Does the land registry charge you for completing a SDLT1?

Rena8282

I'm buying a house for £112,500 and therefore don't need to pay any stamp duty. On my solicitors breakdown there is a £95 Land Transaction fee.

I have been on the HMRC site and had a dummy run at completing the form and found it to be fine, so I'm happy to complete it myself.

My solicitor advised that they don't charge for completing this and the £95 is charged by the Land Registry. They also said that they have to complete it as they need the certification to register the property into my name.

Is it true that I can't fill it in myself and is it true that the Land Registry charge £95? I can't see any mention of it on the website.

nick12

The land registry fee is not related to Stamp Duty. It's also a disbursement so the solicitor doesn't get money for doing it (or rather they will cover it in their overrall fee). In other words you can do it yourself but it will cost you the same amount!

£95 is right for a £112,500 property.

http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/75671/REGSERVFees_3_2014.pdf (bottom of page 2)

Land_Registry

nick12 has explained that the £95 fee is for the registration aspect and not completion of the SDLT form

However the £95 fee referred to is in respect of an application lodged electronically by one of our business customers. If you chose to lodge the application to register the purchase yourself then the fee is £190 (see column 5 of page 2 of the doc linked to)