Stamp duty land tax return

cattie

I've seen it mentioned on this board that it's possible to save on your solicitor's costs when buying, by filling out the Stamp duty tax form yourself.

Having now found a property to purchase, & reading through the paperwork from my solicitor, I see he has noted that completing the stamp duty land tax return is included in his legal fee & not charged for.

Am I correct in assuming this is the form that people mention & try to save costs on? I ask, just in case it's something completely different so I can then notify my solicitor that I will fill out the relevent forms myself to save costs.

Also, I see from my annual mortgage statement that I've just received I've been charged a £50 deeds release fee. On speaking with my lender it appears the deeds were released to the solicitor because he is handling the sale of my current property.

Halifax, who are my lender, did mention that normally solicitors get the deeds info direct from land registry at a cost of around £8, so they didn't quite understand why he had contacted them for the deeds, resulting in me having to pay the release fee. :mad:

I'm wondering if anybody has any opinions on this & whether I could argue with the solicitor that he had incurred an uneccesary charge of £50 on my mortgage account by not taking the normal land registry route & applying to the lender for the deeds to be released to him?

Any advice/opinions would be very welcomed.

Me_Myself_2

You are correct in assuming this is the form that people mention & try to save costs on.

How long have you been in the property? Is it definitely registered with the Land Registry? If it has never been registered, the sol would have needed the paper deeds.

tifnstav

you're right in thinking that the info can be downloaded from the land reg if its registered, but this incurs a fee and some of the documents can cost £20, depending on what they are (eg a copy of a lease). other documents like NHBC certificates and guarantees are held in the deeds (if the mortgage started before 2002 i think, otherwise you might have them), and you would have to pay to get copies of the NHBC anyway.
however, when the sale goes through your lender would probably charge the deeds release fee on redemption of the mortgage anyway.
when the completion takes place the lender would send the deeds to your solicitor anyway and probably still charge the fee.
i would suggest that you write to the complaints dept of the lender and say that you thiink the deeds release fee is unfair etc, threaten them with the financial services ombudsman etc. this fee should have been mentioned in your original mortgage offer so ask your lender to point out where the fee was explained to you.
have i explained myself properly? i've had a lot of sugar today so may not be making sense!

cattie

Thanks to both of you. I've been in the property for 5yrs & it is an older property, not a newish or modern build, so no NHBC involved. I assume it must be registered after the years living here.

The girl I spoke to at the Halifax did say that even on redemption of mortgage there is no real reason to pay the £50 deeds release fee now they are held electronically, if a borrower wanted to avoid the fee altogether.

I'll have a word with the solicitor to ask why they sent for the deeds, rather than take the cheaper option of getting the info from the land registry direct. I suppose I'll be fobbed off though as solicitors are very good at dismissing any queries or comments that may question their competence.