With any house purchase or sale, there are always costs to bear and for the most part, your solicitor will be working in the background taking care of them. However, you must also pay the solicitor to enable them to complete these tasks for you.
Registering a property is one such task that will completed by your solicitor but how much does it cost and how do you know you have found a solicitor that delivers value for money?
At present, you can be expected to pay anything from £500 to well over £3000 to hire a solicitor to register a property but costs vary greatly depending on a variety of factors. In this edition of our blog, we look at how much a solicitor will charge for registering a property, and why it may vary.
Do you have to register a property?
Property registration is the legal process of recording who owns a property and any details surrounding it. This registration is done with an authority such as the Land Registry and makes sure that the ownership of the home is properly recorded. It gives the buyer some additional support if there were to ever be a dispute over who owns the home as only the registered owner of the property would appear in any documentation.
Do you need a solicitor to register a property?
Legal issues surrounding property can be both complex and confusing. Having a professional assist you with this can not only help you get the process completed quickly and efficiently, but it will also mean nothing is missed out on getting your property registered correctly.
A solicitor will be able to help with the property searches, the completion of paperwork and ultimately, the registration of the property. This saves you time and whilst it may not save you money initially, it could save you a great deal of cash if you were to make a mistake or miss something out should you have. You are perfectly entitled to handle the process yourself but without extensive knowledge, you could find yourself drowning in paperwork, legal issues and subject matter that you have no experience in.
With the solicitor’s thorough background in property law, you can avoid any such pitfalls and have the keys to your new home in your hands sooner.
How much will a solicitor cost to register a house?
As we mentioned in the introduction, costs can vary to have a solicitor complete the registration of your property. Figures of anything from £500 to almost £4000 are common but much depends on where your property is located, the type of property it is and whether it may be susceptible to certain environmental problems. Should the home you are purchasing be located close to a river and therefore more likely to have an increased risk of flooding, the legal work behind the registration will be much more in-depth than that for a property located in a modern town centre.
For added peace of mind, it would be best to consult local solicitors to get an idea of pricing, you will then be able to find out a little more about their experience and see what their specialisms are. That way you not only get a service that matches your needs, but you also find the best value for money.
It should also be taken into account that the price of hiring a solicitor to register your property can vary massively depending on the property type.
Prices for solicitors to register properties that are freehold are much different to the prices you will need to pay for a new build for example.
Solicitor fees for registering a freehold property
Hiring a solicitor for the registration of a freehold property will cost approximately £500-£1000, however, this will largely depend on the factors we mentioned above such as location and any specific property issues.
Solicitor fees for registering a leasehold property
A leasehold property will hold a few more complexities to it than a freehold and as a result, involve more work for the solicitor. This means you could expect to pay anything from £600 up to almost £3000.
Solicitor fees for registering a new build
New build homes involve much more work for a solicitor such as checking that full compliance with building regulations is met. This can mean that fees can reach £3000 or more.
Solicitor fees for registering a shared ownership property
This is likely the most expensive of the property registrations a solicitor can carry out. This is due to the more complex nature of having dual ownership of the property. Documents such as the shared ownership agreement for example are far more involved than those of a standard property. You could see yourself paying as much as £4000 for such a service.
These figures are of course approximate, and much will depend on the work required. That is why it is often best to check whether your solicitor charges a set fee or an hourly rate. A set or fixed fee enables you to budget a little better. This fee will include all the work completed by the solicitor without any hidden surprises to jump out on you at the conclusion of their work.
Hourly rates are just that, an amount charged by the hour by your solicitor. Some argue that there may not be much merit in paying a rate by the hour when the total cost could quite easily just keep rising, however, if your property registration is a more complex affair, an hourly rate will give you a little more control over your costs.
Before hiring a solicitor, check their rate structure and find what you feel most comfortable with. An hourly rate may seem more expensive at first but may come in much cheaper than a set fee. Likewise, the fixed fee may seem an expensive option but end up cheaper than an hourly rate where the price keeps rising as each day passes. You should also find out whether the additional fees such as Land Registry, search fees and stamp duty are factored into them.
How much are Land Registry fees?
On top of paying for the solicitor, there will be other fees for the registration that you will need to cover. These can often be billed separately to the fee for hiring a solicitor so it would be a good idea to have a grasp of them before committing to a specific solicitor.
Registering your property with the land registry, covenant fees, stamp duty, and more could all be added on. Some solicitors will include them within their initial quote so ask before hiring a solicitor. That way there won’t be any surprise costs added to the bill.
Below, we show an example of the current fees you can expect for land registry fees based on the value of the property.
| Property Value | Land Registry Fee (Online) | Land Registry Fee (Postal) |
| Up to £80,000 | £20 | £45 |
| £80,001-£100,000 | £40 | £95 |
| £100,001-£200,000 | £100 | £2320 |
| £200,001-£500,000 | £150 | £330 |
| £500,001-£1,000,000 | £295 | £655 |
| £1,000,001+ | £500 | £1105 |
Stamp duty
Stamp duty is another fee you will have to pay. This again varies on the value of the home and can be as little as nothing but as high as 12%. It is worked out based on:
0% for the first £250,000 of the property price
5% for the value above £250,001 up to £925,000
10% on the value above £925,001 up to £1.5million
Then 12% on any remaining amount above £1.5million.
In addition to the Land Registry and Stamp Duty, you should also budget for search fees, the costs of surveyors and any potential conveyancing costs.
If you are looking for property to buy in Epsom or perhaps have an Ashtead property for sale, speak to Cairds. We are the property experts for Surrey with lettings and sales teams ready to assist. We can even help with an Epsom independent mortgage advisor so you can start getting your foot on the property ladder. Contact our team today so we can help you find a new home tomorrow!