Purchase Completion Statement Explained
13/09/2022
(Last Updated: 16/02/2023)
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6 min read
When you get to exchange of contracts, your conveyancing solicitor will provide a completion statement of what you will need to pay in order to complete ('completion' is the day when you collect your keys and the property is legally yours - Read more about What happens on the day of completion).
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What is a completion statement?
A completion statement lists all of the payments and receipts showing a balance to pay or an amount due back to you including:
- Purchase price
- All third party payments also called disbursements
- Solicitor's legal fees
- Any payments you've made
- Mortgage advance
This article breaks down the conveyancing costs listed in the completion statement (sometimes called a financial statement) and tells you when you need to pay for each of them.
Example Completion Statement for Purchase of Property
(Your completion statement may not include all of these conveyancing costs, especially if your property is a Freehold. We have stated when there is a leasehold only cost)
£ | What is it? | When do you pay? |
| £250,000 | Purchase Price | This is the agreed price for the property excluding any additional payments dues such as chattels/fixtures or service charge/ground rent apportionments. A 10% deposit is payable on exchange of contracts and the balance is payable on completion>. |
| £2,500 | Chattels/Fixtures | Payments for tangible items that are being left in the property such as washing machine, fridge, freezer. These are paid on completion. |
| £250 | Service charges (Leasehold only) | Only payable if the property is leasehold and then only if the seller has paid for the service charges for a period that you own the property. These are paid on completion. (for example the seller paid the £500 service charge from January to June upfront. If the seller completes on the 31 March, you would owe them the service charge they have paid from the 1st April to 30th June - £250) . Read more about buying a leasehold here. |
| -£100 | Ground Rent Allowance (Leasehold only) | Similar principle to service charges, however an allowance accounts for when the seller hasn't paid. These are paid on completion. (For example, seller hasn't paid for their ground rent of £200 from 1 January to 30 June; they should have paid from 1 Jan to 31 March completion date - £100. This would mean that you have to pay the full £200 to the freeholder post-completion.) |
| £252,650 | Total | This is the total amount you will pay in total to the seller to buy their property. The deposit is paid on exchange and then the balance on completion; so in this example, £25,000 would have been paid on exchange of contracts and then £227,650 is paid on completion. |
| £2,500 | Stamp Duty Land Tax | Stamp duty land tax is payable when you buy land or property over a certain price. You can use our stamp duty calculator to work out your liability using the current tax band rates. This is paid on your behalf by your solicitor no later than 30 days after completion, however you must pay the stamp duty to your solicitor before you can complete. |
| £135 | Land registration fee | This is the cost charged by the Land Registry to update the ownership records to show you as the new owner of the property. The cost varies depending on your property's value and if it is a new build (see the land registry cost bands). This payment is made post completion however you must pay the land registration fee to your solicitor before you can complete. |
| £529 | Solicitors' legal invoice | Part paid on instruction by £160, you'll pay the balance to your solicitor on completion. Get a quote for your solicitors' legal fees here. |
| £295 | Property searches | These include the local authority, drainage, environmental searches, the title plan and the chancel indemnity insurance (read more about these here). The searches are payable on, or just after you instruct your solicitor. |
| £8 | Online ID fee | Used to verify your ID based on the information you have provided - £8 per name, so if there are two buyers the cost is £16 (read about what ID your solicitor needs to see). This is payable on completion. |
| £10 | Pre-Completion checks (OS1 and bankruptcy) | The OS1 secures your priority over the title to stop the seller from registering any charges over the property and the bankruptcy search checks to see if you are bankrupt. These are payable on completion. |
| £12 | Lawyer checker | Not always required as it is used by your solicitor to check that the seller's solicitor is actually a solicitor and that the bank account being used is the correct one. This is payable on completion. |
| The following are costs related to leaseholds / new builds only | ||
| £100 | Service charges / Ground rent | If there is an allowance (see above) this will normally mean that you'll have to pay service charges to the Freeholder. This payment is made post completion however you must pay the land registration fee to your solicitor before you can complete. |
| £120 | Landlord notice fee | This is the cost levied by the landlord when being notified of a change of ownership of the leasehold and the registration of a charge (mortgage) over the property. This payment is made however you must pay the fee to your solicitor before you can complete. |
| £188 | Landlord engrossment fee | This is the cost levied by the landlord when they issue a new lease (normally only payable on new build purchases). This payment is made post completion however you must pay the fee to your solicitor before you can complete. |
| £256,502 | Complete cost | This is your complete conveyancing cost for buying your home. |
| Now deduct what you will pay during the conveyancing process | ||
| -£160 | Deposit to solicitors | Payable when you instruct your solicitor. |
| -£295 | Property searches | Payable on, or soon after instructing your solicitor. |
| -£500 | Reservation deposit | Normally only paid when buying a new build property. A reservation deposit is paid to the selling agent / developer when you put in your offer. =Read about reservation deposits and non-refundable deposits.= |
| -£25,000 | 10% Deposit | This is the deposit that you pay on exchange of contracts. Read more about can I pull out after exchange of contracts? |
| -£225,000 | Mortgage advance | Depending on your funding of the property this'll be a % of the total purchase price. In this example it is 90% of the property value. The mortgage advance is received by your solicitor the day before completion. Read more about the mortgage process. |
| £250,910 | Monies received | |
| £5,592 | Balance required to complete | This is the balance your solicitor will need to complete your purchase and this needs to be transferred to your solicitor the day before completion. |
Frequently Asked Questions
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Written by:
Andrew Boast
Andrew started his career in 2000 working within conveyancing solicitor firms and grew hands-on knowledge of a wide variety of conveyancing challenges and solutions. After helping in excess of 50,000 clients in his career, he uses all this experience within his article writing for SAM, mainstream media and his self published book How to Buy a House Without Killing Anyone.
Reviewed by:
Caragh Bailey
Caragh is an excellent writer in her own right as well as an accomplished copy editor for both fiction and non-fiction books, news articles and editorials. She has written extensively for SAM for a variety of conveyancing, survey and mortgage related articles.
