Solicitors Fees........ WOW So much

timmyt

Danandsarah wrote: »

Hi Guys, us again, after some more advice.

We have recently had a quote from our solicitors for Residential Conveyencing and it has scared the living day lights out of us coming in at a hefty £4329.07 (Inc Vat). now £2500.00 is for our stamp duty which leaves an additional £1829.07 in fees etc. I have listed the details below and wondered if this is normal? a fair price? any thing we can not have done etc to keep these costs down.

All excluding VAT
£500 Purchase fee (Value of house at 250,000) good price

£200 Additional legal fees on developer incentive requiring second charge. fair enough

£30 Purchase Telegraphic transfer admin fee fair

£6 Land registry searches fair
£4 Bankruptcy search fee fair
£280 Land registry fee fair
£2500 stamp duty fair
£52.50 Local search indemnity insurance for exchange if purchasing off plan and no fixed date for completion fine
£70.50 Drainage & Water Search (If no HIP) new build so don't bother
£41.95 Enviromental search - fair
£23.50 Identity check fee - bad bad bad, that is the lawyers own choice, you can send passport and utility bill
£47.00 Post, tele * copying charges bad bad bad, that is their overheads, so their charge is not £500 plus this
£100 Local authority seach for completion if no HIP not in addition to £52.50 above, the idiots
£50 Miscellaneous disbursements specify please, but sounds bogus
£88.13 Mortgage/ Lanlord registration fees no, bogus charge, the £280 above is the charge
£176 Delelopers engrossment fee true
£31.49 No search chancel indemnity insurance no, the search is this price


All of the above seems a lot???? is it normal.

Everyones help is very much appriciated.

see in red above.

my advice, go elsewhere, too many additions that other solicitors (bet you don't even get a solicitor) do not charge

lb364

I was quoted £800 by my local solicitors...

Jowo_2

Regarding the ID fee, I couldn't visit my solicitor in person with my photographic ID (they advise against sending them by post). I was offered the choice of them undertaking an ID check for around £15 or £20 or sending them through a copy of my passport certified by another solicitor for the fee of £5 paid to the local solicitor and sending it through to my solicitor an original utility bill.

So nothing particularly extravagant about that ID check if it was offered for a similar service.

googler

You can get your ID certified FREE at any Post Office in the land, and this should be acceptable to any solicitor....

Jowo_2

It's a £7 charge at the local post office. Guess I'm £2 up though I didn't know the PO offered that service, just went with the suggestion by my solicitor.

http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/content1?catId=63400715&mediaId=105000818

ftp://ftp.royalmail.com/Downloads/public/ctf/po/id_checking_service_p6582_11_09.pdf

GDB2222

lb364 wrote: »

I was quoted £800 by my local solicitors...

An £800 fee, or £800 including all the disbursements?

Batchy

GDB2222 wrote: »

An £800 fee, or £800 including all the disbursements?

Mine was more like 900... I didn't haggle. Seemed reasonable to me.

The estate agents solicitors wanted over 1500 for the same work, and gave me a quote like the one you have shown.

Maybe it could have been quicker, but seriously not fussed about the speed, just wanted a small firm, who knew what they had to do and was familiar with the area.

Chancel insurance is great and will pay out etc, but that doesn't mean you will be able to sell the house afterwards with a chancel hanging over it, it doesn't compensate you for the value of your house diminishing! You need a blank cheque book if you get stung!

lb364

£800 all in... Glad to hear it's a good quote

Richard_Webster

There is the disadvantage that you are using the developer's nominated solicitor - with the danger you might not get really independent advice - but because the solicitor knows how the developer works he knows some of the extra costs incurred in the particular transaction, which another solicitor might not know about and wouldn't include in his quote but you might well end up being stuck with.

See my comments below:

All excluding VAT
£500 Purchase fee (Value of house at 250,000) OK, on cheap side

£200 Additional legal fees on developer incentive requiring second charge. OK, but perhaps a bit heavy

£30 Purchase Telegraphic transfer admin fee Ok

£6 Land registry searches OK
£4 Bankruptcy search fee OK
£280 Land registry fee OK
£2500 stamp duty OK
£52.50 Local search indemnity insurance for exchange if purchasing off plan and no fixed date for completion OK - though there are good reasons for never buying off plan
£70.50 Drainage & Water Search (If no HIP) Rather expensive - usually they are around £50 - and as TimmyT says not really much use as it is a new development so the plans won't show anything
£41.95 Enviromental search OK
£23.50 Identity check fee A little on the high side
£47.00 Post, tele * copying charges Should not be separated out like this - should be catered for in fees generally
£100 Local authority seach for completion if no HIP OK
£50 Miscellaneous disbursements Comment as for postages
£88.13 Mortgage/ Lanlord registration fees If the property is leasehold or there is some service charge provsion for maintenance of open spaces/private road etc this may be payable - but would be a charge determined by the developer - not by buyer's solicitor
£176 Developers engrossment fee Developer's solicitor's way of recouping "loss" on low fee it agreed with its developer client. £50+VAT would be reasonable - this isn't - complain to developer - not to solicitor who acts for buyer as he is stuck with it and has no control over it at all.
£31.49 No search chancel indemnity insurance If they are a largish firm and have a block policy it should only cost £10-£15 so this is expensive

timmyt

i will check with our money laundering officer tomorrow but I am not convinced PO certified docs are acceptable for money laundering regulations....will edit when I find out