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Cost of Searches - Paying for freebies??

Hello,

Fairly new to this so please bear with me...

I'm a first time buyer chasing a particular search I'm outstanding (Local search) so I contacted the local authority who have informed me the search was carried out two days ago... No great concern, but have chased with company carrying out searches who say it may not have been updated yet....

Cause of concern is that the local authority have informed me that only a personal search was requested, which is a "free of charge" search, yet I've paid £295+ for searches to be carried out!

So, basically, should:

Local search
Drainage search
Environmental Search
Coal search

have cost me £295+????

Google offers up lots of info and I can't see how their costs are justified. I've asked for a breakdown of costs from search agency who are going to provide (they are unaware of what I know yet) to see.

So I have any case to complain? Will it effect my relationship with the solicitor / conveyancer??

Just seems like I'm being bent over a barrel here and don't have much to show for it!!!

Comments

  • Different companies will use different search providers which charge different rates.

    When I worked for a conveyancer, we charged £295 for those who were referred through estate agents, and £150 if they came direct off the street.

    I'm going through a purchase myself at the moment and went to a friend who I know is great and asked her for a quote. Her company charges £400!

    I went to another friend, and her company charges £150. She is now doing my conveyancing.
  • I'm just shocked at the mark-up for what is ultimately a set service!

    It just appears to me (maybe in my nievety) that it's money for old rope!
  • AlexMac
    AlexMac Posts: 2,973
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    adamb4322 wrote: »
    I'm just shocked at the mark-up for what is ultimately a set service!

    It just appears to me (maybe in my nievety) that it's money for old rope!

    Yes- having done (or been done for!) about ten buy or sell conveyancings in the past 14 years (moving house a couple of times , 2 different second homes, 2 BTLs...) I never cease to marvel that professionals take such delight in making things expensively complex!

    At least they now seem to have dropped the 'Chancel liability' scam whereby they suggested you pay 10-15 quid for a check (with an insurance company) as to whether their might be an infinitesimal chance of some ancient threat of a tithe on your property hidden in a document in a catacomb somewhere for repairs to a Church chancel (whatever a 'chancel' is)...

    Then, when, surprise, surprise such infinitesimal risk was detected they offered to insure you against it for anything from £15-100! (I had that stunt pulled on me three times.

    And our kids had to pay £50 for an indemnity against risk after the environmental survey failed to give the 100% all clear equired by the lender after it found a 'historic tank' on an old map; notwithstanding that the heating oil tank to which it referred was demolished 50 years previously when the Home it serviced was knocked down.

    And the £50 'wayleave' to drive on a road we and all our 500 neighbours had driven on for donkeys... or the Solicitor who, when re-writing a lease in the 1980's had slipped in a clause which meant that every time any one of the 13 flats in the block sold on, they had to sign a purposeless bit of paper for, wait for it...£50...

    Lawyers... Doncha luvvem!

    Rant over
  • There are two types of local authority search:
    -An official Local Authority search is where the search is carried out by a team at the Local Authority, who put a report together and send out an invoice.
    -A personal search is where the Local Authority make the information available for you or someone else to view in person. What you are paying for is not access to the raw data, but the time of an agent from the search company going to the Local Authority, going through the raw data and providing a report, which of course isn't free. What you are also paying for is their assurance that the information they have provided in their report is correct.

    I would normally estimate the cost of searches at around £250, but I am not in a coal mining area so that would not include a coal mining report as standard. I don't think £295 including the coal mining report is too wide of the mark, and surely worth the investment to know exactly what you are buying.
  • G_M
    G_M Posts: 51,977
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    Indeed. As Vohamanah says, the 'personal search' is free inasmuchas the local authority do not charge for it.

    But the solicitor (or company the delegate it to) then has to go and get the info and put together the report. That is what you are paying for.

    The alternative is to pay for the official Local Authority search at whatever rate your LA charges (they vary), but this takes longer than a personal search.

    A 3rd alternative (though not acceptable if you are gtting a mortgage), is to go to the LA yourself to look at the (free) info via a personal search, and make your own notes!
  • davidmcn
    davidmcn Posts: 23,596
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    Vohamanah wrote: »
    I don't think £295 including the coal mining report is too wide of the mark, and surely worth the investment to know exactly what you are buying.

    Considering identical searches can be obtained in Scotland for a total of around £90, someone's doing very well out of it.
  • ACG
    ACG Posts: 23,677
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    The solicitor I recommend to my clients (based on service being good, not necessarily the cheapest) would have changed £105 + £39 if you want the coal search.

    But they may charge more in other areas? So overall it evens itself out.
    I am a Mortgage Adviser
    You should note that this site doesn't check my status as a mortgage adviser, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice.
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