Completion Statement

danadanny

Hi,
my partner and I are in the process of buying an apartment. I received the completion statement from my solicitor this morning. On top of the DISBURSEMENTS (including stamp duty, amount to £2225.09), we are required to pay the following fees (incl VAT):

Solicitors Fees - £551.08
Leasehold Fees - £235.00
Mortgage Fees - £111.63
Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) Fees - £64.63
TT Fees - £39.95
Deed of Covenant Fees - £176.25

The total amount payable is £1513.63 (excluding £1590 stamp duty). Is this a rip off?

I spoke to my solicitor moments ago. She said Mortgage fees is actually a handling fee, to transfer funds from my mortgage lender into the my solictor's bank account, and then forward to seller's lender. Why should they charge me £111.63 to allow the funds to sit in their bank account and gain a few days interest?

SDLT fee is chargable for sending out a "standard questionnaire" to the Inland Revenue. Shouldn't this be included in the solicitors fee?
In this case, it isn't. Then what does the solicitor fees include? Answering my calls?


Any advise or comments will be deeply appreciated.

Thank you,
Danny.

Dani85

We completed last Wednesday and our completion statement only amounted to £802 :S

danadanny

lucky you!

would it be convenient to show me a break down of fees, so that I can do a comparison.

Dani85 wrote: »

We completed last Wednesday and our completion statement only amounted to £802 :S

Dani85

Thats no problem at all. As soon as I get home I will type it up for you

danadanny

Thank you very much. You are very kind.

Just wondering, is your new property carpetted? Did you get it clean before you move in?

Dani85 wrote: »

Thats no problem at all. As soon as I get home I will type it up for you

Dani85

no bother at all, anything to try and help!

Yeah we got the keys on Wed and then moved in on Friday and holy poop its scary haha!

BeerBelly

?

Im confused - we've just Exchanged, but got invoice for all fees (Stamp duty, mortgage, surveys, searches solicitors) and paid yesterday.

Should I expect some completeion fee's or are these the same?

Dani85

BeerBelly wrote: »

?

Im confused - we've just Exchanged, but got invoice for all fees (Stamp duty, mortgage, surveys, searches solicitors) and paid yesterday.

Should I expect some completeion fee's or are these the same?

Heya, your completion statement is basically a statement detailing all the costs that by the sounds of, you have already paid for so you can breathe now hehe

Dani85

danadanny wrote: »

Thank you very much. You are very kind.

Just wondering, is your new property carpetted? Did you get it clean before you move in?

It is carpetted all upstairs and laminated downstairs. We have bought a carpet for downstairs which my dad is fitting for us.

The upstairs carpet, I just borrowed by mums hoover which could suck the moon out of the sky and just did a couple of thorough hoovers!!

newlywed

danadanny wrote: »

SDLT fee is chargable for sending out a "standard questionnaire" to the Inland Revenue. Shouldn't this be included in the solicitors fee?
In this case, it isn't. Then what does the solicitor fees include? Answering my calls?

Solicitors fees will only include the time charges for the solicitor to deal with your file. Eg reading documents, telephone calls, time spent writing letters to you and others etc.

Any other costs that the solicitor has to pay out on your behalf, eg the Stamp Duty fees, the banks TT fee to transfer money quickly, etc they have to list individually as disbursements so the cost for their time and work is clearly visible. These "disbursements" are never included in the solicitors fees.

Hope that helps a bit.

BeerBelly

Thank God for that!

Nearly has a little 'accidnet'

:-P