Buying a house - can you do the Land Registry search yourself?

markymids

I'm looking at the breakdown of the conveyancing fees and I've noticed they are charging £250 for the land registry search. Why is this so expensive, and can't I do it myself or is it quite tricky?

DVardysShadow

Get other quotes. If you will have a mortgage, you cannot DIY certain aspects.

mark5

Are you mixing up the land registry search fee with the Land Registry fee for registration of ownership?

When i bouught my home back in 2006 the search fee was £6 but the registration fee was £220.

Richard_Webster

I'm looking at the breakdown of the conveyancing fees and I've noticed they are charging £250 for the land registry search. Why is this so expensive, and can't I do it myself or is it quite tricky?

A Land Registry Search costs £4 for a solicitor to do on-line so it looks as if you are confusing this with the Land Registry Fee - but there is no £250 fee for that. It is £200 for properties selling for between £100,001 and £200,000 and £280 for those between £200,001 and £500,000, so where does the £250 come from?

Or possibly you mean a local search? These will vary in cost from area to area and most solicitors simply charge what it costs to do and don't add on a profit item so you wouldn't save by doing it yourself. Some Lodnon Authorities could charge as much as £250, but possibly the solicitor has included other searches (Environmental? Mining?) in the total as well.

You are not in Scotland or Northern Ireland are you, because totally different set up there? I keep on suggesting there should be sepaate forums of rthe separte jusridactions to avoid confusion - but in the meatime if in Scotland or NI you need to say in the first post so English contributors can avoid getting involved.

markymids

Hi, I am in England and the purchase price was £112,000. So the Land Registry fee should only be £200 then?

Here is the breakdown:

Conveyancing fees: £350.00 + VAT
Local search fee - £75.60
Coal Board search - £31.05
Water and drainage search - £42.72
Bankruptcy search - £3.00
HMLR search - £4.00
Telegraphic transfer fee - £28.75
Land Registry - £250.00
Land Transaction Return £46.00

Am I being ripped off?

feralkitten

HMLR stands for Her Majesty's Land Registry - so the £4 search fee is right. However, it looks like the £250 should be £200, which is the appropriate registration fee payable to HMLR. Have you asked whether that is a typing error?

Richard_Webster

The fee should be £200 unless perhaps there are two different transactions to register.

If this was a shared freehold flat where the share of freehold was being transferred for a nominal amount by the existing freeholder and the seller to the existing freeholders and the buyer this separate transfer would attract a further £50 fee - but this is unlikely!

terryw

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Get other quotes. If you will have a mortgage, you cannot DIY certain aspects.

Good advice here. If you are buying or selling for cash, it is certainly possible to save a fortune in solicitor's fees, but once a mortgage is involved there is no practical way that you can DIY a purchase. It is still worthwhile reading one of the DIY books so that you are au fait with what your solicitor is doing.

As mentioned check around for quotes.....there are solicitors and conveyancing firms who specialize in this and can therefore offer cheaper prices because of economies of scale.

pawpurrs

Are searches really necessary, if there is no mortgage, seems to me to be money for old rope! Most things are too far away to come up in a search in any case!

terryw

pawpurrs wrote: »

Are searches really necessary, if there is no mortgage, seems to me to be money for old rope! Most things are too far away to come up in a search in any case!

This one is a matter of opinion! But I agree with you though.

Over the years I have bought several houses with cash and just not bothered with searches if the house was bog-standard in an estate or a terraced street. Five minutes chat with neighbours or in the local pub will give you far more information than all the searches. Additionally it used to be possible to walk-through the council searches for a nominal fee but I don't know if you can still do this.

It could well be different though if the house was a one-of in case the council had some dastardly plan decided.

timmyt

By the sound of some of you you'd pay less than £500 plus VAT for the legal fee, yet hand over £200k+ for a house. Crazy. Employ a solicitor not a conveyancing factory on the internet.

This site is for wise buyers, not cheapskates.

Conveyancers - you pay for what you get.