Land Registration fee - gone up?

trumpton

What would the Land Registration fee be on a property costing £245k, due to complete on the 23rd June? The solicitor has listed it in the invoice as £280. It is a starightforward house purchase, no sale of another property. I have looked on the Land Registry site but couldn't find a cost that matched that. Also, I thought I'd read on MSE that the charges are going up. When is this, by how much?

Also, we are giving the solicitor our house deposit in the form of a building society cheque. He has asked that we give a cheque for the deposit amount and his fees all together, made out to the company. The costs and his fee are all broken down on the invoice, but I was expecting to pay him separately after everything went through. Is this fairly standard procedure nowadays?

mustang1

Land Registry fees go up on 6 July 2009 - for a property worth £245k, the increase is from £220 to £280. Your solicitor should make sure that the application to register is sent in before 6 July!

I wouldn't expect to pay a solicitor all his fees etc until it's time to complete. On exchange, yes, hand over the deposit and then when he asks you for the balance required to complete you will have to give him all his fees, stamp duty, land registry fees etc.

Obviously if you are exchanging and completing at the same time, then it is standard to pay everything in advance.

Richard_Webster

If you are getting a mortgage then your solicitor must register the title within certain time limits. He must therefore pay the Land Registry Fee, therefore he must have the money from you for it and any Stamp Duty land Tax beforehand. If you completed and did not then pay him he would have to find the money for the Land Registry Fee and SDLT , because your mortgage lender would expect that. So it is pretty standard practice for solicitors to ask for all the money before completion. If they weren't paid until later the fees would be higher to allow for bad debts.

The Land Registry fees are increasing on 6th July. There is usually a short delay of 1-3 weeks between completion and the registration of the title because a buyer's solicitor is typically waiting for a discharge document/confirmation of electronic message to land Registry to come through in relaiton to the paying off and removval fromt he title of the seller's mortgage. So in your case the solicitor was looking on the safe side and assuming ythe registaration would not happen until after 6th July. if they manage to register more quickly then you shuld get a £60 refund (the difference between the old and new fees for your proce bracket.)

trumpton

Thanks for such quick and clear responses, Mustang and Richard. Exchange and completion will be very close together, which explains it I guess. Thanks again.

bluu2k

Hi there,

I am also confused with quotes from solicitors on this fee.

Our purchase price is £235k, and our chosen solicitors quote it as £220.00 for land registry fee. After running some more search, I received quotes from several other solicitors with land registry fee of £50.00 only. Don't know which is correct since the difference is pretty too much.

Is there any official site that provides information/rates that I can check? Especially where does it say the rate will change in July 2009?

Many thanks for your help.

PS. From this link http://www.geppandsons.co.uk/services-for-you/residential-conveyancing/land-registry-fees/
I got the followings:

Registration Fees as of 1st April 2004
(extracts from Land Registration Fees Order 1999-RRC16(99)
Scale 1
For a purchase including a mortgage. For a new mortgage (unregistered land)
Value or Amount £ 200,001-500,000
Fee payable £ 220

Scale 2
For a new mortgage only (registered land)
Value or Amount £ 200,00/500,000
Fee payable £ 70

Appears to me that my transaction must be either £220.00 or £70.00? How do the solicitors come up with £50.00, anyone knows?

Moonface

See here http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/ There is a link near the bottom of that page.
The current fee would be £220 but will be £280 when the new fee order comes into place.

Moonface

Richard_Webster wrote: »

There is usually a short delay of 1-3 weeks between completion and the registration of the title because a buyer's solicitor is typically waiting for a discharge document/confirmation of electronic message to land Registry to come through in relaiton to the paying off and removval fromt he title of the seller's mortgage.

I am sure the new procedures due to come into force in August will go down well!:eek:

Saver-Rob

Complete table of price increases:

http://www1.landregistry.gov.uk/fees/newfeeorder

Mine has gone up £50! :mad:

MISS.R_3

We are not due to complete for another 4-6 weeks yet. Is it possible to send in the application to register the land before the 6th to take advantage of the lower cost, or is this too early?

Richard_Webster

MISS.R wrote: »

We are not due to complete for another 4-6 weeks yet. Is it possible to send in the application to register the land before the 6th to take advantage of the lower cost, or is this too early?

You can't register the transfer before a purchase has been completed, so the answer is "No"!

MISS.R_3

Thanks, it was worth an ask!