Forsters' fees for acting for Lender?

houmie

Hi all,

I'm a first time buyer and made a big mistake when choosing the solicitor. I didn't have the experience, what type of hidden costs may resurface later on.

I have purchased a new build last summer, which is now completed.
The builders had referred the solicitor to me in first place. So I accepted their fees of £1,750.

Now in the completion, they are asking for additional £900 fees for acting for Lender.

I did some google search and found out - right or wrong - that this is not a good practice and reputable solicitors won't do that.

I pushed back as I believe that solicitors handling conveyancing will expect to have to deal with the buyer’s mortgage as a matter of routine. When I was giving the quote last year, Forsters knew that I will be getting a mortgage and should have covered that in their quote.

I just got the following reply, and wonder if there is anything I could do about this or do I have to bite the bullet?

As per our engagement letter ( enclosed herewith for your ease of reference) we have agreed to undertake the purchase of your apartment for £1,750.00 plus VAT. Our engagement letter sets out that the scope of our instructions includes basic mortgage advice but does not include acting on behalf of a lender.

It is standard practice in the UK that a lender will have their own legal fees and these are borne by the mortgagor. Our fee scales are calculated very carefully. Acting on the conveyancing paperwork comes with significant economies of scale as there are elements of the paperwork which we can repeat across various platforms. When we act on a mortgage it is invariably the case that the mortgage is specific to that one client or a small pool of clients. Acting for the lender is an entirely new instruction, the banks often require very significant and substantive advice and the work involved in being able to sign off a Certificate of Title is very time consuming. We are confident that our fees are very competitive for bank work of this nature.

Many Thanks for your advice,

lee111s

You've been royally ripped off but don't see how you can't pay this.

houmie

lee111s wrote: »

You've been royally ripped off but don't see how you can't pay this.

It doesn't end there:

1) Search fees estimated £600
2) Anticipated disbursements £250
3) Miscellaneous disbursements £100

At least they claim once completion has taken place they would refund the rest of these fees above. Hard to believe as they could make up anything later on.

Really sad about these practices.

Thrugelmir

Have you obtained alternative quotes in order to make valid comparisons.

houmie

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Have you obtained alternative quotes in order to make valid comparisons.

When my offer with the builders got accepted I didn't have a solicitor in place and was under pressure to find one quickly to take care of the initial deposit. I should have organised it before hand.

I did very well with the mortgage broker as I had more time to do my home work afterwards. But I messed up big time with this one, didn't expect the solicitors to be a problem. Big mistake.

Life is crazy...you have to be walking on eggshells...any uninformed decision can lead to pain.