First Time Buyer - is my Solicitor taking advantage?

cj1982_2

Hi, I am a first time buyer on a very low budget, and was lucky enough to find a reposession property for £41000, got a pretty good provisional mortgage rate and my mortgage broker found me a very decent conveyancing fee.
Too good to be true, I know.
My estate agent then recommended a solicitor to me, (it turns out they make a lot of commision from this) and I am pretty shocked by some charges. Could anyone please let me know if these may be too much? They are requesting a check for £250 immediately, and as I have no experience with this I am lost to see what this is for.

Conveyancing Transaction Fee
£428.88
Search Service Fee – providing valid searches within Home Information Pack
£100.00
Telegraphic Transfer Service Fee
£41.13
Mortgage Administration Fee
£111.63
Identification Service Fee
£23.50
Pre-Completion Search Service Fee
£8.00
Stamp Duty Land Tax Service
£88.13


I was under the impression I would not to pay stamp duty, and have been quoted less for the conveyancing. Identification fee seems bizarre as they only want a photocopy of my passport and don't need me to set foot in the office, and I have a mortgage arranged already. I also have a HIP from the estate agents, and no clue what the rest means this all seems a little unorthodox, but I don't want to create problems that aren't there as we are due to complete in less than 2 weeks.

Could anyone help?

Thanks, Cat

timmyt

cj1982 wrote: »

Hi, I am a first time buyer on a very low budget, and was lucky enough to find a reposession property for £41000, got a pretty good provisional mortgage rate and my mortgage broker found me a very decent conveyancing fee.
Too good to be true, I know.
My estate agent then recommended a solicitor to me, (it turns out they make a lot of commision from this) and I am pretty shocked by some charges. Could anyone please let me know if these may be too much? They are requesting a check for £250 that is ok most do immediately, and as I have no experience with this I am lost to see what this is for.

Conveyancing Transaction Fee
£428.88 ok
Search Service Fee – providing valid searches within Home Information Pack
£100.00 ? what is that......if the HIP is out of date (and you have a lender) then they need redoing but they should not charge to do that!!!!
Telegraphic Transfer Service Fee
£41.13 bit high £30 plus VAT is the max
Mortgage Administration Fee
£111.63 what!!!! their fee shoudl cover acting for a lender
Identification Service Fee
£23.50 what!!!!!! send them originals and they will special delievr them back...they must do that to even open their file, they hould not charge
Pre-Completion Search Service Fee
£8.00 yes fine
Stamp Duty Land Tax Service
£88.13 No!!! charging you to do a 5 min form fill...form needs to still be completed even though not paying....£40k min I think for the requirement of the form I think. I don't do deals quite that low, so well done on your purchase price by the sound of it!!

get a survey as what is the catch?





I was under the impression I would not to pay stamp duty, and have been quoted less for the conveyancing. Identification fee seems bizarre as they only want a photocopy of my passport and don't need me to set foot in the office, and I have a mortgage arranged already. I also have a HIP from the estate agents, and no clue what the rest means this all seems a little unorthodox, but I don't want to create problems that aren't there as we are due to complete in less than 2 weeks.

Could anyone help?

Thanks, Cat

On behalf of conveyancers, I apologise for this firm. Shocking.

Name and shame them!!!!!

AND

for those fees, you won't even have a solicitor acting from start to finish with direct dials and their email. Bet you do not get anyone qualified.

Those firms who charge for acting for a lender, search ordering and filling in a stamp duty form give us all a bad name - and I am a solicitor so I am personally offended by these outfits!! They haven't got the first clue how to do conveyancing. I could give them all a Pop Quiz of 20 every day conveyancing questions and they would flunk...questions about what they see on your own purchase papers too.

Scary!

Emmzi

The searches MAY need redone if they are not insurance backed, so unacceptable to lender. Or they may not.

I wouldn't use an EA solicitor on principle, but nor would I go for the cheapest. Sometimes you need a detail conscious stroppy so and so on your side and that's worth paying for.

timmyt

I always advise taking a recommendation from a local independent estate agent (never a national one) as they know which law firms will be good and who will make them look good as a result of recommending.

many national agents take huge referral fees from really poor legal firms to whom them refer - I would love to name the law firms!!!

Richard_Webster

TimmyT did a good job of demolishing this set of fees - I would have quite enjoyed taking them apart, bit by bit....

The sad thing is that for every person who looks on MSE there must be hundreds who don't and get conned and it is appalling...

MissAqua

Oh Dear, looks like I am being way over charged... All I can say is that they better be good!!

Some of my fees on the quote

Firms legal charged £525 +VAT
Land reg form £50+ VAT
Archieve Fee for storage of my file for 15 years £20 + VAT
Contribution towards Indeminty Insurance Premium (??) £20 +VAT
Acting for Mortgage Lendor £50+
Money transfer fee £35 +VAT
Lease holder premium £50 +VAT

The list goes on :-/ I am a FTB and I wish I had found this forum before I signed up with my solicitors then I might know something about the process

timmyt

MissAqua wrote: »

Oh Dear, looks like I am being way over charged... All I can say is that they better be good!!

Some of my fees on the quote

Firms legal charged £525 +VAT
Land reg form £50+ VAT terrible, never seen that one, should be part of their work
Archieve Fee for storage of my file for 15 years £20 + VAT the law society say they must store their file, so that is reportable to the LS
Contribution towards Indeminty Insurance Premium (??) £20 +VAT nonsense, part of their work
Acting for Mortgage Lendor £50+ part of their work
Money transfer fee £35 +VAT bit high, £30 plus VAT is the max usually, as most banks either do not charge of limot the actual charge to £10 plus VAT say
Lease holder premium £50 +VAT fine, if you are buying a flat, but that should be combined with their fee, so they should have said £575 plus VAT

The list goes on :-/ I am a FTB and I wish I had found this forum before I signed up with my solicitors then I might know something about the process

what you do not say is how much you are buying for.

name and shame this firm! again, an apology for the conveyancing form's tactics

Bet you do not get one person's name throughout and who is a solicitor or even qualified...for such high fees as well

MissAqua

Only a little flat 139,950