CMS house buying fees and costs

New Stamp Duty Rates

From 25.3.10 until 25.3.12 first time buyers buying a house or other property at less than £250,000 will be exempt from stamp duty. Please note that your quote will still display and include the stamp duty BUT if you are a first time buyer then stamp duty will not be charged. If you are buying a property in excess of £1,000,000 the stamp duty rate will increase to 5% for all property purchases completed after 6th April 2011.

Our Quotes apply to England & Wales only and your conveyancing will be carried out by a qualified conveyancer or solicitor fees firm that specialises in licensed conveyancing direct transactions. Our Solicitors are multi-partner firms and are members of the Law Society and they are on the panel of all major mortgage lenders

Remortgages

• The first thing you must do is to instruct your solicitor to begin work; you should do this as soon as you decide to re mortgage to avoid delays later on. CMS makes this easy for you, simply obtain your choice of conveyancing direct quotes and fees from the CMS web site and choose which one works best for you then simply click to instruct. Alternatively, telephone our customer services department on 0845 060 33 55 and they will do everything for you.

• As soon as you accept the lowest online CMS quote you will be given your conveyancing direct contact details for your conveyancer including name, address, telephone, fax and e mail. This information is also sent to you in a confirmatory e mail. You need to give this information to your mortgage lender.

• The solicitor will telephone you and will send you a client care letter and confirmatory estimate. Some solicitors send the initial letter by e mail so make sure you check your e mail account. You may be asked to sign and return one copy of the client care letter to confirm that you want to go ahead with the conveyancing direct process. You will be asked to pay a sum of money up front; this will be used to pay for necessary disbursements (See jargon buster). If your re-mortgage cannot proceed for whatever reason this money will be returned to you unless the solicitor has spent it on disbursements.

• The solicitor will ask you to complete an online remortgage questionnaire and to provide proof of your identity (a legal requirement). When he receives this information from you he can begin to start work on your behalf by way of the conveyancing direct procedure.

• Your solicitor will obtain your deeds (if any) and if your property is registered at the Land Registry he will obtain Official Copy Entries.

• Your solicitor will write to your lender (s) to obtain repayment statements. Our solicitors fees are very competitive.

• Once your mortgage offer is received your solicitor will send you the Mortgage documents to sign and return. You may be asked for confirmation of insurance details and solicitors fees.

• When the solicitor is in possession of the signed Mortgage documents and has checked that you have complied with all the mortgage conditions they will arrange to complete the re mortgage. You will be asked to suggest a convenient date (always check whether your existing mortgage has an early repayment penalty before setting the date).

• Once a completion date is set your solicitor will request the mortgage funds, carry out final searches and arrange the local search insurance. On the day of completion your solicitor will receive the mortgage funds, pay off any existing mortgages and prepare and send to you a financial statement together with any balance due to you.

• Following completion your solicitor will register the re-mortgage at the Land Registry. This completes the online conveyancing direct process but your file will be stored for a minimum of 6 years.

• Shared ownership/ equity schemes

  These schemes are usually run by local authorities or housing associations. The conveyancing is more complex than both leasehold and freehold house conveyancing. This is because your solicitor has to deal with the scheme provider who will send your solicitor a package of their requirements which must be met. Even if the property is a freehold property the scheme often requires the buyer buying the property to enter into a lengthy lease.

  Right to buy property

  This scheme is usually run by local authorities or house / housing associations. The tenant of council or housing association property is offered the "Right to Buy" their home. The property may be freehold or leasehold. The conveyancing is usually straight forward but the solicitor must comply with the local authority/ housing association requirements. The council/housing association do not usually answer pre contract enquiries so the buyer receives scant information concerning the property. There is usually no exchange of contracts stage, a set notice period must be given for completion and completion can often only take place on a set day (usually a Monday).

  Buy to Let property

  With "buy to let" schemes the buyer is buying the house or other property with a view to letting it out afterwards. The on-line conveyancing does not differ from freehold/leasehold purchases (see above). The solicitor will be obliged to ensure that the mortgage lender's requirements are strictly met and this may mean approving any tenancy agreement.

  If you find a cheaper conveyancing buying or selling house quote please contact us. The majority of our online conveyancing UK solicitors will let you visit them. All the residential solicitors are checked by us to ensure their standards are acceptable. Conveyancing online is stress free and cheap. You receive a discount if you are buying and selling and choose to use the same solicitor. Conveyancing online is much faster than a local solicitor. All our solicitors are registered with the law society. This means should you have an issues with the solicitor or be financial put a disadvantage they can step in to recover the situation. All solicitors will also have insurance which is now expensive. If the conveyancijng solicitor is currently trading then they can afford the massive insurance premiums.. Low cost house conveyancing has always been around but with the introduction of the internet and people being paid referral fees the online conveyancing solicitor has grown in popularity. All payments are handled electronically by the property solicitor so you do not have to worry about your money. This means its much safer than it used to be because there is an electronic paper trail in place. We offer conveyancing services for England and Wales only. Our quotes change on an hourly basis depending on the volume. When you get a conveyancing  fees quote you will be given a reference number. Your residential conveyancing buying or selling quote will be valid for 7 days. 

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