Solicitors' fees 0 help me understand

proformance

Hi guys,
Buying our first property (fingers crossed) and the solicitors have included a couple of line-items in their purchase quotation that I would be grateful if anyone could interpret?
1) "Leasehold fee" - The property is "share of freehold". Is this charge necessary?
2) "Conveyancing disbursements" - What exactly does this mean? Do we pay for this?
Thanks,
Z

[Deleted User]

1. you are buying a leasehold property.   You are also buying a share of the freehold.  You will be a leaseholder and you will also be a freeholder in conjuntion with anyone else who has a share of that freehold.    I suggest doing abit of reading on what this means to you if you arent sure. 

2.  Disbursements is anything over and above the basic legal costs .  You should have been sent a list of everything you can be charged for under disbursements. 

davidmcn

proformance said:

1) "Leasehold fee" - The property is "share of freehold". Is this charge necessary?

Yes, it's still leasehold, with the usual complications that entails, the only difference is that you also (partly) own the freehold.

2) "Conveyancing disbursements" - What exactly does this mean? Do we pay for this?

What they are exactly is whatever they've listed - they're things your solicitor pays out on your behalf to third parties - Land Registry, SDLT etc.

proformance

Great!-ful! Thanks guys!

eddddy

proformance said:

1) "Leasehold fee" - The property is "share of freehold". Is this charge necessary?

As others have said, you are buying 2 things:

1. A leasehold flat
2. Some form of joint ownership of the freehold building that the flat is in

It sounds like your solicitor's quote includes a fee for dealing with point 1, does it also include a fee for dealing with point 2? If not, you should get a revised quote to cover that - to avoid surprise extra fees. 

macman

'Disbursements' covers those quaint items that solicitors love to charge a little extra for, such as stamps, envelopes and photocopying. Not forgetting my personal favourite: 'telegraphic transfer'. 

TBagpuss

macman said:

'Disbursements' covers those quaint items that solicitors love to charge a little extra for, such as stamps, envelopes and photocopying. Not forgetting my personal favourite: 'telegraphic transfer'. 

No, as Davidmcn says, disbursements are the payments which the solicitor or conveyancers make to third parties on your behalf, such as Search fees, Stamp Duty, Any fees charges by the freeholder to approve / confirm the transfer of the share of the freehold, charges made by the bank to send money so it is received the same day (that's the TT fee) .

Solicitors don't normally, charge for things like postage and photocopying and its misleading to suggest that they do, particularly when replying to someone who is genuinely unfamiliar with what the term really means. 

AdrianC

macman said:

Not forgetting my personal favourite: 'telegraphic transfer'. 

Woah, hold on... Banks charge for CHAPS.

You/they could send via normal FP, but it's far less certain to arrive same day or even at all (one of the benefits of CHAPS is pre-transfer confirmation of the recipient's details).

greatcrested

macman said:

'Disbursements' covers those quaint items that solicitors love to charge a little extra for, such as stamps, envelopes and photocopying. Not forgetting my personal favourite: 'telegraphic transfer'. 

Jus to add weight to the corrections above. 'Disbursements' are not 'quaint items', they are costs the solicitor pays on your behalf to other parties eg searches provided by the council, and telegraphic trasfer fees charged by the bank!

The money you pay for 'disbursements' does not go into the solicitor's pocket, it goes to the 3rd party.

badger09

AdrianC said:

macman said:

Not forgetting my personal favourite: 'telegraphic transfer'. 

Woah, hold on... Banks charge for CHAPS.

You/they could send via normal FP, but it's far less certain to arrive same day or even at all (one of the benefits of CHAPS is pre-transfer confirmation of the recipient's details).

Our solicitor's charge, to remit the balance of our sale proceeds, is £40 + VAT. Banks typically charge between £25 & £30 for a CHAPS payment. Our balance, while over £10k, will be below most FP limits. We have not been given any alternative, other than a 'free' cheque. 

NameUnavailable

proformance said:

Hi guys,
Buying our first property (fingers crossed) and the solicitors have included a couple of line-items in their purchase quotation that I would be grateful if anyone could interpret?
1) "Leasehold fee" - The property is "share of freehold". Is this charge necessary?
2) "Conveyancing disbursements" - What exactly does this mean? Do we pay for this?
Thanks,
Z

Make sure you understand the lease and very importantly, check how long is left on it. Even though you own a share of freehold it doesn't mean that you can just get a lease extension when you decide you want to - you still need to go through the process of agreeing it and paying for it - the other parties may or may not want full market value. Check!