Conveyancer Quotation advice

kopper

Hi
I have had an offer for a fairly new 1 bed flat accepted for £130k and the Estate Agent have sent me a quote from their legal team as they prefer me to use their services for obvious reasons.
Please can someone have a quick run through and advise if its reasonable before I get quotes from others.
Thanks

Price: £130k, 1 bed flat
Age of property: Approx 3 years
Location: Just outside london


Quotation for legal services on your purchase at £130,000.00

Professional Fee £549.00
No move, no fee.

Leasehold Supplement £150.00
Additional cost associated with the legal work required for a leasehold property is applicable in the Professional Fee.

Administration Fee £50.00
This is non-refundable and used by us to meet a proportion of the set-up and administration costs.

Total £749.00

Disbursements

Professional Search Package £299.00
Enquiries must be made with the Local Authority on planning permissions, planned roads etc. Additionally, searches must be made with respect of water, drainage and environmental matters. Additional specialist searches may be required depending on your property location (e.g. mining, brine, chancery etc.) Your conveyancer will advise if these are applicable.

Bankruptcy Search Fee (V.A.T. Exempt) £6.00
The Bankruptcy Search is carried out by the conveyancer on behalf of the lender to check for bankruptcy against each individual.

Land Charges Search (V.A.T. Exempt) £6.00
Checks need to be made with the Land Registry to ensure there are no outstanding charges on the property.

Other Fees

Acting for Lender £115.00
Fee applied if your conveyancer is acting for your mortgage lender - only applicable if you are purchasing with a mortgage.

Telegraphic Transfer Fee £39.00
When funds are transferred to the vendors conveyancers or to transfer any balance of proceeds to your bank, a telegraphic transfer fee is incurred for each transfer.

Stamp Duty Land Tax Return Preparation £75.00
Your conveyancer is required to submit a Stamp Duty Land Tax return form on your behalf.

V.A.T. on the above fees £255.40

Government Charges

Charges will be made by the government in relation to your purchase. These are detailed below and should be included when you are budgeting for your move.

Land Registry Charges (V.A.T. Exempt) £200.00
The charge raised by the HM Land Registry to register the change of ownership. The fee varies with the purchase price.

Stamp Duty (V.A.T. Exempt) £1,300.00
Percentage of the purchase price. A Government purchase tax on most residential property over £125,000. Stamp duty may not be payable in the area where you are buying. Please visit https://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/so for a list of exempt regions or await clarification from your conveyancer.

This 'no move, no fee' (excluding disbursements already incurred) quotation is based on the purchase price shown above and the information you have provided and is subject to change if the purchase price is reduced or increased. If the standard rate of V.A.T. is increased, the fee element of your quotation will be amended accordingly.

If the property is Leasehold, a supplement of £150.00 + V.A.T. is applicable. There may be other third party charges which will be confirmed by your conveyancer.

If there is a mortgage on the property which is not detailed in the quotation above, the normal supplement of £115.00 + V.A.T. is applicable. There may be other third party charges payable when acting for your mortgage lender which will be confirmed by your conveyancer.

Our conveyancers are totally professional and independent and give impartial advice. As part of our commitment to independent professional integrity, we comply fully with the solicitor's referral code where it applies to SpicerLegal. Your conveyancers standard Terms and Conditions will apply.

googler

The figures don't matter.

Don't use a conveyancer or solicitor appointed by the selling agent. They can't work exclusively for your interests (despite the 'referral code' - whatever that might be) because they've been appointed by the other side in the transaction, and won't want to bite the hand that feeds them - i.e. the agency selling the property, who are working for the seller - again, the person on the other side of the transaction. You want someone on your side who doesn't have an ongoing relationship with the selling agent or solicitor

Find your own by personal recommendation or other means.

kopper

Good point. I didnt think of that. Thanks

Is there any benefits of going through the same Conveyancer apart from speed?

Senior_Paper_Monitor

I agree fully with Googler - AND they are expensive.

I am a great believer in quality is more important than price for your conveyancer (as a broker we have recommended the same firm for over 5 years - and encourage our clients got use them because we can rely on them and communicate readily with them) BUT you can certainly get a good independent conveyancing firm well below what you are being quoted.

DVardysShadow

kopper wrote: »

I have had an offer for a fairly new 1 bed flat accepted for £130k and the Estate Agent have sent me a quote from their legal team as they prefer me to use their services for obvious reasons.
Please can someone have a quick run through and advise if its reasonable before I get quotes from others.

Stop right there. I have not read the rest of it, you have said enough for me to say that this is a bad idea.

Never ever as buyer take any kind of financial or legal service from your seller's agent. The 'obvious reasons' of convenience etc are overshadowed by the glaringly obvious reasons of your seller's agent's self interest in this. It is a huge conflict of interest.

As an aside, I believe that it should be made illegal for Estate Agents to offer or refer for financial or legal services to buyers. Even as seller, if the agent offers financial services and 2 buyers come along, one who will take their financial services and one who will not, the temptation to prefer the first will be quite strong - and the agent could knock the second buyer back without even letting you know.

It is only acceptable for an Estate Agent to offer legal services to their sellers.

cattie

As others have said, don't do it. The ea will get commission for you using the recommended conveyancer and of course, it's you who will be paying for that. Just be firm and say you prefer to use your own solicitor/conveyancer.

I'm just about to exchange and complete on my house sale and the purchase of a flat and the standard charge for the legal fee was £450 and approx £150 for the leasehold work. Why you should be expected to pay an admin fee of £50 is a real mystery. My ea's solicitor had quoted me £600 for the legal fee, so was quite a bit more than the one who I chose to go with.

Shop around and find your own conveyancer. There are plenty of good and much more reasonably priced ones available. Get 3 quotes and compare. If you can get recommendations from anybody you know, that would be a good way to go.

kopper

I definitely will not be using them after hearing everyone's advice.
A friend has now recommended a good solicitor he has for his property.

Thanks guys !:T

jonb83

We just had a terrible experience with Mackenzie Jones solicitors. Our solicitor; Katie Lockyer was highly unprofessional. She regularly avoided our calls, refused to update our contact details even though we repeatedly told them. They were extremely rude on the phone. To top it all of, they cancelled our contract without even properly talking it through with us (the buyers). Will NEVER use them again.

Richard_Webster

£939 + VAT to buy a flat for £130K - that's far too high!

I assume OP is getting a mortgage so I've included the acting for lender and SDLT completion fees which a lot of solicitors will include ion their standard charges.

Professional Search Package £299.00
Enquiries must be made with the Local Authority on planning permissions, planned roads etc. Additionally, searches must be made with respect of water, drainage and environmental matters.

Most major lenders do not require an environmental search so that is a lie!

Former_MSE_Andrea

Hi!

The company has asked to provide a response. MSE doesn't endorse anything a company says on the Forum.

We are sorry you feel you have had a bad experience.

At Mackenzie Jones we do attempt to do all we can to make the conveyancing process as stress free as possible. However, at times, matters outside our control can delay the process.

Please be assured that we attempt to provide a very high level of service to all our clients which is reflected in the amount of clients who use our services again and again.

G_M

kopper wrote: »

Good point. I didnt think of that. Thanks

Is there any benefits of going through the same Conveyancer apart from speed?

What convinces you it will be faster....?

I agree with all comments above.

(except post 10 which does not seem to respond to the issues raised in post 8 !)