.” We will then call the seller’s solicitor (or vice versa) and confirm that they are holding a signed contract and they will run through the details and confirm contracts are exchanged. We then send your signed contract to the seller’s solicitor and the seller’s solicitor will send their clients signed contract to us in the post. The deposit (usually 10% of the purchase price) is payable to the seller’s solicitor on the exchange of contracts. Once contracts have been exchanged, you will be legally bound to buy the property and the seller will be bound to sell it. If either party withdraws from the transaction after exchange of contracts, the other party will be entitled to claim compensation.

6. After exchange of contracts, we will advise you of the necessary steps you must take to get ready for completion. We will also make arrangements to receive the mortgage advance from your lender in time for completion (if you are having a mortgage).

7. On the day of completion, we will send over the purchase monies to the seller’s solicitor and wait for confirmation of receipt. Once the seller’s solicitor has received the funds, they will make arrangements to authorise the release of the keys to the property. We will then make the necessary arrangements to register you as the owner of the property at the Land Registry and submit the Stamp Duty Land Tax return and settle the tax payable.

The selling process

1. We have put together a step by step general guide to the conveyancing process for sellers which we hope you will find helpful:

   1. When you inform us that you would like us to assist you with the sale of your property, we will write to you with out initial letter which confirms your instructions and outlines our terms of business. Once you have returned our terms of business and produced your identity documentation, we will ask you to provide us with money on account to cover initial expenditure incurred to obtain documentation to prepare the contract pack (this will be explained in our initial letter). If your property deeds are not already stored with us, you will need to provide us with your deeds or let us have your lender’s contact details (if the deeds are stored with your lender). We will ask you to complete two forms; “Property Information Form” and “Fittings and Contents” form.

   2. Once we have your title deeds and you have returned the two forms mentioned in paragraph 1, we can begin preparing the “contract pack.” The contract consists of all documents which provide relevant information to the sale of the property. The contract pack is sent over to the buyer’s solicitor for them to review and obtain further information, if necessary. The buyer’s solicitor will also conduct searches against the property and raise enquiries about the search results, if required. The searches can often take several weeks to return, depending on the buyer’s providers.

   3. Once the buyer’s solicitor has made all enquiries with respect to the contract pack and their search results, the next stage is for each party to review and sign the sale contract and other relevant documents. We will also make the necessary enquiries with your mortgage provider (if there is a mortgage on the property) to determine how much will be required to repay the mortgage on your property. We will use this information to prepare a “completion statement” which will detail all the costs of the sale to arrive at the net sale proceeds. At this point, you will be asked to agree a “completion date” with the buyer.

   4. Once the completion date is agreed and the contracts have been signed, the solicitors will be in a position to exchange contracts. The exchange of contracts is a process where each solicitor obtains their clients express authority to “exchange contracts.” Your solicitor will then call the buyer’s solicitor (or vice versa) and confirm that they are holding a signed contract and they will run through the details and confirm contracts are exchanged. We will then send your signed contract to the buyer’s solicitor and the buyer’s solicitor will send their clients signed contract your solicitor in the post. Once contracts have been exchanged, you will be legally bound to sell your property and the buyer will be bound to buy it. If either party withdraws from the transaction after exchange of contracts, the other party will be entitled to claim compensation.

   5. After the exchange of contracts, we will advise you of the necessary steps you must take to get ready for completion.

   6. Once the completion has taken place (on receipt of the sale monies from the buyer), we will call you to confirm that you can release the keys to the estate agent. We will pay any outstanding mortgages from the sale proceeds (or we will have asked you to pay money on account to cover the shortfall, if any). We will then send the title deeds to the buyer’s solicitor and any net sale proceeds and the completion statement will be sent to you. We usually arrange to pay the estate agent their commission from the sale proceeds before the money is sent to you. 

Who will be dealing with your matter?

Rebecca Looker and Emma Davies deal with property and conveyancing. For further information about the qualifications and experience of Rebecca and Emma, please click their names or visit the “Our People” page.