Conveyancer charge questions

Rocket92

Currently purchasing our first house, we have just been sent the first load of documents including report on title letter, fixtures and fittings ect. While reading through I noticed additional charges, stated here:

5. Additional Enquiries
Please find enclosed a copy of the letter which we have today sent to the Seller’s
Conveyancer raising additional enquiries. Please let us have any enquiries that you
would like us to raise as soon as possible.
We will keep you informed of the outcome and progress that we make in relation to these
enquiries. In accordance with our standard terms and conditions, a minimum fee of £20.00
plus VAT is levied in respect of each chargeable enquiry. At present the additional
chargeable legal fees associated with the additional enquiries raised amount to £80.00 plus
VAT. We confirm that we will endeavour to keep the charges in relation to your transaction to
a minimum at all times.

This came as a surprise to us as we hadn't raised any enquiries ourself so asked what this is in relation to and we got this response:

In respect of the additional work we will be charging the following enquiries raised:

Please provide us with an abstract of the Deed dated 19/06/1963 as we note the same is illegible.
We note there are shared drains running within the boundary of the property. Please confirm if the Seller has experienced any problems in this respect and further confirm that no structure has been erected over the drains or within three meters of the same.
Please provide all guarantees and Gas Safe Compliance Certificate for the boiler installed after 1st April 2005.
Please undertake that an original of all guarantees/supporting documentation will be provided upon completion.

Please note that we charge the above legal fees due to the additional work we have to do in respect of contacting third parties such as the Land Registry or the Local Authority for any missing title deeds, build over agreements or guarantees.

I appreciate they have to charge for their time and don't doubt that's normal however it seems extreme that I'm charged £20+VAT because the sellers solicitor has provided a document that is unreadable causing my solicitor to have to ask for it again?

Is the above normal? We are FTB so have never been through this before and a bit on edge as heard a few bad things about this firm over charging after we decided to go with them

AdrianC

They provided you with a schedule of fees before you appointed them, I presume?

Normal these days would be a fixed-price service.

Rocket92

AdrianC wrote: »

They provided you with a schedule of fees before you appointed them, I presume?

Normal these days would be a fixed-price service.

Yes a fixed price was given but these are additional fees for additional enquiries. I am wondering if they are reasonable or not.

Chandler85

I assume you have used an online one or none local?


Charging for requesting a certificate is ridiculous, you could easily say I didn't care and didn't want to see it, also they should be requesting all that as part of the purchase.


The work they are charging isn't really work either, sending an email and getting paid £20 is a good method, and send each enquiry separately and you are soon making loads of money.

AdrianC

Rocket92 wrote: »

Yes a fixed price was given but these are additional fees for additional enquiries.

That's not a fixed price, then.

I am wondering if they are reasonable or not.

How did their schedule of fees compare to others you looked at before instructing these guys?

G_M

Let me guess - you chose the cheapest online conveyancer you could find.They were only able to quote such an attractively low price by including 'additional charges' in their T&Cs.... which you probably did not read in detail.


You could limit your costs by ensuring no additional enquiries are raised, though this may put your purchase at risk.
You could switch conveyancer, though this will add time, and cost, to the process.
You could refuse to pay the charges, but this will result in the conveyancer refusing to Complete.
You could accept the charges for now, wait till you've completed, and then raise a complaint internally at first and ultimaty throught the ombudsman.

Rocket92

G_M wrote: »

Let me guess - you chose the cheapest online conveyancer you could find.They were only able to quote such an attractively low price by including 'additional charges' in their T&Cs.... which you probably did not read in detail.


You could limit your costs by ensuring no additional enquiries are raised, though this may put your purchase at risk.
You could switch conveyancer, though this will add time, and cost, to the process.
You could refuse to pay the charges, but this will result in the conveyancer refusing to Complete.
You could accept the charges for now, wait till you've completed, and then raise a complaint internally at first and ultimaty throught the ombudsman.

Definiately not the cheapest, they are a local firm and 2 friends had used them however since choosing them have had multiple people say they arent the best and 1 friend mention stupid fees.

The plan is to accept these charges but ask them to ask us before raising additional enquiries.

davidmcn

Rocket92 wrote: »

Yes a fixed price was given but these are additional fees for additional enquiries. I am wondering if they are reasonable or not.

Do their terms say they're entitled to charge them or not? There's nothing in principle wrong with solicitors charging for the amount of work they do, though there does seem to be a tendency these days for there to be a cut-price "fixed fee" and then a bunch of largely unavoidable extra charges for "complications" - think airlines who charge you for checking in etc.

Rocket92

davidmcn wrote: »

Do their terms say they're entitled to charge them or not? There's nothing in principle wrong with solicitors charging for the amount of work they do, though there does seem to be a tendency these days for there to be a cut-price "fixed fee" and then a bunch of largely unavoidable extra charges for "complications" - think airlines who charge you for checking in etc.

It's fairly vague, a fixed fee is given and then a list of prices for phone calls, additional enquiries ect.

I replied to the email questioning the charges and conveniently I just had a call from conveyancer telling me as a good will gesture he will half the additional charge to 40+vat instead of 80+vat. He also said they will ask before doing anything further that may require extra fees.

I'm happy with the outcome and in fairness they have always replied to any questions within a few hours so hopefully all will be ok.

ethank

Rocket92 wrote: »

I appreciate they have to charge for their time and don't doubt that's normal however it seems extreme that I'm charged £20+VAT because the sellers solicitor has provided a document that is unreadable causing my solicitor to have to ask for it again?

£24 in extra charges whilst purchasing a house costing hundreds of thousands is not worth arguing about. Let it go!

foxy-stoat

Just pay the extra and enjoy your first home - its normal that you will get charged for the legal work, if it was a fixed price quote it may of been higher in the first place.