Mortgage legal fees

Hominu

I've spoken to a few solicitors and it seems that a standard handling fee for handling a mortgage is about £150.

My bank states I have to pay the legal fees for them as well, which could be in excees of £200.

So for a solicitor to draw up a mortgage it costs about £400 ? This seems very high. Is this normal?

(and the bank says this is 'fee free' ! otherwise there would be a £1499 'booking fee')

GMS

Is it for a purchase or remortgage?

Solicitor will act for you and the lender. Unless the lender appoint seperate solicitors it is impossible for your solicitor not to act for them.

Get an all inclusive quote from the solicitor to include the legal work and all disbursements. Legal fees alone should not be viewed as the quote.

Look at the legal fees as the 'labour' part of a building job. Materials will cost extra which is where the disbursements come in to play.

Hominu

It's for a purchase. I've asked for a breakdown of the charges and I got this:

Local Search £ 70.79
Mining Search £ 41.06
Water Search £ 53.94
Official search £ 4.00
OS 1 £ 4.00
OS plan £ 7.50
Bank TT fee £ 27.40
Bank Charge fee £ 36.00
Bankruptcy fee £ 2.00
Land Registry £ 200.00
ID Verification £ 14.40
Money Laundering £ 12.50
Professional charges £ 300.00
VAT £ 154.71
Total £ 928.30

I assume the legal fees are the 'professional charges' part? But some of the others don't make a lot of sense - Official Search? OS1 ? I assume Bank TT is transferring funds to the sellers solicitors, but what is 'Bank Charge Fee' ?

Also, banks seem to be able to confirm my ID and do money laundering checks via my credit report automatically, and without fee, so why charge £14.40 and £12.50 for them? Or is this just because they can?

GMS

Prof fees will be the legal fees. About right the cost.

ID verification needs to be done by the solicitor independent of what the lender have done. You or your broker (if using one) could provide the ID such as passport and driving licence to the solicitors which will negate the need for an ID search.

OS 1 is a land registry form I think. Usually there would be TT fees for repaying a mortgage so unless you have a current mortgage it should not apply.

Land reg fees are set in stone. Searches are dependant upon the local authority.

Seems a pretty comprehensive quote but if you are unsure of anything ask the solicitor, or get a quote elsewhere for comparison.

A good solicitor can be worth paying a little extra for. Cheap service usually ends up being just that

kingstreet

That fee seems particularly low.

Is there any mention of "completing SDLT return" or "acting for lender" anywhere separately noted?

Some solicitors include these charges in their headline fee, others list them separately in the small print. Check and get several quotes.