£500 for searches - Am I being ripped off?

shortcrust

I'm guessing as you're calling them 'my solicitor' you've already instructed them and things are in motion? If so there's not much you can do unless you want to switch to someone else and just pay for work done to date. In my experience solicitors aren't in the business of knocking money off bills once you've accepted a quote. Once got stung myself by not reading things carefully.

The time to think about whether you're getting good value is before they become 'my solicitor'.

G_M

ap18 wrote: »

I'm not sure which searches it's for but I've asked for a breakdown. I think it will be local authority searches but not sure if there are any others.

Well firstly, wait till youve got the breakdown. Unil then we are all just guessing!

You said

My solicitor is charging just over £500 for searches.

which implies an invoice to be paid. As I said previously, I bet it does not say: "Searches: £500".

If it's an invoice to be paid, what exactly does it say?

If it's not an invoice, then most likely it's an advance payment on account (as kingstreet suggested) to cover disbursements and initial costs generally (including searches), in which case any overpayment eyond the search costs will be deducted from the final invoice.

More information needed.

strawberries1

No

Solicitor's don't charge for searches, they purchases searches on your behalf. certain searches are advisable as per conveyancing protocol but you can choose not to buy any searches if you're buying outright ie without a mortgage. Some transactions might have additional elements than others but solicitors don't add their fees onto searches. It's a disbursement ie they pay search providers which the searches they purchase. You can ask which ones they chosen to purchase and why.