How much is moving REALLY going to cost us?

melt71

We've just accepted an offer on our house and we've had an offer on the house we want to buy accepted.

The mortgage has been approved, but we're now looking at the costs involved and they seem to be going out of control! I did one of those estimations online to get an idea of costs before we put our house up for sale, but it was WAY OUT! :mad:

Can anyone recommend how to find a reasonably priced and not too shabby solicitor? The ones that the estate agent has recommended has just quoted us nearly £2k! We were told that it would be about £500 to sell and double if it was a sale/purchase.

It's not a complicated chain - in fact it's a closed chain of just 3 including us.

We've then got Stamp Duty, Sellers Fees, moving costs etc. But if everything is going to be more expensive than we planned on, the move isn't going to happen. I don't know how people can afford to do this, I almost fainted when the solicitor gave me their quote :rotfl:

Help! We've waited almost 3 years to move and now it's looking like it's going to cost about £8k to do it Our house sold for £187k so it's not like we are buying/selling a mansion!

Any advice would be appreciated.

danielley

I am paying £1650 Solictors fees, that is buying and selling. It doesn't matter how much you are buying for and how many people are in the chain, because your solicitor still has to deal with two sets of solicitors, the ones that you are buying off and the ones you are selling to.

Stamp Duty will be 1% of the new purchase price up to £250k, 3% over that.

There may be survey fees for the new mortgage, if so you are looking at around £200-400 for a basic one, depending on the lender, then there may be mortgage arrangement fees, which I have found astronomical, but some lenders let you put part or all of these onto your mortgage.

Dont forget little extras, like I am switching lender so I am having to pay a 'Closing Admin Charge' of £225.

Also if any of your paperwork isn't in order for the house you are selling, then you will have to fork out. For example, I am having to get a gas certificate for the gas appliances done, £60 and also I may have to get some indemnity insurances out if the buyers solicitors aren't happy with some enquiries. i.e if you dont have a copy of a ground rent receipt, or if something looks fishy on the environmental search. These are around £150 a pop.

So far my sale and purchase costs (aside from deposit) are looking like

£1800 Stamp Duty
£1650 Solicitors Fees (including searches)
£400 Mortgage Valuation (Survey)
£195 Mortgage Arrangement fee (with another £900 on mortgage)
£300 Removals company
£225 Closing Admin Fee (?!?)
£60 Gas safety certificate

That adds to £4630 which is a lot of money! I dont have Estate Agency fees as I'm buying a new build and the builder is taking my property as Part Ex, but either way, its not a cheap transaction and I have gotten a bit numb to it all and started to forget why I ever wanted to move in the first place.

flora48

My estate agent's fee was £4200 in addition to all of the above.

originalmiscellany

Yes, plan for more than you think! Off the top of my head, it cost about 1k as it was a re-mortgage

originalmiscellany

and a change in ownership from a joint tennancy (me and a friend) to me and MOM

LittleMissAspie

melt71 wrote: »

We were told that it would be about £500 to sell and double if it was a sale/purchase.

For the fees that sounds normal but don't forget you've got all the searches and extra charges and VAT on top of that.

PasturesNew

And a lot of it's plus VAT. EA fees will be plus VAT, as will other services.

melt71

Thanks for all of your replies.

I honestly don't know how we're going to do this!! We'd worked it out at about £6k but it's looking more like £10k

walletpains

I reckon I'll be looking at about £4k to sell & buy at the complete bum-end of the property ladder. It's sickening!

muskoka

Phone round for more competetive solicitors charges. I've just purchased & it cost me £550 + disbursements, searches, etc and I'm in the South East. To sell at same time should only cost about double...

You should be able to cut the costs BUT dont use an online solicitor - people generally advise that is asking for problems

ukjoel

£300 Removals company

Is this accurate - We are moving from a 3 bed to a 4 bed a mile down the road and I had budgeted £1500. Its the one area of moving I havent looked at and would appreciate any feedback to how much a move would cost for them to pack everything as well.

Cheers,