Querying Conveyancing Fees

timmyt

course you did, but my point remains that keep the deeds with the lawyer who will eventually need them

Bananamana

timmyt wrote: »

course you did, but my point remains that keep the deeds with the lawyer who will eventually need them

Guess it depends if you want to use him/her again. In this case... perhaps not?

9wizard9

Thanks for all the comments. I'm just in the process of querying the couple of charges, and I'm planning to pay "under protest" if they don't back down on the SDLT form charge.

Any tips as to how I can do this when I'm transferring all the completion funds (including charges) via CHAPS? Would simply sending a letter the day before stating that I'm disputing this charge and paying under protest be sufficient, or do I need to pay this disputed charge separately (e.g. via cheque or similar)?

Hopefully they'll do the decent thing and back down beforehand, but I want to get all bases covered given I need to transfer the funds in the next couple of days.

9wizard9

Any replies to my last post might still be useful for other people, but I thought I ought to let you know that they've done the decent thing and waived the charge.

Apparently it should have been itemised in the original quote, but as it wasn't they've decided not to charge us.

Nice to know there are still people with some integrity left :-)

madmish00

Apparently it should have been itemised in the original quote, but as it wasn't they've decided not to charge us.

Nice to know there are still people with some integrity left :-)

Glad to hear it! I know when we bought our first house (which was under stamp duty threshhold in any event) we weren't quoted in the original fee for completing the SDLT Form. It was only once we had instructed the solicitor and the searches had been commenced that we received a further letter 'offering' to complete the SDLT for £50 +VAT.

I said "No thanks" and did it myself. And that's exactly what I plan on doing this time.

Can't believe how cheeky some solicitors are as you would automatically think (or maybe it was me being naive) that a compulsory form would be included in the cost of the conveyance.