Please Help, First Time Buyer, Conveyancing Fees

KSoni

Hi Everyone,

We have just got our offers accepted and now looking for solicitors for conveyancing. Just got a quote from the solicitors recommended by our agents as follows

[FONT=&quot]Our Costs £ 495.00[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Stamp Duty £2010.00 (unless first time buyer exemption applies)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Indemnity insurance fee £75.00[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Land Registry Fee £280.00[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Local Authority Search £102.00[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Petty Incidentals [/FONT][FONT=&quot]£50.00[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Bank Charges £30.00[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Bankruptcy Search Fee[/FONT][FONT=&quot] £4.00[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Land Registry Search Fee £4.00[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]VAT £113.75[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]TOTAL £3,163.75 (£1153.75 if Stamp Duty exemption applies)[/FONT]

I am ok with the given quote but, I have tried looking on the net and made a comparison.

Online comparison quotes do not show Local Authority Search, Indemnity Insurance and Petty incidentals.


Can you please give your comments.

Thanks.


(PS: I believe in the fact that in such matters, cheapest is not the best and hence, my question is not with the price but, with these three items and their significance)

Yorkie1

I would not expect Petty Incidentals to be included (they should budget for this in their upfront costs). I am not sure about Indemnity Insurance - I would ask what is being indemnified and why they have included it. As for Local Authority Search, such searches do need to be done but my gut feeling is that that is a high figure.

Have you obtained a quote from at least one other solicitor? You will then be able to compare what is included and the respective costs.

I am not fully clued up on referral fees, but it may be possible that the solicitor is paying the agent such a fee so the costs to you may be slightly higher to cover that. It might be worth asking them if they have paid a referral fee and, if so, how much it was (they are under a duty to disclose this if it does exist).

G_M

Take a look at one of the many regular threads on this topic like this one.

Not_a_Newbie

As a comparison you could try Drummonds Solicitors online conveyancing. We used them a couple of years ago and found them to be reasonable plus the service was good.



http://www.onlineconveyancing.co.uk/

Pont

If it's any help mine was £946 (10 months ago) with a local, family solicitor. I was stamp duty exempt.
I would agree with an earlier poster as to what 'petty incidentals' entail? Off the top of my head the Land Registry Fee and the Local Authority search seem a bit steep (I'll search out my paperwork tomorrow and let you know). It is possible to do these searches yourself - but new house etc. perhaps not worth the bother?!

KSoni

Thanks a lot to everyone who took their time to reply......