solicitor fees

jen0dorf

HI

sorry if this seems like a rant but ....

Am selling my late mothers house to my daughter no chain and everything agreed before contacting solicitors

Contacted a solicitor who quoted me £600 fixed fee.

He then came back to ask for £3.00 to pay for a copy of deeds.

Second charge was £147 for insurance to cover sale under value - which he knew about from the start, excuse being my daughters Building society insisted

I was given no quotes for this just told I've charged you £147

Final insult was to be told that to receive payment into my bank account would cost £35.

I quereid this and was told this is the cost of a BACS whereas I know it's 50p.

Their final excuse was I could have a cheque for nothing - which again is stupid as Banks charge for cheques

Am I being unreasonable have I just picked a bad solicitor?

thanks

Ian

Dave_Ham

Personally I think you are being unreasonable.

The solicitor has opened themselves up for this mind as should have seen certainly the chaps coming and quoted upfront.

Virtually every solicitor charges for chaps and not for cheques..

ACG

He probably meant CHAPS - which typically is around £30. Also bare in mind what you pay might not be what their business pays.

In fairness if the quote says fixed fee you would expect it to be fixed - the solicitor I use regularly charges fixed fees and unless something drastic pops up that was completely unexpected (ie extensions without building regs) then its fixed.

Does it says fixed fee* And then have some small print?
I can see your point on the £35 as that would have been known.
With regards to the insurance for £147 - that might be something that varies from lender to lender so he would not have been aware it would be required until he received a copy of the mortgage offer from the lender. Good practice would have been to prepare you for it but he may genuinely not have known.

Twiglet12

We've just had our completion statement and there are almost £1500 of unexpected costs on top of our fixed fee - including extra stamp duty and fees charged by the builders for providing plans and deeds. We've just had to deal with it - they're clearly outside the solicitors control, and must be paid (although a little irritated by the extra stamp duty, they should have known about that up front).

ACG

There were changes to stamp duty a couple of weeks ago - so if you had your price prior to those changes its a little bit difficult to make you aware of future government policies prior to them happening.

Actually, if you had exchanged prior to those changes im sure you are able to choose which you pay... Double check with the solicitor.

Thrugelmir

Twiglet12 wrote: »

(although a little irritated by the extra stamp duty, they should have known about that up front).

Did you ask what the stamp duty position was at the outset?

Thrugelmir

jen0dorf wrote: »

Am I being unreasonable have I just picked a bad solicitor?

thanks

Ian

Disbursements are not fees. Solicitors will not be aware of the actual costs that will be incurred when quoting for the conveyancing work. The fixed fee purely relates to the solicitors own costs.

Twiglet12

ACG wrote: »

There were changes to stamp duty a couple of weeks ago - so if you had your price prior to those changes its a little bit difficult to make you aware of future government policies prior to them happening.

Actually, if you had exchanged prior to those changes im sure you are able to choose which you pay... Double check with the solicitor.

It wasn't due to the changes - see below

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Did you ask what the stamp duty position was at the outset?

Yes and we were given a figure. It's a shared ownership property and we were quoted only for the stamp duty on the portion of the property we were buying. It was only just prior to exchange that the solicitors realised we would also need to pay stamp duty on the rent that we're paying for the share we don't own.

chanz4

you don't pay stamp duty on the part you don't own, unless staircasing

Twiglet12

chanz4 wrote: »

you don't pay stamp duty on the part you don't own, unless staircasing

Not on the part we don't own, but on the rent we'll be paying for it. It's a leasehold flat.

stator

Bank transfer fees should have been made clear upfront. The insurance sounds like it was unexpected, but if it's the buyer's bank insisting then you've a case for asking the buyer to pay.