This very much depends on the price that you are selling/buying/re-mortgaging your property for. Please contact us by telephone or email and we will be happy to give you a quotation.

If you are buying a property then you may have to pay stamp duty. This is currently assessed at 1% of the total purchase price if the property you are buying is over £125,000; 3% if the property is over £250,000 and 4% if the property is over £500,000. 

Some regeneration areas are exempt from stamp duty if the price is below £150,000. If you are able to supply the postcode of the property that you are buying, we will be able to check this for you over the phone.

We will send a completion statement out to you approximately 7 working days prior to the completion date. 

This will show a breakdown of all the financial details of your transaction and will show any balance required from you. 

Please make sure any balance due to enable us to complete is paid at least 5 working days before completion to enable us to have cleared funds in our bank account. If any money is due to you this will usually be paid to you on the day of completion.

If you are getting a mortgage, then the answer is yes.

This is arranged with your mortgage lender at the time you make your mortgage application. Please bear in mind that the basic survey they will offer to you is purely a valuation, which means that it is only to confirm that the property is worth the price you are paying.

We would advise you to obtain a more detailed report that will point out any major defects in the property. This can be arranged either through your mortgage lender or independently.

When you buy a freehold property you are purchasing the house and the land that it is built on.

When you buy a leasehold property you are buying the house but not the land that it is built on, which is rented from a third party for a period of years.

At the end of that period, which is usually quite a long time, you will have to give the house and the land back to the person who owns the land, unless you are able to buy the freehold interest in the interim.

You do not - we do.
 
We ask for it approximately a week before the completion date to ensure it is in our bank account by that day.

You might be surprised to know that there is no such thing as an official signing. 
When we ask you to call in to sign the contract this means that you are at the stage of entering into a legally binding contract to sell / buy your property.  It is at this stage when the completion date (the date you move) is agreed.
 
Once you have signed the contract, and that contract has been exchanged by us with your buyer / seller's solicitors, you are then legally bound to sell / buy the property, and will be unable to back out without severe financial penalties being imposed on you.

You will also sign the Transfer Deed and, if you are borrowing money to enable you to complete your purchase, your Mortgage Deed approximately one week before the completion date.

You will not need to call in to see us on the date of completion leaving you to carry on with your move.

As a general rule, if you are buying a property, keys are usually available from the selling agents.

Please do not expect to get them much before lunchtime as the sellers have until 2pm to leave the property.

Alternatively we are happy for you to arrange to collect the keys directly from the seller, provided you check with us that the money has been sent through to their solicitors.

If you are selling a property, we are happy for you to leave the keys with the selling agents or to hand them over direct to the buyer provided you check with us first that the money has been sent to us.

With the best will in the world it is difficult to say how long a transaction will take. Transactions are influenced by many factors.
 
Delays can occur simply because of the amount of parties in a chain of sales and purchases or because of unseen problems that arise such as mortgage offers not being issued quite as quickly as expected.

As a rough guide most transactions are completed within 6 to 8 weeks however they are often much quicker than this.  We will do our best to accommodate your requirements.

It is important that you do not give notice on any accommodation which you are renting, cancel any standing orders (i.e. to pay your mortgage) or make removal arrangements until we tell you that it is safe to do so.