Solicitor Additional Fees

HayleyBird25

Hello, 

My self and my partner are first time buyers currently buying our first home. We are with the solicitors but things are going slow due to the situation at the moment. We have had no contact with them so it's hard to question additional fees we have added to our sale. We have had unregistered title fee - £100 plus VAT, Land Registry fee - £190, Probate Fee - £150 plus VAT and Additional title document fee - £100 plus VAT. We are first time buyers and would like to know if these are charges that we should pay for? If the house isn't registered and is going through probate there side is that our problem and our cost? Could anyone please advise?!

Competsoph

Sorry I can’t help but I’m interested in this as I’m also I’m a similar situation. Hope you get things sorted!

Alter_ego

I'd be questioning the Probate fee

davidmcn

Didn't you get terms of business at the start detailing what their fees would be (and in what circumstances they could charge additional fees)? These are all (arguably) complications to a "straightforward" purchase, incurring more time by the solicitors.

Though I'm not sure what the logic of the "unregistered title" fee is, if (as seems to be the practice in England & Wales) they're expecting the vendors to deal with first registration so in fact your solicitor will end up only dealing with a registered title?

HayleyBird25

We had a list of the fees at the beginning of the process from the solicitors which was fine but now we have additional £650 fees on top of the original fees. It does state a few fees on there that may occur but nothing that relates to these charges. Thank you for your advice so do you mean they have to deal and pay for the registration? 

Tiglet2

When they first quoted you, they wouldn't have known that the property was unregistered so the £100 plus VAT is reasonable as this is more work for them.  The Land Registry fee would also be double what you were quoted as first registrations have to be posted with all the deeds rather than done online.  Not sure why you would have to pay a probate fee.  Surely the sellers provide this.   Additional title document fee?  Not sure about this.  Of course, the sellers could register the property before completing on the sale, in which case when your solicitor comes to register the property in your name, it wouldn't be unregistered.

HayleyBird25

Thank you appreciate it, we’re first time buyers and not sure what’s our responsibility or what’s there so this sums it up. I thought that the probate fee was slightly strange the others weren’t sure.