How much does your solicitor charge for a sale?

Milky_Mocha

I've just changed solicitors as the original ones were being sloppy. The new solicitor, for the value of our property is charging £717. (Property asking price £233k). I think that's quite steep. The sloppy ones were charging just under £400. I'm wondering what sort of quotes are being given out there. I could probably look in yellow pages and start phoning up solicitors to get prices for comparison but I feel I'd get more information here, i.e quality of their service vis-a-vis the price. I don't mind paying a bit more for an efficient service but I don't want to pay over the odds.

Thanks

oakview

You don't say which area you are in.We are selling a house in London and are near to exchange of contract but are solicitors are in rural Wales and he is charging just under £600.00 but he did ask the value of the house before we instructed him, which I really don't see how it should make any difference,the procedure is the same, wether it be a flat or a mansion. What your paying does sound a bit expensive.The property was on for £340,000.00

Milky_Mocha

The expensive one is in Dover. The sloppy one is in Southampton. What is the value of the house you are selling? They probably do it on the basis that they can take advantage of a pricier house.

oakview

actually agreed on £310,000.00 with the buyer but that didn't change the charge of the solicitor


Agreed price £310,000.00, seems like the more you get for the sale the more they want in percentage.

Milky_Mocha

My solicitor is being greedy then. Ours sold for 235k. I haven't signed anything yet so I'll call to haggle.

Alan_M_2

Err how does the value of the property effect the solicitors charge? That seems a little opportunistic to me...

lynzpower

exactly Alan.

Mine is charging me 450 with a discount for being recommended.

Sale only, not buying anything

ukmike

£500 for a £320k sale.

fbrj

We have just sold our property (well...exchanged last week ). My experience re solicitors charges for sales is that....... the practice varies!
Initially we approached some local (Surrey town) solicitors and thought the quotes seemed excessive, one in particular was based on the sales value of the house - which is high.
I then went to a regional firm based in a city in the NW of England (with whom we had had some contact previously) - I was staggered to find their quote was significantly less than the local quotes we had obtained. It was £495 plus VAT plus disbursements - which were estimated at about £37.

Their service has been excellent with plenty of back-up (unlike our purchaser's local "one man band" solicitor .....difficult to contact and when he was away matters just ground to a halt - not helped by an "assistant" who was decidedly unhelpful!)

GhostDog_2

Eeeek! Our solicitor bill was £700 plus £250 for searches

fbrj

GhostDog wrote:

Eeeek! Our solicitor bill was £700 plus £250 for searches

Why would you be charged a search fee for the sale of your own property?