Conveyancing Fees?

somner

Morning - just after some advice on whether I'm being overcharged on conveyancing or not.

I recently approached our local housing association expressing an interest in purchasing a piece of land from them. It's a long, thin strip of grass that is situated directly next to my house, a remnant from back in the day when the estate was all LA owned. They've agreed to sell the land to me for garden use only. I'll be allowed to erect a 4ft fence but will require planning permission for anything taller as it is situated next to a highway, albeit one that serves only 6 houses.. After having the land valued at their request by an independent valuer, it was valued at £1600. The HA were not particularly happy with this and decided they wanted £2500 for it, which is still less than I was expecting anyway.

Now to the point - I have approached the local village solicitor to act on my behalf and have been given the following quote:

Legal fees: £775
VAT: £155
Land reg fees: £40
Land reg search fee: £3
Local search package (if required): £175
Bank transfer fee: £36

So in total almost £1200.. Does this sound expensive for such a purchase? I'm sure it didn't cost that much when we bought the house! Should I go elsewhere?

In addition to that I will need to pay the HA's legal fees which is a standard cost of £470.

fdavidson

Hi! The land registration fees are fixed so those will be correct. I am not sure you will need searches?? However those fees are a little high - we paid £550 + 110 VAT.

davidmcn

The other side's legal costs are possibly a useful indicator of what's reasonable. Doubt you want to bother with searches. I would shop around.

somner

Just had two more quotes in the last hour:

1)

Legal fees £395
VAT £79
Land reg £20
Bank transfer £42
Pre-completion search fees: £10
Identity check: £6
Total inc VAT: £552

2)

Legal fees £500 +VAT
Bank transfer £40 +VAT
Document storage £25 +VAT
Land reg £20
Land reg search £3
Local search fee £150 (may not be required)
Total inc VAT: £851

The first quote is less than half the price of the original quote I had a couple of weeks ago. It's also from another local firm who I know have a good rep. Just waiting on two more quotes.

somner

Had another quote around the £800 mark, which seems to be about the average price. My £552 quote doesn't appear to include any searches so I guess that's an extra to consider, but still the cheapest by far.

Rambosmum

We paid £600 all in for a whole house. We actually ended up paying £1100 as we ended up buying a different house (twice - not our fault). So yes, seems a little high to me.

somner

Thanks for the replies. One of the solicitors firms that I contacted hasn't even got back to me yet with a quote, so I shall not be using them! I've gone with the firm who have quoted £552. They have confirmed that this does not include local searches etc however they do not believe these will be required as I would already have had these done when we purchased the house a few years ago and there would be nothing gained by doing them again.