Legal Fees 31 January 2020 at 10:36AM edited 31 January 2020 at 11:04AM in House buying, renting & selling 25 replies 981 views

andycorleone

Hi,
The Estate agent that we are buying the house from recommend one solicitor but fees seem a bit high.

£2400 legal fees + 500 (Something related because we are using a mortgage)

House price is above 600K

I found some online services that seem to have goods reviews on Trustpilot, etc.

Anybody had used any of these?:

simplyconveyancing.co.uk/
myhomemoveconveyancing.co.uk

hazyjo

This reply will help you:


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=6097231


When you say 'recommend' - do you mean it's a local one they've dealt with lots who's good, or one who's linked/tied to their company (or umbrella company)?


Best advice in the link. Best off finding one yourself

Flugelhorn

golly. I am buying for about 300K and the solictor's professional fees are more like £700. Maybe it is more expensive in London - you need to get some quotes

AdrianC

Never use the EA's recommended solicitor. Remember, the EA works for the vendor, and your solicitor is the only person working for you.

Do you have any friends, neighbours or colleagues in the area who could recommend anybody?

G_M

Find your own independant conveyancer, not one who pays a commission to the seller's estate agent.

andycorleone

Thanks for you help. I just found a couple of website that seem to have a bunch of Good Reviews on TrustPilot anybody had used any of these?:

simplyconveyancing.co.uk/

myhomemoveconveyancing.co.uk

(I Will refrace my initial question)

cattie

When trying to find a solicitor that doesn't charge rather high fees you should check what the actual legal fee they charge for conveyancing is. Most of the other fees that will need to be paid, such as search fees, disbursments etc will be pretty standard & not much variation between different solicitor practices.

You'll find there could be a couple of hundred pounds or more difference will be charged by one practice for the legal fee compared to another legal practice. With my last property purchase, one solicitor quote (recommended by ea) was going to charge £250 more for the legal fee than the solicitor I ended up going with.

A lot of the ea's who recommend solicitors get a kick back from the solicitor by way of commission should somebody take up the recommendation.

hazyjo

General advice is avoid the 'conveyancing farms'. Take the advice above.

AdrianC

andycorleone wrote: »

Thanks for you help. I just found a couple of website that seem to have a bunch of Good Reviews on TrustPilot anybody had used any of these?:

simplyconveyancing.co.uk/

myhomemoveconveyancing.co.uk

(I Will refrace my initial question)

I'd trust Trustpilot as far as I could kick it. And I'd always use a small local solicitor (the dustier and more Victorian the better) in preference to any shiny-shiny national outfit.

Darkslider

I went with a big shiny national firm, I thought I was paying top whack at £1700 for our FTB purchase but I didn't mind because I thought the service would be slick and professional, and they were the same outfit as my mortgage broker which I thought would smooth things over.

Turns out I'm not happy at all and wish I'd gone to small independent in my local high Street and saved a few quid, they couldn't have done a worse job!

RelievedSheff

andycorleone wrote: »

Thanks for you help. I just found a couple of website that seem to have a bunch of Good Reviews on TrustPilot anybody had used any of these?:

simplyconveyancing.co.uk/

myhomemoveconveyancing.co.uk

(I Will refrace my initial question)

I wouldn't use an online conveyancing firm. We used one for our first house purchase and they were terrible.

We used a local firm last year who although they were a little more expensive were brilliant and made the whole process run sweetly.