The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

mjane93

Hi all - quick question 
our solicitors have requested funds for exchange and in that included remaining legal fees and found that they are higher than we were quoted for. I.e in the quote their legal fee was 720 but in our breakdown it’s now saying 1050?? Even little things like bankruptcy and ID searches are showing up higher in the breakdown than in the quote - and thats taking into account they obviously had to double the price as there are two of us purchasing the house. Is this normal - sorry FTB here do still learning how all this works 

E_D_FTB

mjane93 said:

Hi all - quick question 
our solicitors have requested funds for exchange and in that included remaining legal fees and found that they are higher than we were quoted for. I.e in the quote their legal fee was 720 but in our breakdown it’s now saying 1050?? Even little things like bankruptcy and ID searches are showing up higher in the breakdown than in the quote - and thats taking into account they obviously had to double the price as there are two of us purchasing the house. Is this normal - sorry FTB here do still learning how all this works 

In you Client Care letter, does it breakdown the costs? It might be that the difference extra charges on top of the legal fees like VAT, Stamp Duty Forms or Money Transfer Fees. Ours has the solicitors fees, then all the additional fees itemised with a total including VAT. Then there's another section for Third Party costs, again itemised. Our Agreement also states that if there are additional fees/ changes to fees that they will contact us first to inform us. 

Hope you can sort it out!

mjane93

E_D_FTB said:

mjane93 said:

Hi all - quick question 
our solicitors have requested funds for exchange and in that included remaining legal fees and found that they are higher than we were quoted for. I.e in the quote their legal fee was 720 but in our breakdown it’s now saying 1050?? Even little things like bankruptcy and ID searches are showing up higher in the breakdown than in the quote - and thats taking into account they obviously had to double the price as there are two of us purchasing the house. Is this normal - sorry FTB here do still learning how all this works 

In you Client Care letter, does it breakdown the costs? It might be that the difference extra charges on top of the legal fees like VAT, Stamp Duty Forms or Money Transfer Fees. Ours has the solicitors fees, then all the additional fees itemised with a total including VAT. Then there's another section for Third Party costs, again itemised. Our Agreement also states that if there are additional fees/ changes to fees that they will contact us first to inform us. 

Hope you can sort it out!

Yeah it has a breakdown in both the quote and our bill (VAT included) everything in the bill seems to be higher than the quote resulting in it being about 500£ more than we expected. 

I’ve just sent an email querying it - I can imagine our solicitors are sick of hearing from me 

climbthatwallseegar

Feeling despondent this morning. It's only been 3 weeks since our offer on a house was accepted but I'm desperate to get things moving along as I hate the rental we moved into after selling our property last month.

Today my solicitor forwarded me an e-mail from the vendor's solicitor in which they explained they have been instructed not to  issue any documentation, contract pack etc because the vendor is still waiting to hear back on his onward purchase offer. Vendor is moving along with his elderly mother and I just have a feeling of doom and gloom about this. They are moving to very expensive part of the country and seeking a retirement property and my sense is they will need a property that ticks a lot of boxes so could be a while. Sigh. I probably should have carried out more due diligence beforehand but the EA gave the impression they had found somewhere and were ready to move. Also the type of property we needed in the specific area we wanted are selling in a day or less, competition is insane so it really is a sellers market and we had to move fast.

Ah well. I still have 5 months left on the rental lease so we couldn't move right now anyway but just want to feel a sense that things are moving in the right direction!

E_D_FTB

mjane93 said:

E_D_FTB said:

mjane93 said:

Hi all - quick question 
our solicitors have requested funds for exchange and in that included remaining legal fees and found that they are higher than we were quoted for. I.e in the quote their legal fee was 720 but in our breakdown it’s now saying 1050?? Even little things like bankruptcy and ID searches are showing up higher in the breakdown than in the quote - and thats taking into account they obviously had to double the price as there are two of us purchasing the house. Is this normal - sorry FTB here do still learning how all this works 

In you Client Care letter, does it breakdown the costs? It might be that the difference extra charges on top of the legal fees like VAT, Stamp Duty Forms or Money Transfer Fees. Ours has the solicitors fees, then all the additional fees itemised with a total including VAT. Then there's another section for Third Party costs, again itemised. Our Agreement also states that if there are additional fees/ changes to fees that they will contact us first to inform us. 

Hope you can sort it out!

Yeah it has a breakdown in both the quote and our bill (VAT included) everything in the bill seems to be higher than the quote resulting in it being about 500£ more than we expected. 

I’ve just sent an email querying it - I can imagine our solicitors are sick of hearing from me 

What a pain! Bad form on their part for not breaking down the difference. Hope it all gets sorted.

greensalad

Just found out from the sales progressor that my vendor's vendor has had an offer accepted on a chainless property, which means our chain is complete with 4 parties / 3 houses. Very happy as this was the next thing I was looking for. Just need official confirmation as so far it's just been told by the EA. 

Still cannot manage to book a surveyor, they've all gone quiet on me since issuing quotes last week.

Justonemorecupoftea

Just waiting for our seller to say they agree to our proposed completion date. They want things done asap and we've proposed two weeks time, a week to cross i's/dot t's then a week between exchange completion. Can't really get it done much before that.

How unusual is it for completion to be midweek?

Tiddleshalifax

I don’t think it’s too unusual at the moment - we may complete during the week too though we would like 13th august! 

E_D_FTB

Justonemorecupoftea said:

Just waiting for our seller to say they agree to our proposed completion date. They want things done asap and we've proposed two weeks time, a week to cross i's/dot t's then a week between exchange completion. Can't really get it done much before that.

How unusual is it for completion to be midweek?

To be honest, from what I've read, completing midweek can actually be a great idea - means banks have fewer funds to release and movers/cleaners are less busy than on a Friday. Fingers crossed for you!

tomnookfan

Some news from our purchase, the estate agent rang yesterday to say the vendor has said the final charge on the house from the previous owner has been dropped/resolved.

I want to check in with solicitor to see if they have heard anything but my partner said to give them an entire working day to wait. What does anyone else think?? I may be overexcited but they rarely reach out to us without us asking.