Purchase fees & searches if no HIP

moomi

Hi everyone

Ive got quotes for sale & purchase of my property & obviously to buy new one. The purchase quote includes fees for land registry & "search fees" at £150 & £80odd respectively. What I'm trying to find out is do I only have to pay these if the house I'm buying doesnt have a HIP?( which it doesnt) or do I have to pay them anyway & then pay for searches on top for the new place?

Thanks

chriserenity

moomi wrote: »

Hi everyone

Ive got quotes for sale & purchase of my property & obviously to buy new one. The purchase quote includes fees for land registry & "search fees" at £150 & £80odd respectively. What I'm trying to find out is do I only have to pay these if the house I'm buying doesnt have a HIP?( which it doesnt) or do I have to pay them anyway & then pay for searches on top for the new place?

Thanks

Hi Moomi,

If there is a HIP available for the property you're buying your solicitor should not be charging you for land registry and search information unless the searches they've ordered are something other than a LA search and a water and drainage search. E.g. environmental, coal mining, flood.

I'd contact the solicitor and ask them if they have access to the HIP - I know this seems like a daft thing to ask a solicitor but many agents don't understand what HIPs are for and end up hoarding them somewhere at their office. Similarly, vendors buying HIPs may not have been sent instructions on what to DO with it once it arrives/becomes available.

country_sport

As you have said the house you are buying does not have a HIP then yes, you have to pay. However, if i were you, i would get the seller to pay. There is no excuse for not having a HIP these days!

Richard_Webster

The Land Registry Fee of £150 is the free for rgeistering a completed transaction at the Land Registry for property costing £100,001 to £200,000 and is chargeable whether or not there is a HIP.

If the seller has not provided a HIP then OP will probably have to pay for extra search fees which could be another £150. This would include the Local Search and probably also the Drainage Search, which is a compulsory element of the HIP (but in most cases I am not really sure why). The £80 sounds like the cost of extra searches that are not included in the HIP. These could be Environmental Search, Plan Search (about planning permissions on nearby land - which are not shown on the local search), Chancel Check Search, Mining Search, etc depending a bit on locality. OP should ask the solicitor to explain what the other searches are, and whether they are vital. Some lenders will require some of these but others such as the Plans Search are entirely optional.

moomi

thanks everyone.
The reason there's no Hip i believe is because house been on market since before they came into effect & were required (been on since July 07).

Richard- yes thats exactly the fees- spoke to my sols this morning & she's clarified it for me.

Thanks again.

Jorgan_2

country_sport wrote: »

As you have said the house you are buying does not have a HIP then yes, you have to pay. However, if i were you, i would get the seller to pay. There is no excuse for not having a HIP these days!

How about the properties that were on the market before the respective HIP dates? No need for them to have a HIP at present.

chriserenity

Jorgan wrote: »

How about the properties that were on the market before the respective HIP dates? No need for them to have a HIP at present.

Yes you're quite right, they don't NEED HIPs but with an increasing share of available properties with HIPs there is increasing expectation for a HIP to be available. If one isn't available this in itself demonstrates the length of time the property has been marketed in one form or another. The result? The (savvy) potential buyer wonders:

"Why has it been on the market for so long - whats put other people off buying? Maybe I should ask for a discount?"

This thread explores the issue: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=725637&highlight=richard+webster+HIP

Make up your own mind. We have done voluntary HIPs in the past for Vendors who didn't NEED to get them done but the buyer has insisted as part of the negotiation so it does happen!

country_sport

Jorgan wrote: »

How about the properties that were on the market before the respective HIP dates? No need for them to have a HIP at present.

Legally no, but the above makes my point.

subjecttocontract

The Land Registry Fee of £150 is the free for rgeistering a completed transaction at the Land Registry for property costing £100,001 to £200,000 and is chargeable whether or not there is a HIP.

Are the fees on a sliding scale ?
What happens if the property is less than £100,001 ?

Richard_Webster

Yes Land Registry fees are on a sliding scale:

Up to £50K - £40
Over £50K up to £80K - £60
Over £80K up to £100K - £100
Over £100K up to £200K - £150
Over £200K up to £500K - £220
Over £500K up to £1m - £420
And it goes up after that...

That's the scale for normal purchases. there is a separate scale for remortgages and transactions not for value.

chriserenity

Thanks Richard, most enlightening.

Now HIPs are established do Solicitors have any other disbursements apart from the extra searches not normally included in standard HIPs?