Conveyancing Fees?

Gareth83

Just had a quote for buying a property and it's going to cost us £885.56 all in.

The breakdown is like this:

Solicitors Fees £350+VAT
Local £119.60
Environmental £37.60
Drainage 43.48
Chancel? £17.63
Land Registry £150
Land Charge £6
LR Search £6
Bank Charge £30+VAT
Competion £58.75

This is on a £101,000 house.

Is there anyway we can lower the cost overall?

Switch solicitor? Any online? recommended?

Can we do any of the searches etc. ourselves?

What are we likely to save?

Cheers

jobbingmusician

Use a conveyancing company instead of a solicitor if it is a freehold property.

Are they proposing to charge you separately for Land Registry searches, or are these LR fees? (Sorry, haven't bought a property for a while). If the former, you can do your own LR searches for peanuts. In any case, ring the LR and check with them what their fees are to see if proposed solicitors are ripping you off.

Go to the library and get a book on DIY conveyancing. I am NOT recommending you actually do this yourself (far too much work to be worth it) but it will tell you all the places to save money, if you have the time and energy to study it.....:D

Gareth83

ah cool

I'm not bothered about filling out forms etc. I'd actually like to do some learning in the process.

But is the benefit of the hassle/time of doing it yourself outweigh the costs?

I think the lR searches are £6 so no real reason to do this ourself.

Not sure what the local search of £119.60 or the land Registry of £150 is?

mchu6am4

Quote sounds quite reasonable provided it comes from decent solicitors. Where about in the country r u buying as someone may be able to recommend a good sol etc?

wallaj

whereabouts in the country are you? some areas are trialling HIPS funded by the government and these include local searches, water and environmental which could save another £150 or so. I know Northamptonshire is one of them, but not sure of the others - I saw a thread somewhere with a link to info about HIPs - if I see it I'll post it up.

BTW I think that price is pretty good - at the end of the day it comes down to the Solicitor's fees, and £350 is not bad (as long as you know the Solicitor or someone who has used them and can recommend them)

Gareth83

I live in the Vale of Glamorgan.

The quote is from a solicitor/conveyancing firm.

I'm just thinking half of the searches I could do myself?

I'm getting a quote from another local firm tomorrow. They have been recommended by the solicitors that are dealing with the vendor and have said they should be able to knock £100-£150 off the overall quote.

rammster

try abode conveyancing

https://www.abodeconveyancing.co.uk/conveyancing.htm

They will come out a lot cheaper. They will instruct a solicitor for you. No money involved till searches come on and you will get a quote straight away. They are an online firm and that means you just cant walk into their office and speak your mind. Communication is via email and phone. However they are regulated by Law society.

Gareth83

rammster wrote: »

try abode conveyancing

https://www.abodeconveyancing.co.uk/conveyancing.htm

£710.50 all in

what do we think??

pknottm

I used conveyancing-warehouse.com for selling my house last December, and for my house purchase this February.

They are polite, answer phones quickly and always returned my calls when promised. Also, their online quote was only a a couple of quid out from the final bill!

They do charge extra for filling in the SDLT form (but give you the option to fill this in yourself, which is fairly straight forward to do yourself), for completions less than 5 weeks, £35 extra for completions within 7 days of exchange, etc.
They didn't charge any extra for dealing with the mortgage company.

For straight forward transactions I would definitely recommmend them.

SkintChick_2

The fee doesn't seem that bad to me- fairly reasonable. Like the others have said the on-line law firms may prove a bit cheaper but you obviously can't just drop into the office if you have queries or want to sign any paperwork. But it depends what is more important to you.

The Land Registry fee is the payment charged by Land Registry when you send the application to them following completion to change the title deeds into your name. This is the standard fee for a property of this price and you will not be able to reduce this as they have a scale of fees which the solicitors will have no influence over.

The local search is the search with the local authority which reveals any matters which affect the property ie planning permissions, whether roads are adopted, whether the property is in a conservation area etc. Each local authority will charge a different fee and it may be worth checking with them over the phone what their charges are just to ensure the price is correct. Again the solicitor has no control over this fee.

The searches will be the same price whether the solicitors carry them out or you do.

Hope this is of some help.

Gareth83

pknottm wrote: »

I used conveyancing-warehouse.com

These work out at £601.75 including VAT

Although I may have to pay for the:

environmental search £39
coal mining search £24
drainage £47

depending on the lender I choose.

So £711.75max?? and £601.75min