Solicitor Conveyancing Quote

Matty0682

Hi,

I am in the process of selling my flat and I would appreciate some advise over my choice of solicitor. The flat has a share of the freehold (therefore not standard sale), and I have recently gone through a lease extension.

So I have decided to ask the same solicitor (who dealt with my lease extension) to quote on Conveyancing fees because they would know the lease in detail and will probably lead to a smoother sale.

My flat is worth £250k. They have quoted as follows:

Conveyancing fees: £575
Vat: £86.25
Office Copy Entries: £12
Telegraphic Transfer: £34.50
TOTAL: £707.75

In the terms they have also said, “should any Conveyancing transaction fail to proceed for whatever reason, we will charge you £160 per hour for each hour of work.....our total charge will not exceed 2/3 of the fixed fee. Our bill will also include VAT and expenses”

So basically I would like to know if the fixed quote of £707.75 sounds reasonable. And whether it is normal for solicitors to charge an hourly fee if the transaction fails to proceed. I always thought you don’t pay anything if the sale falls through (the risk the solicitor takes)

All advise is much appreciated

Robert_Sterling_3

Help !!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

woody252506

That sounds about right to me.

Quotes I got were around the £750/£800 mark.

In terms of charging hourly fees if it fails, the quotes I got did not incorporate that in fact 2 of them refunded a certain area of the fees if the sale didnt go through in the end.

Id get some more quotes from other solicitors and compare.

woody252506

Mine was for a 3 bed mid terraced too. Still id say the figure you got quoted is about the norm.

Matty0682

Thanks woody252506

Mine is 3 bed flat, I may as well try and get the HIP thrown in as well.

Although I must say the terms quoting this hourly rate does concern me. I'm guessing it mean if it falls through, I wouldn't have to pay the fixed fee of £707, just an hourly rate on the work done.

Do you know if all Solicitors have this is their terms?

woody252506

Id guess its similar to what they said to me except the other way round!

They said to me that if it fell through, i wouldnt have to pay the full amount but would still be out of pocket. I cant remember which area it was they said they'd refund but to put a percentage on it, if it fell through, id say you would pay 75% roughly of the £707 they quoted.

Thats how i understand it anyway

I am certain its the case whichever solictors you choose because otherwise they would be doing hours of work for nothing if a sale fell through.

sal_strawberry

Sounds right to me, but our solicitor has a clause that if things don't go through they don't charge.

Richard_Webster

Some solicitors do no sale no fee. That covers time but not payments to other people such as Land Registry copy entries or on a purchase, searches. Often the risk factor is built into a higher fee.

I give people a choice - they can either take the risk that they will get charged for the abortive work or in most cases they can pay me a bit more up front and then I don't charge for abortive time. There will be others that will work in the same way. If the no sale no fee is a concern then shop around and ask about all the points and what extras there are.

There's a recent post where a solicitor charges £60 for the extra work of arranging an indemnity policy (on top of the premium to the insurance company). Ask about that! If as a seller you have to pay for Chancel Repair Insurance, what is the minimum cost of it - is it about £60 or can they get it much cheaper for £10?

Xinpei

Hi, I would be interested to know about the hourly rate thing. I have a quote for the conveyancing fees as a whole number but the detailed quote also included this 'charge by the hour' thing and its a large figure something like £200/hour for the solicitors time.

I am trying not to pick too much into it and hope that the conveyancing fee quoted is normally more than enough to cover all time spent on my case. Does anyone know any better or have had any experience in being charged more in the end because you rang them up too many times or emailed them too often?

Thanks (sorry to hijack the thread btw)

Richard_Webster

Not very common these days but it is possible that the estimate gives a figure for the work that is not fixed and assumes X hours work so they can charge according to the actual time spent.

Another possibility is that they guarantee not to charge more for abortive work than the figure they gave for their time for the completed job, but then impose a high hourly rate so that even if they did very little the abortive charge comes out quite high in comparison!

If people don''t take up my abortive scheme where I take a further upfront fee in exchange for guarantee not to charge for abortive time, then if the matter got almost to exchange with reports done, contracts signed etc, and then the client chnges his mind or the other sidfe pulls out, then I would charge 60-75% of the original figure for fees depending on how complicated it was, and of course there would be no SDLT , Bank Transfer Fee or Land Registry Fees on an abortive purchase.