£5000 Solicitors Fee is this too hight?

annetheman

trex227 said:

annetheman said:

A reverse question that would help, as I'm terrified of this happening on my new build, leasehold, shared ownership - myriad of additional costs...

Can anyone say how much above the amount quoted at the beginning they have been charged after a purchase?

Big thing would be to ensure the fees for the legal work associated with new build, leasehold and shared ownership are included in your initial quote. Most firms will charge a separate fee for new build and leasehold and some for shared ownership (though a lot of firms will deal with shared ownership as part of their leasehold fee). Ask, if they are required, if the legal work your solicitor will do for a notice of assignment or deed of covenant is included. Go through the additional fees in the terms and conditions and try to work out if any could apply to you.

As it’s new build check the Land Registry fee is correct as it’s double the fee than for an existing property (technically a non new build property gets a discount on the fees, but a fair amount of quotes I’ve seen just include the reduced fee not taking into account higher cost for new build).

With leasehold properties though you have the landlords/managing agents fees that can add a lot- £625 of OPs bill are these fees. They are the same regardless of what firm of solicitors you use. Get your conveyancer to tell you what these fees are so you’re not surprised at the end.

Thank you - so sorry OP to hijack but my answers can help and be your answers 

Do these look like all the costs you'd expect to see in a new build, leasehold, shared ownership quote ?
NOT INCLUDED: additional 1 month rent + service charge PLUS apportionment rent + service charge depending on day of completion for that month.

GDB2222

annetheman said:

trex227 said:

annetheman said:

A reverse question that would help, as I'm terrified of this happening on my new build, leasehold, shared ownership - myriad of additional costs...

Can anyone say how much above the amount quoted at the beginning they have been charged after a purchase?

Big thing would be to ensure the fees for the legal work associated with new build, leasehold and shared ownership are included in your initial quote. Most firms will charge a separate fee for new build and leasehold and some for shared ownership (though a lot of firms will deal with shared ownership as part of their leasehold fee). Ask, if they are required, if the legal work your solicitor will do for a notice of assignment or deed of covenant is included. Go through the additional fees in the terms and conditions and try to work out if any could apply to you.

As it’s new build check the Land Registry fee is correct as it’s double the fee than for an existing property (technically a non new build property gets a discount on the fees, but a fair amount of quotes I’ve seen just include the reduced fee not taking into account higher cost for new build).

With leasehold properties though you have the landlords/managing agents fees that can add a lot- £625 of OPs bill are these fees. They are the same regardless of what firm of solicitors you use. Get your conveyancer to tell you what these fees are so you’re not surprised at the end.

Thank you - so sorry OP to hijack but my answers can help and be your answers 

Do these look like all the costs you'd expect to see in a new build, leasehold, shared ownership quote ?
NOT INCLUDED: additional 1 month rent + service charge PLUS apportionment rent + service charge depending on day of completion for that month.

Don't ask us. Ask the conveyancers. "Under what circumstances could this figure increase?"

How much is the landlord fee?

trex227

annetheman said:

Thank you - so sorry OP to hijack but my answers can help and be your answers 

Do these look like all the costs you'd expect to see in a new build, leasehold, shared ownership quote ?
NOT INCLUDED: additional 1 month rent + service charge PLUS apportionment rent + service charge depending on day of completion for that month.

Its mostly what I would expect- check with them that it includes their legal fees for new build and shared ownership (these might be included in the professional legal fee and leasehold supplement, but worth checking). Also procuring professional search package is quite low, usually the local authority search alone is more than this. So check what this includes, it could just be as its a new build they can get searches for the whole site or something like that.

Go though the list of additional fees (usually included in the terms and conditions) and check theres nothing unusual they charge for- I've seen solicitors make a charge per letter, per phone call and for photocopying and postage costs.

peterhjohnson

I think it's rather steep. I had a figure of about half of that quoted for a sale and purchase last year. There were a few issues but the final bill was very close to the quote. (I was scared throughout the process that it was going to go much higher). Leasehold would bump it up a bit but £5k - I don't think so

Tiglet2

annetheman said:

trex227 said:

annetheman said:

A reverse question that would help, as I'm terrified of this happening on my new build, leasehold, shared ownership - myriad of additional costs...

Can anyone say how much above the amount quoted at the beginning they have been charged after a purchase?

Big thing would be to ensure the fees for the legal work associated with new build, leasehold and shared ownership are included in your initial quote. Most firms will charge a separate fee for new build and leasehold and some for shared ownership (though a lot of firms will deal with shared ownership as part of their leasehold fee). Ask, if they are required, if the legal work your solicitor will do for a notice of assignment or deed of covenant is included. Go through the additional fees in the terms and conditions and try to work out if any could apply to you.

As it’s new build check the Land Registry fee is correct as it’s double the fee than for an existing property (technically a non new build property gets a discount on the fees, but a fair amount of quotes I’ve seen just include the reduced fee not taking into account higher cost for new build).

With leasehold properties though you have the landlords/managing agents fees that can add a lot- £625 of OPs bill are these fees. They are the same regardless of what firm of solicitors you use. Get your conveyancer to tell you what these fees are so you’re not surprised at the end.

Thank you - so sorry OP to hijack but my answers can help and be your answers 

Do these look like all the costs you'd expect to see in a new build, leasehold, shared ownership quote ?
NOT INCLUDED: additional 1 month rent + service charge PLUS apportionment rent + service charge depending on day of completion for that month.

Procuring Professional Search Package (including VAT) £100.
Is this just the fee the solicitor is charging you for their work in obtaining the searches, but not including the price of the searches from the search provider?  Normal Local, Environmental, Drainage & Water searches usually cost around £230.

I would expect anything involving new builds, Help to Buy Equity Loan, HTB ISAs, LISAs and shared ownership to incur further additional fees, plus ID and bankruptcy searches fees.

annetheman

Thank you! I did pay £390 upon instruction for searches but apparently: "they were not required to obtain new searches on this one as the ones supplied by the developer were acceptable" so maybe that's why the searches fee looks low.

I thought the Shared Ownership and New Build would be included in "Professional legal fees"... So I'm going to budget at least around £300 more than the quote)... I don't see anything particularly about S/O or new build but I did read they would agree any additional work with me before doing it....


trex227 said:

annetheman said:

Thank you - so sorry OP to hijack but my answers can help and be your answers 

Do these look like all the costs you'd expect to see in a new build, leasehold, shared ownership quote ?
NOT INCLUDED: additional 1 month rent + service charge PLUS apportionment rent + service charge depending on day of completion for that month.

Its mostly what I would expect- check with them that it includes their legal fees for new build and shared ownership (these might be included in the professional legal fee and leasehold supplement, but worth checking). Also procuring professional search package is quite low, usually the local authority search alone is more than this. So check what this includes, it could just be as its a new build they can get searches for the whole site or something like that.

Go though the list of additional fees (usually included in the terms and conditions) and check theres nothing unusual they charge for- I've seen solicitors make a charge per letter, per phone call and for photocopying and postage costs.

TheProfessional

This was our purchase a month ago

hazyjo

TheProfessional said:

This was our purchase a month ago

Yours does include stamp duty though!

TheProfessional

Yes true I should have made that clearer!

Uptown_Boy

In other words, your solicitor fee was ~£1860 in total.