Local search for 100GBP?

magga2000

We are buying a property and the solicitor informed us after the fact that he applied a extended local search for 100GBP, apparently the one in the HIP didn't cover any path to the property?And this is requied by the lender? Not sure how can he know that if he had not seen our mortage offer , it should come through this week? Is he trying to con us into addtional 100GBP? Should we ask him for recipt for this search? I had usually seen local searches costing 40GBP? Thefore suprised where does 100GBP comes from? We are annoyed that he did it before asking for our concent he is spending our money at the end? And we did asked him to inform us next time.

Any advice how to check how legitimate is his claim?

Best.
M

Fire_Fox

Why on earth would your first thought be that a professional would be trying to con you?? Rather than be annoyed perhaps you could trust his professional judgement and expertise: solicitors who are not legitimate get struck off, really not worth losing your livelihood for £60!! Maybe all lenders require proof that the property is actually accessible? Why are you asking complete strangers why your solicitor is charging £100 and not the solicitor himself?

Cookie1988

Hi Magga2000

I work at a conveyancers, although im not a conveyancer myself i can answer your question.

First off, i think its very bad of your conveyancer to just order an additional local search without checking with you, i find that, very unproffesional. However your solicitor isnt trying to con you. It sounds like the Local search in the propertys HIP is out of date and thus needs to be repurchased. By law the seller must provide an up to date HIP however if any searches within the HIP were to pass their expiry date then it is the purchasers duty to purchase an update if they so wish to buy the property.

Local searches all depend on your local council, they can range between £40 to £100 +, if you do not trust your conveyancer you can always call your local council and ask them what the price of a local search would be.

Hope i helped !

elise83_2

While I don't think your conveyancer is trying to con you as it appears to be a valid search (and he's probably being proactive as he should know very well what lenders require, dealing with them every day), I would check the initial contract/terms of appointment you signed with them. I could be wrong but I was under the impression if a cost occurs that was not in the initial quote your conveyancer gave you, they are obliged to notify you of this before incurring the cost on your behalf. I guess it depends what's in the contract.

In my case my solicitors quoted me an approximate price for searches based on the average costs they see, however it turns out my local authority is more expensive than the average. When they required more money to do some searches (about £50), they had to call me up, notify me of the charges, answer my queries about it and then gain my consent before they proceeded.

timmyt

magga2000 wrote: »

We are buying a property and the solicitor informed us after the fact that he applied a extended local search for 100GBP no such thing as 'extended' search. But if he has to search against a bit of missing land then he should have got the seller to pay if that is part of the land eing sold t you. if it is a right of way only then not usual to do a local search. if the search is over 6 months old at the dat you purchase then you need a new one to satisfy your lender (or at least insurance to back out an out of date search but I dont offer that to my clients as that is no real substitute toa fresh search , apparently the one in the HIP didn't cover any path to the property?And this is requied by the lender? Not sure how can he know that if he had not seen our mortage offer he knows as lenders have usual instructions , it should come through this week? Is he trying to con lawyer do not act like that ... he is on your side us into addtional 100GBP? Should we ask him for recipt for this search? I had usually seen no they are not, the odd council may be local searches costing 40GBP? Thefore suprised where does 100GBP comes from? We are annoyed that he did it before asking for our concent he is spending our money if a requirement of the lender then he is just doing his job at the end? And we did asked him to inform us next time.

Any advice how to check how legitimate is his claim? ask him why he has done it as you clearly do not know in any real detail

Best.
M

see above in red

magga2000

I am maybe more certain our solicitor was honest but should probably let us know
before taking on any additional cost that we have to pay for

timmyt

just speak to them and ask in fa riendly client concerned way. they are on your side

puddy

well regarding getting the seller to pay-

when we bought this house, the hip was like a chocolate tea pot, the searches just had 'information unavailable/unobtainable'

so of course we wanted our checks done, asked the seller to pay as its their hip, they refused, we wanted the house, so we had to pay

the person doing the hip, is under no obligation apparently to keep going back to the LA if the informaiton is not available that day or something, so they can jsut leave it blank on the HIP, whats the bluddy point of them