Adding name to deeds

[RusholmeRuffian]

My parents have "just realised" that their house is in my Dad's name only. There is no mortgage as they've been there 45 years. My Dad has Alzheimer's and my Mum has been advise to get him to put her on the deeds while he can still make decisions. My Mum has form for paying for things without question or shopping around and I'm worried she'll pay a solicitor way too much for this to be done. She's also going to sort out Power of Attorney. Does anyone have any idea how much these things should be costing her and is there anything that can be done without a solicitor? Thanks.

The transfer of the property would normally be very simple; they both sign a TR1. The complicating factor is that the property may not be registered as compulsory registration only came in in the mid 80s. In that case the conveyancing will be a bit more protracted. Depending on where in the country you are a solicitor will charge around £500-700 to transfer an unregistered property and to register it at the land registry. The land registry will also charge them a fee of around £70 (but I'm not a conveyancer so it may be more.

They could DIY if it's already registered but they'll still need to pay a registration fee.

LPAs - when I was in high street practice I used to charge around £500 plus VAT for an LPA and I retired 3 years ago so it will probably be more now. I now charge £225 (work from home so can keep overheads down). The Office of the Public Guardian will also charge a registration fee of £110 per LPA.

Thank you, that's really helpful

If there is a mortgage and you do the transfer there is stamp duty to pay but I assume after 45 years there is probably no mortgage.
Also make sure they have at least some accounts in joint names so she can manage them if he gets worse.

You can probably look on the Land Registry website for a small fee to see if the property is registered land or not by doing a search for it. it might be wise to get the same solicitor or firm who do the lasting power of attorney to do the house transfer too and also check if their wills need updating.

LL the OP says there is no mortgage. Stamp duty is not payable when transferring between spouses (exemption H if I remember correctly).