Land Transaction Return advice

In message , abracad writes

As you are using a solicitor, these things will be dealt with by them.

However, given that you have the queries, you should make them specifically to the solicitor so that you are sure that they will be dealt with.

At the end of the transaction, and normally your solicitor will arrange it.

The title number will be found on the Office Copies which the vendor will supply to you and also on the Transfer document. The UPRN will apparently be found at

Normally the office copies contain a plan showing the boundary but if the property is unregistered or partly unregistered or is part of a registered title that is being sold off piecemeal, a plan might be required. But your solicitor should deal with these aspects.

The solicitor is proposing to charge an extra £50 for teh completion of this form, therefore, if it is at all possible I would like to do it myself.

In message , abracad writes

As you're so uncertain, ISTM that would be £50 well spent.

Very odd. Did he give you a quote before you engaged him? It's a bit like saying that he wants to charge an extra 50 quid for sending the deeds to the building society. It's part of the job. If he is reneging on his original quote, complain to the senior partner and consider going to another firm.

In message , abracad writes

As an estate agent, I have not heard of any of my clients being charged this, nor have I heard it mentioned in discussions with solicitors.

I would suggest that your solicitor may be taking advantage of the situation, and it may be worth shopping around.

In message , The Todal writes

A) it could have been itemised in the original quote and the OP doesnt want to pay it

b) The original quote was so old it didnt take into account the new requirements.

Mike posted

What if it were £500? Would the OP's uncertainty mean that was £500 well spent? If not, how did you calculate that £50 is OK and £500 not?

The OP has come to uk.legal for some pretty basic advice. It is hardly in the spirit of the group to tell him to go away and make his solicitor even richer.

In message , Richard Faulkner writes

I think its the new system introduced a couple of weeks ago which supposedly replaced Stamp Duty with er,,,, Stamp Duty Tax.

It sounds right to me.

You are suggesting are you that if a new form is introduced that is double the length of the old form, the solicitor can feel free to charge an extra

I wonder if he'd have knocked 50 quid off the bill if it had been the other way around and the form had got shorter. :)

Solicitors have to get used to filling in all sorts of forms and the more they do it, the quicker it gets.

In message , PeteM writes

How much would it cost the OP if he gets it wrong? I don't know what the total value of the transaction is but I suspect £50 is a very small proportion of it. If the potential cost of making a complete balls up is, say, £500 then it could be worth doing it yourself to save 10% of that. If, however, the potential cost is £500 000 then is it worth taking the risk to save only 0.01%?

If a poster already has a pretty good idea of what to do but just needs some help with a few details, then fine. ISTM though this isn't the case here.

In message , The Todal writes

No, what makes you think that? I was merely confirming that the form and procedure does exist and suggesting that the reason Richard had never heard of it was because it was so new.

As an aside, the new tax is compulsory whereas Stamp Duty wasnt and carries certain obligations. I am not a lawyer but it seems more demanding all round. Whether £50 is justified, well I couldnt say.

Well, in an earlier post you said that possibly "b) The original quote was so old it didnt take into account the new requirements."

which made me think that in your opinion the new requirements would or could justify a hike in the fee.

I am not sure what you mean when you say that Stamp Duty was not compulsory.

In message , The Todal writes

It was a tax on documents. Not a tax on transactions. You only had to have a document stamped if you wanted to register the document in some way and to then wish to rely on that registration as evidence of its existence. Perhaps I should have said it was 'voluntary'. Now, the new Tax IS compulsory and is a tax on transactions and not to pay it, and not to pay it within a timescale, is an offence. So more risk for the solicitor!

john boyle posted

Are you saying we could have avoided stamp duty by not registering a conveyance with the Land Registry? That's news to me.

What risk? How could the tax not be paid? A purchaser's solicitor will send him a completion statement incorporating a sum for the tax payable, and if the purchaser doesn't place the required funds at his solicitor's disposal there will be no completion and no tax to pay.

In message , john boyle writes

i agree that it will be to do with the new system but, as I said, nobody has mentioned extra charges to me, and we are always the first port of call with complaints about things like this, even if it has nothing to do with us. Client "Why has my solicitor charged me an extra £50 for X, and what are you going to do about it?"

Me "I've no idea, possibly because of A, B, or C. Why dont you ask him?"

Client "I cant get hold of him, and he never returns my calls"

Me "I'll see what I can find out for you" (then under my breath, "why dont you go to his office where you should be able to elicit an answer from someone who knows it, rather than mine, where I am stabbing in the dark just like you").

I would have thought that the competitive nature of the conveyancing business would mean that most solicitors would do it within their normal fee.

In message , PeteM writes

Not for registered land, but for unregistered land then yes.

In message , john boyle writes

So relatively academic given that most purchases are for land/houses that are already registered. In fact, even where they are not registered prior to purchase, I cant see the sense of not registering a purchase, merely to avoid stamp duty.

john boyle posted

So, in 90-odd percent of cases, it *is* compulsory and not voluntary.

Unless you are in a designated registration area, in which case it is compulsory to register a conveyance of previously unregistered land ... ?