Conveyancing fees — is this reasonable?

gax23

Hi all,

Just wondering whether you consider the following conveyancing quote to be reasonable. It comes out almost double what everyone else has quoted, so I'm sure I must be missing something... Anyone with more experience able to offer any advice?

Sale @ £269,995.00

Purchase @ £465,000.00


Costs On the Sale £695.00 (plus VAT)

If the Property you are selling is subject to a mortgage, a fee of £135.00 (plus VAT) for

acting on behalf of the mortgage lender for the redemption of your mortgage will apply

Costs On the Purchase £745.00 (plus VAT).

In addition, if you require a mortgage, you will be charged a professional fee for acting

on behalf of your Lender. This will be the amount specified in your mortgage offer or

£150 plus VAT whichever is the greater

Where the Property you are selling is Leasehold/served by a Management Company, a further

charge of £300 plus VAT will be made in connection with the additional work involved.

Where the Property you are purchasing is Leasehold/served by a Management Company/

a New Build, a further charge of £500 plus VAT will be made in connection with the additional

work involved


Disbursements

(Amounts payable to the Government, Local Authority and other third parties)

Office Copy Entries Fee (estimated) £30.00

Local Search Fee (estimated) £133.00

Stamp Duty Land Tax** £13,250.00

Costs in Connection with Making the Land Registry Application for Registration £270.00

Land Registry Search £10.00

Land Charges Search £10.00

Telegraphic Transfer Fee* £39.00

Land Tax Form* £60.00

* inclusive of VAT @ 20%

Guest101

Define reasonable?


It's expensive, but then again you're buying a half million pound house, so in context...

DumbMuscle

If it's come out double what everyone else has quoted, and you have a good reason to prefer this firm, then see if you can negotiate them down a bit to close the gap (I did so successfully, and while they didn't match the cheaper firm, they did knock off £150 from their quote, which was enough to get them the work along with the glowing recommendation from one of my harder-to-please friends).

davidmcn

For starters, you might want to tell us which of those surcharges you think is applicable to you - £500 for any (or each?) of leasehold / "served by a management company" / newbuild seems OTT to me.

ReadingTim

As someone else said, define "reasonable", but if one provider is giving a quote which is so out of line with everyone else then you ought to ensure they understand what you're asking of them so that you're comparing like for like.

You probably also want to check the basis on which the others have quoted - provider A might go for a low headline number, with lots of extra elements which aren't really optional, like those "low cost/cheap flights" Ryanair/EJ offer which aren't very low once you add taxes, admin fees, credit card booking fees etc in, whereas provider B may have given you an "all in" figure, but also split it out into its compenents.

Similarly, somewhere local with an office on the high street may find their overheads are higher and have to charge more than some conveyancing factory/legal battery farm in the middle of nowhere.