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Selling house, solicitor fees - no sale, no fee?
solidpro
Posts: 559 Forumite
Hi All
It's been a few years since I've sold a place. We are looking to instruct a solictor to deal with our sale of a flat we own.
The solicitor has provided an 'estimate' of £1800 and said:
It's been a few years since I've sold a place. We are looking to instruct a solictor to deal with our sale of a flat we own.
The solicitor has provided an 'estimate' of £1800 and said:
"If, for any reason, we have to abort the transaction, we will break the transaction down into stages and advise what percentage of the estimated fee will be charged at each stage."?
Wondering if anyone feels this is normal? We can easily go and find another solicitor. I always thought these purchases and sales were done on a 'no sale no fee' basis, but perhaps I'm either mis-remembering or times have changed?
Thanks
0
Comments
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No, while there are companies which offer no-sale/no fee deals but it is not standard.
Normally, if the sale doesn't go through you would pay, but it's not uncommon for the conveyancers to agree to wait to be paid until the new sale goes through, rather that requireing immediate payment.
Companies which offer a no fee / no sale arrangment will typically charge more over all to cover the risks of some transactions not completing and therefore not paying.
It sounds as though this firm would break it down to specific stages, a lot will simply say theythey will charge the lower of the full fee and the actual cost of the work based on their hourly rate (most conveyancing is fixed fee and is much cheaper than paying by the hour would be) but either way, you only pay for the work they actually do.All posts are my personal opinion, not formal advice Always get proper, professional advice (particularly about anything legal!)1 -
Thanks all, we accepted to use this company, given the useful advice here.0
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90% of the work is done before exchange, so it's hardly unreasonable to charge if one party pulls out. About 30% of accepted offers do not proceed to completion?No free lunch, and no free laptop
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Though I would expect in the vast majority of cases, not much legal work has been done by the point of pulling out.macman said:90% of the work is done before exchange, so it's hardly unreasonable to charge if one party pulls out. About 30% of accepted offers do not proceed to completion?0
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