Conveyancing - Different quotes for land registry fees? And chancel insurance?!

GeckoGirl1985

Hi all,

We've just had an offer accepted on our very first house and are currently in the middle of comparing conveyancing quotes from 4 local solicitors. We've decided we'd rather spend the money to have a local firm deal with it so that we can go into the office in person to resolve any issues / talk through contracts etc., rather than having to do it over the phone or by post.

Whilst looking at the paperwork, I've noticed that 2 out of the 4 quotes gives a land registry fee of £230, while the other 2 quote £170. Can anybody offer an insight into why there is this difference? I thought the land registry fee was fixed depending on the price of the house (£247,500 in our case) so how come this varies?

Also, one of the quotes includes a price for a chancel insurance search - does anyone have any experience of this? Is it something we should ask about?

Thanks :-)

G_M

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fees-land-registry-guides

Land_Registry

G_M has kindly linked you to our online guidance around fees but this link takes you straight to the ready reference guide itself.

As you mention the registration fee is based on bandwidths re the purchase price and are listed under Scale 1

The difference may relate to how each firm are lodging their applications i.e. the one lodging them electronically pays a lower fee than one using the post.
However neither £230 or £170 are Scale 1 fees so I assume that they are inc other fees such as search fees in the end figure - might be worth asking them to clarify or itemise the fees for you?

simonallenjohn

First Title PLC are FAR cheaper than CLS for this Chancel insurance - its no surprise that solicitors use CLS or Chancel Check given the charges, there most likely a back hander going on CLS quested £323.00 - First Title PLC quoted £60.00 - this was for a mixed use premises (shop with a flat) our house was only £14.00 with First Title PLC