New build conveyancing (bill higher than quote)

nowhereboy

For those who read my earlier posts I'm pleased to say we have now exchanged contracts and just received our conveyancing bill. Unfortunately the bill is considerably higher than the quote and I'm fact checking to see if this is acceptable or if this is something we should dispute.


Background, we are first time buyers, we gained several quotes for the conveyancing and all came back at around £1500, upon recommendation of our broker (who has been brilliant) we went with a solicitor on their panel and were sent a quote for £1395.00, I quote "firms on our panel have to meet rigorous standards" and "The fee's are fixed and are often significantly cheaper than finding a solicitor directly".


I can itemise the quote and bill however I don't feel it's necessary, most of the fee's match up with the quoted information apart from a few big ones which have not been disclosed until now.


The fee's undisclosed on the quote are as follows


. Admin fee for registration of a second mortgage - £114.00
. Fee for help to buy - £234.00
. Legal fee for new build property - £180.00


These fee's along with some minor differences regarding searches etc result in the bill being approximately £500 higher than the quote.


It would appear the original quote didn't take into account we are buying a new build/help to buy property, all the extra fee's relate to this. I appreciate unforeseen things can arise and carefully read the small print relating to this, however I feel these costs should have been part of the original quote as both solicitor and broker were aware this was a help to buy mortgage and a new build purchase.


In total we will have paid £1,900 for what I would consider a fairly straight forward new build purchase. Does this seem excessive? Are we being ripped off here or is this fairly normal practice?


Any advice welcome and appreciated, if you just want to comment and blame me for being naïve, stupid etc, please keep your comments to yourself.

ACG

You should take this up with the broker.

We have a system where we can get quotes for legal fees from out customers. On there there are various options (new builds, help to buy, freehold/leasehold etc). If we do not tick the right boxes, the quote will be wrong.

If it is the broker who got you the quote, it is the broker who has made the mistake. It is difficult to put a figure on how much worse off you are, if those other quotes are correct and take in to account the full details, then you are £400 worse off than the solicitor you would probably have gone with. I am not sure the broker should pay the difference between the £1395 and the the price you paid, but I do think they should be covering you for the difference between the cheapest quote and the £1900... That is what I would be looking to offer to put it right.

ethank

HTB and New Builds are not considered a standard purchase, its a whole other mortgage. Yes they should have told you but were you clear up front? I am paying a similar figure for my purchase.

Viki2410

I would say this is normal, at least it was for us.

Our broker recommended a solicitor that was on the lenders panel (he was not paid a referral fee) and asked them to send us a quote. They sent a very basic quote to us but then included a list of "Other charges" Our basic quote was like you around £1,300 but there was an extra £150+ VAT for help to buy, £50 + VAT for using my LISA, £190 for the Land Registry as it was a new build and needed a postal version as opposed to £90 for the online version. Before we went ahead with them I asked them to clarify what I had added up on the extras was correct.

Did you not receive a form from them containing any extras?

nowhereboy

Thanks for the replies!

After doing more research I can see we have paid within the limits of what would be considered reasonable. Going to take this one on the chin and put it down to our lack of experience.

It would be nice if things could be made more clear, especially to first time buyers who obviously lack experience but I won't loose sleep over it.