Price Transparency and Complaints Procedure
IMY Legal offers a personal service that is unique to our firm. If the need arises we can make home visits and meet with you outside of office hours subject to availability at no additional cost. We are a multi lingual firm as our experience has confirmed that our clients are more comfortable in conversing in their preferred language.
Price Information
Additional fixed charges:
| Disbursements | Fee (exclusive of VAT) |
| Office Copy Entries | £12 |
| Stamp Duty Land Tax | The amount depends on the purchase price of your property. This can be calculated using HMRC’s website or if your property is in Wales by using the Welsh Revenue Authority’s website here. |
| Land Registry Fee | This fee varies depending on the property and further details can be confirmed on request |
| Local Authority Search Fee | This fee varies depending on the property and further details can be confirmed on request |
| Drainage & Water Search (paid to Water Company) | £76.80 inclusive of VAT |
| Environmental Search | £61.20 |
| Pre-completion Searches | £12 |
| Bank transfer fee (for each ‘same-day’ funds transfer) |
£16 per transfer |
| Regulated Search Pack | £119.99 |
Our fees
No property is exactly the same, and our fees will reflect the particular requirements of your sale or purchase. For example, dealing with a listed building may, because of the added complexities, cost more than dealing with a new freehold property. Because of this, we can only provide you with a reliable estimate of the costs when we have details of your intended transaction.
Typically, we calculate our fee on a Fixed Fee basis based upon the value of the property. The majority of the work we carry out for clients where there are no unexpected complications ranges from £750 – £950 plus VAT.
We will always give you an individual cost estimate at the start of the transaction and advise you immediately should any complication arise before any additional charges are incurred.
Leasehold
For leasehold properties there will be an additional fee which ranges from £150 – £250 plus VAT depending upon on whether your instruction relates to a sale or a purchase.
Please note that if the leasehold transaction is within the ambit of the Building Safety Act 2022 the fee for the transaction will increase and we will be required to have full instructions regarding the nature of the transaction prior to providing an estimate.
Re-mortgages
Our fee for dealing with re-mortgages is dependent upon the value of the transaction and is calculated on a Fixed Fee basis. Depending on the nature of the transaction our typical fee ranges from £550- £650 plus VAT with an additional £150 plus VAT for leasehold transactions.
If the transaction involves alternative finance (Shariah Compliant or Bridging loans) then a proper estimate will be provided upon receipt of full instructions.
How long will the transaction take?
The time from an offer being accepted until the time that keys are exchanged will depend on many factors.
It can be quicker or slower, depending on the number of parties in the chain and many other factors. For example, a first time buyer purchasing a new build property with a mortgage agreed in principle is likely to be quicker than a transaction involving a leasehold property that requires an extension of the lease. The average conveyance takes between 8-10 weeks.
Stages of the process
The precise stages involved in the home buying process and the timescales for each stage also varies. There are many factors that impact the timescales for each stage including other members of the chain or mortgage applications
We aim to reply to or action any correspondence and telephone calls on the day received or, if that is not practical or the information requested is not immediately available, then as soon as reasonably possible to limit any avoidable delays in the process.
As a general guide the following steps are part of our service for a typical conveyance transaction:
- Taking instructions and giving initial advice
- Drafting or receiving and advising on contract documents
- Carrying out searches and obtaining planning documentation if required
- Raising or answering enquiries on title documents and searches
- Reporting on title and obtain mortgage offer (if appropriate)
- Obtaining authority to exchange and agree completion date
- Agreeing pre-completion documents and obtaining pre-completion searches
- Providing a financial statement
- Completing the sale/purchase
- Dealing with the payment of Stamp Duty/Land Tax and application for registration at Land Registry
Please get in touch with us and we will be happy to discuss your individual needs.
Referral Fees
We are required to tell you that in some circumstances we have a referral arrangement with third parties. In some certain cases, we will pay a referral fee to an introducer.
If a referral fee has been paid in relation to your case this will be set out in your client care letter at the outset of instruction. You will be provided with details of the introducer and the amount paid to them.
You can be assured that this fee is not passed onto you as a client and is met by our firm. Further, any arrangement we have in place will not prejudice our independence in acting for you as our client.
Our Complaints Procedure
If you have any observation about our service (good or bad) then please let us know. Whilst we hope you will have no cause for complaint, we take customer care very seriously and below we set out details of our Complaints Procedure which can be summarised as follows.
We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 7 days. We will commit to undertake an independent review of the issue and respond to you fully within 28 days of receipt of the initial complaint.
Our response will include:
- A clear explanation of assessment of the complaint
- Our decision on it
- Any offer of remedial action and/or redress where a complaint is upheld
- Information on our complaint-handling review procedure (if applicable), its timeframes and how it can be accessed
Once a decision has been made on your complaint you will have the right to have this reviewed by an external complaints consultancy who will review our decision. Full details will be provided to you at the appropriate time.
- INSURANCE
We have a legal duty to tell you about our professional indemnity insurance. We have an obligation to carry such insurance and our qualifying insurers are:- Pioneer Underwriting Consortium 9988 Arch Syndicate at Lloyd’s AAL 2012 Channel Syndicate at Lloyd’s CHN 2015 whose address is c/o Howden 16 Eastcheap, London EC3M 1BD. Our insurance policy number is P17A260050P. The insurance covers our practice carried on from our offices in England and Wales and will extend to acts or omissions wherever in the world they occur.
- COMPENSATION FUND
One of the advantages to you of using a Licensed Conveyancer is that you can be confident that your interests will be protected by the profession’s strict regulations, insurance and compensation arrangements. The effect of this is that if you should make a valid claim against us for loss arising out of work for which we are legally responsible, and we are unable to meet our liability in full, you may be entitled to claim from the compensation fund administered by The Council for Licensed Conveyancer (from which details can be obtained).
Legal Ombudsman
If you are still not satisfied after this process then you may refer this matter to the Legal Ombudsman.
If after receiving a final response from us regarding your complaint and you still wish to refer a complaint to the legal ombudsman it must done not more than one year from the date:
- of the act or omission being complained about; or
- when you should have realised that there was cause for complaint
Contact details for the Legal Ombudsman are as follows:
The Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
0300 555 0333
enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
