Help to Buy Solicitors
Key Takeaways
- The Help to Buy administrator has now changed; please liaise with Homes England for customer services on your Help to Buy loan.
- The scheme is closed in England but extended to Wales until 2025. New schemes for first-time buyers include Save To Buy and Rent to Buy.
- You will need Help to Buy conveyancing solicitors when you're ready to repay your loan or sell your property.
- Help to Buy solicitors fees vary from £399 to £900 excluding disbursements.
- Take a look at our Help to Buy repayment calculator to help make sense of your mortgage repayments.
Help to Buy solicitors or conveyancers do the legal work to repay the Help to Buy loan.
Help to Buy Solicitors Fees
The solicitor's fees vary depending on whether you are paying off your Help to Buy loan in full or partially. It often costs more to settle partially.
- Help to Buy Repayment Solicitor fees. The solicitor's fees range from £399 to £900 INC VAT; however, these fees may increase if you transfer equity to a partner to add them onto the legal title or refinance by getting a mortgage. Leaseholds are also more expensive.
We have a hand-selected of excellent Help to Buy conveyancing solicitors and RICS Valuers who will meet Help to Buy requirements. Get a Quote for all of your Help to Buy repayment needs.
Example of Help to Buy Solicitors Fees
This is an example of conveyancing fees for a redemption for £250,000:
Description | Cost |
Help to Buy Solicitor Fee | £399 INC VAT |
Land Registration The Land Registry cost is based on the price of your property. Read about the land registration charge. | £20-£140 |
Local Authority Search Indemnity You will have obtained a local authority search when you originally purchased the property. When you remortgage, most mortgage lenders are happy to accept local authority search indemnity insurance to protect against any changes in the search; however, some require a new local search, so we'll inform you if the latter is the case. | £50 |
Online ID Check Chargeable per client. Find out what ID our solicitor accepts | £18 INC VAT |
Official Copy of Register and Title Plan (per title) | £10 |
What are the portals for mortgage lenders?Mortgage lenders use online portals and charge clients for their use. The solicitor uses the portal to download your mortgage offer, occupier waiver form and also to submit an E-COT (electronic certificate of title sent to draw down your mortgage). There are 3 different portals: LMS Portal at £45 INC VAT for the following lenders: Atom Bank Plc, Barclays Bank Plc, Bluestone, Buckinghamshire Building Society, Chorley Building Society, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank, Cynergy, Danske Bank, Darlington Building Society, Dudley Building Society, Hinckley & Rugby Building Society, HSBC Bank Plc, Investec Bank, Leeds Building Society, LiveMore Capital, Marsden Building Society, Melton Building Society, Monmouthshire Building Society, National Westminster Bank Plc, Newcastle Building Society, Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, Skipton Building Society, TSB Bank Plc, Virgin Money Plc, and West Bromwich Building Society. Lender Exchange Portal at £12 INC VAT for the following lenders: Aldermore, Barclays, Cambridge Building Society, CHL Mortgages, Coventry Building Society/Godiva Mortgages, Cumberland Building Society, Fleet Mortgages, Generation Home, Help to Buy ISA, Lloyds, Market Harborough, Nationwide, Pepper Money, Perenna Bank Plc, Precise Mortgages, Santander, and The Paragon Group. ULS Portal at £12 INC VAT for the following lenders: April Mortgages, Foundation Home Loans, Habito, Hodge Bank, Lendinvest (Third Party Solicitor), Metro Bank, MT Finance, MQUBE/Mpowered, Principality, and Vida Homeloans. | £45 INC VAT(if applicable) |
(if leasehold) Official Copy of the Lease | £3 |
(if leasehold) Notice to freeholder When updating the leasehold title, you may need to pay the freeholder/management company a notice fee. They confirm the notice fee to us during the process; however, you can ask them for their fee if you want to do so. | £TBC |
You can read our terms and conditions here - Terms and Conditions
We can also help with a local RICS surveyor (if required) | |
|---|---|
RICS Help to Buy Valuation Report INC VATOur quote is for a Help to Buy Equity Loan-approved RICS valuer to provide an independent market valuation of your property. The valuation reports last for three months and will come with a site visit to assess the property's condition. They will be comparable to recently sold properties of similar condition and delivered on RICS-headed paper. We can't value properties with cladding issues. | £360 |
How long does the conveyancing take?
Selling
The process can be completed between 2 to 3 months for a freehold and longer for a leasehold. Transactions where there are third parties, such as your buyer and potentially an onward purchase, have the potential for the transaction to take longer to complete.
Just repaying the loan
The process can be completed between 1 to 3 months when you are just repaying the Help to Buy loan with a remortgage or personal savings
Caragh is an excellent writer and copy editor of books, news articles and editorials. She has written extensively for SAM for a variety of conveyancing, survey, property law and mortgage-related articles.
