Solicitors Fees Through Estate Agent

kingstreet

The clever "acting for mortgage lender" and "stamp duty return" way of increasing your fees by £225.

In our area, many solicitors charge a fee of £500 to £550 and those items are included. They are not extra charges.

Shop around more and yes, you can change solicitors if you choose.

brenda10

Bsmoke wrote: »

Hi Everyone










We're first time buyers and decided to keep things simple by using the Estate Agent's solicitors after being quoted £565 + VAT + Disbursements. This quote was agreed on the phone with the estate agent but today we received a welcome pack from the solicitors with the below estimated costs;

Our charge for acting - £565
Identification Verification Check - £10
Lenders service fee - £150
Bank transfer service fee - £45
SDLT service fee - £75
VAT @ 20% - £169

Disbursements
Local authority search fee - £90
Water authority search fee - £49.20
Coal authority search fee £37.44
Environmental, full flood & planning search fee - £102
Land registry search fee - £3
Land charges act search fee (per person) - £2
HM Land registry fee on registration of title - £95
Estate agent case software fee - £30

Total - £1,422.64 (Not including stamp duty)

I understood disbursements would be added and are unavoidable, but the first section seems excessive making the £565 quote very misleading.

Does this seem like a reasonable cost for first time buyers on a £153,000 property?

Thanks
Bsmoke

You have to shop around. We live in London and are buying in Welwyn Garden city area but went for a solicitor up North who friends had told us were excellent. This solicitor is 150 miles away, we both work so no time to arrange solicitor appointments to see Angela, all work was sorted via e-mails/telephone calls. We are moving in tomorrow after renting for 6 years, Our solicitor was absolutely excellent, everything done to a 't and we would highly recommend them, they are from S!!!!horpe, boyfriends home town(friends who used them also lived in London and never had to visit them-all sorted via phone/e-mails=fantastic
Angela dealt with everything for us.
Company are
QualitySolicitors Bradbury Roberts & Raby;
Tel:01724 854000






£1,890.95 stamp duty
£12.00 money laundering
£80 search fees
£60 fees for lodging SDLT(stamp duty payments)
£190 Land registry fee
£36 bank transfer fee of monies from solicitor to ?seller
£350 +vat @20%= £420 for solicitor fees for conveyancing
Total cost I have just paid and received the keys=£2,664


Ps there is a small brook about 100 metres from our house but we checked and it is well drained by the local council and has NEVER flooded so we didn't bother with paying for a search for that, that was our choice with researching history of no flooding ever.


Good Luck,
Call them and say they were recommended and your costs should be similar to ours, Freehold house £189,995, basic house search done with council, no water checks carried out re waterways.
We simply could not afford to be ripped off, we went on recommendation by friends and we are glad we did!! Good Luck


PS WE WERE FIRST TIME BUYERS,
VIEWED AND PURCHASED HOUSE ON 13TH MARCH THIS YEAR, GETTING KEYS TOMORROW.
OUR SOLICITOR HAS BEEN FIRST CLASS, I HAVE NEVER MET HER AND PROBABLY NEVER WILL. XX


Ps we paid £200 to the solicitor end of March initially to confirm we would be doing conveyancing with her, and requested no further searches etc would be done until we were sure chains all completed and we would begetting the house, solicitor happy with that, that is why we took some time to get to the end, our choice and not wanting to pay our for searches and house sale fall through, money is important and we decided we would not throw it away. Paid her the final monies as requested on Monday past with 10% deposit to allow for exchange of property confirmation.

brenda10

DRP wrote: »

We went with the inhouse conveyancer when selling/buying we paid 600 for each transaction (1200 total). This sounds similar to your fees i guess

In our case they were pretty good and very contactable/communicative - if you'#re not happy with them at this early stage then it would be best to get rid now.

Of course I would say it is best to go with a recommendation from someone you know and trust.

We went with recommendation of solicitor as mentioned above in my reply to query and are so glad we did, we have escaped any nasty surprises and we get our keys tomorrow, all monies paid out to solicitor for £189,995 house for all costs =£2,664


Good advice from you ie GET RID ASAP and get better value and reputable solicitor to complete on your house buying process without any concerns, TRUSTWORTHY decent solicitors, they still do exist. So many rip offs mentioned on this site and house sales fell through, we have been lucky to have went by word of mouth, that is my motto, always ask who would you recommend?? Never failed yet.



HAPPY DAYS

Annie1960

Is there a cooling-off notice with the information that you received? There should be if you booked it over the phone or somewhere other than the EA's premises.

I think you are paying too much, I'm buying/selling in the region of £550k per property and my total solicitor fees are £2,200 with a local company in the next town. I'm based in St Albans where everything is very expensive.

If you use the solicitor recommended by the EA you are buying from, I really think there is a conflict of interest issue involved. They will be acting for the EA rather than in your interests.

Unitoons

I am buying a property for £190k and my fees with a local solicitor come to approx £1,100 all in so yours does sound a bit high.

brenda10

Unitoons wrote: »

I am buying a property for £190k and my fees with a local solicitor come to approx £1,100 all in so yours does sound a bit high.

My fees for everything including stamp duty(£190k house) was £2664, total fees for solicitor £350 +vat(£70) was £420 and all went very smoothly. Happy with amount and very happy with the service. More money in our pocket for our new home.

slopemaster

I e-mailed 3 local solicitors for quotes, then negotiated the price of the one who responded qickest and most professionally down to match the price of the cheapest!
all worked out fine.

wastedtalent

I did an online comparison and e-mailed a couple of firms within walking distance of where I worked.

The ones closer to my work were marginally more expensive but I knew if I needed to get hold of them or get them documents I could just walk in, they couldn't hide.

Exc. SDLT we payed less than £800 for everything.

rpc

I would tell them that you have decided not to instruct them after they have added on additional fees (not disbursements) not consistent with the verbal quote of 565+VAT. If they kick up a fuss, ask for their complaints procedure an ultimately escalate to the Law Society.

Then go and find a decent local solicitor. You'll probably find that £565 is around the going rate, but this firm are adding on extras to cover the brown envelope that they send to the EA.

benjus

IMO the best thing to do is to find a solicitor before you put in any offers, and include the solicitor's details on the offer. It makes you look more serious and informed, and the EA is less likely to try to bully you into using their own or "recommended" solicitor.

Apart from any kickback they get from the solicitor, the EA's main concern is to get the sale underway asap. If they see you as a novice FTB they may think that you'll spend ages organising a suitable solicitor, and be keen for you to accept theirs just to get things moving.