a freehold house for £95k with no chain and first time buyer = £1200 conveyancing?

Yorkie1

ILW wrote: »

Why does the value of the property have any bearing?

Don't know, but I do recall that when I rang for quotes when I bought, all solicitors asked for the value of the transaction.

Ash87

ILW wrote: »

Why does the value of the property have any bearing?

I thought it was because of stamp duty - not sure if there is another reason but yes every quote I've gotten so far asks for the value of the property.

Additionally my cousin just bought a property costing 400k and had to pay over 4k for conveyancing for some reason.

I am going to try one of the quotes I've been given due to the fact that about 30 mins after I got the quote I got telephoned and the person who I spoke to seemed friendly and assured me that their quote includes everything.. So I figure it is worth a try if I save several hundred pounds. I can't even remember the name of the company at the moment as I've collected so many quotes!

I will update this thread with what happens next and the name of the conveyancer

Thanks again everyone

EDIT:

Progress!

I found the lender through a website 'cheapconveyancingquotes.com' which pointed me to 'Advantage Property Lawyers' who are quoting me £599 including VAT. I have checked several things over with them and they assure me that everything is included and their quote is fixed. I am now in the process of bouncing this off of my estate agent to see what they think.

So far they have been very easy to communicate with (phoned them twice) and have been very fast at sending my details over and have provided an online portal with which I can login and check the progress of things.

I appreciate that I'm taking a big risk here but oh well if I get my fingers burnt at least other money savers will hopefully learn from my experiences!

Richard_Webster

I found the lender through a website 'cheapconveyancingquotes.com' which pointed me to 'Advantage Property Lawyers' who are quoting me £599 including VAT. I have checked several things over with them and they assure me that everything is included and their quote is fixed.

Well you have £120 Land Registry Fee and at least £80 as minimum cost of searches to come off that so that leaves £399 which is £32.50 plus VAT and is very cheap.

Be interested to hear how you get on and how far stuff is explained to you.

Having an online portal is all very well if the messages and stages reached actually mean something to you. If things aren't explained properly, there is a danger of assuming that because certain stages are reached everything is fine and you will be moving next week!

cherrypie363

I am currently selling/buying a property and my buyer and seller are using Premier Property Lawyers.

The way it has been handled is ridiculous.

We have a week before our buyers mortgage offer runs out and we find out that their solicitor has only just today sent out the paper work for the buyers to sign that the solicitor has been holding for 2 weeks. Not only that, they have not done the necessary paperwork to secure the finances for our buyer. We are now at serious risk of the whole chain collapsing due to their disorganisation.

Additionally we are selling a Freehold property and they sent us a form to fill out for a leasehold property - 4 times! Each time we sent it back and said it was not relevant to the property and they would send it again and say they wouldn't continue until we filled it out. Clearly they had not read what their client was actually buying!

AVOID AVOID AVOID!!!

Just to note we are doing our conveyancing through a member of the Quality Solicitor group. They have been brilliant and our quote was £800 plus land registry fees etc. Its fixed so no surprise extras at the end!

Ash87

Just an update on what is happening with my situation as promised:

My conveyancers required 3 forms of ID signed by either a solicitor or mortgage person and some basic information if I knew it (for example if the property shared a driveway) to be sent to them which I thought was fair enough.

I sent these details to my estate agent and received a very half-hearted response. After bouncing a couple of emails back and forth I decided that nothing was going to happen until I went down there which I have now done. Initially received a rather cold reception with the comment 'I can see why they are cheap they are getting us to do all the work for them' (although I have no idea what they meant by this since really all they had to do was sign 3 forms of ID and send it off for me). After we got chatting the conversation picked up and I am now proceeding to send my estate agent the details to be forwarded on.

The surprise came when my estate agent contacted me to say this "because the vendor has found out that you will not be using the conveyancers we recommended they assume the purchase will take longer to go through and because of this they would now like a monetary contribution towards moving house"

I was rather shocked at this and responded "but wouldn't it take even longer if the house was put back on the market at this point?" to which the response was "oh no that isn't going to happen don't worry"

Is this right? it seems crazy to me that this additional cost has just sprang up from nowhere?

WestonDave

I would suggest to the estate agent that they tell their client to put their request for a contribution to moving costs via their solicitor! Sounds suspiciously to me like the EA is trying to make up for the lost kickback now you aren't using their chosen solicitors and I'd have my doubts whether the vendors are driving this or the EA!

Wobblydeb

Ash87 wrote: »

My conveyancers required 3 forms of ID signed by either a solicitor or mortgage person and some basic information if I knew it (for example if the property shared a driveway) to be sent to them which I thought was fair enough.

I sent these details to my estate agent and received a very half-hearted response.

I am not sure why you are sending documents via the EA. Normally once you have instructed a conveyancer, everything goes through them with the EA only getting involved if something needs further negotiation.

At a guess that is why they are being shirty with you - and I assume this is why they mentioned an additional cost. In your position I would tell them that the monetary contribution is a no-go. I would however be dealing purely with the conveyancer at this point.

Ash87

Wobblydeb wrote: »

I am not sure why you are sending documents via the EA. Normally once you have instructed a conveyancer, everything goes through them with the EA only getting involved if something needs further negotiation.

Yes I agree - I just had to get someone qualified to sign my 3 forms of ID (couple of bank statements and passport in my case - which are apparently needed to prove who I am) and the conveyancers said rather than pay someone separate to do this my estate agent\mortgage advisor should be happy enough to do it.

I didn't realise it would cause so much trouble just to get 3 bits of paper signed and sent off..

kingstreet

They aren't YOUR estate agent. They are the agent of the vendor and represent only the vendor and will use any knowledge of your circumstances to further THEIR client's aims.

If you are using an EA mortgage adviser, expect they will not respect any "chinese walls" between them and if your adviser knows about it, the selling side of the business also know about it.

Ash87

kingstreet wrote: »

They aren't YOUR estate agent. They are the agent of the vendor and represent only the vendor and will use any knowledge of your circumstances to further THEIR client's aims.

If you are using an EA mortgage adviser, expect they will not respect any "chinese walls" between them and if your adviser knows about it, the selling side of the business also know about it.

Good point, thanks this makes sense