Overcharged by £1500

staceyamy

I understand all disbursements and third party fees ect but THEY have charged me extra on top of their fixed fees. “Our fees for this” “our fees for that”

TripleH

What does their contract say specifically about fees?

It nay say fixed fee but Iwould be surprised if there weren't exclusions / options to charge extra depending on certain circumstances...

But without seeing the agreement I can only guess. Have you queried the extra fees in case they are an error?

saajan_12

Please keep to one thread - the topic is identical to your previous thread, which is rude and inefficient for posters trying to help but not seeing whats already been said in one place. 
Overcharged by £1500 — MoneySavingExpert Forum

staceyamy

yes but this was specifically about fixed fees. And I am very grateful for all the replies and have come away better knowledges.  Apologies for wasting your time. But I’m not rude!

Tiglet2

There is normally a "fixed" solicitor fee for a basic transaction, but this comes with "additional fees" for anything over and above the basic quote.   OP's basic quote of £814 was for a Freehold purchase, with the purchase price quoted as £1.00.  The quote showed a few additional fees for:

Acting for the lender £180
SDLT Return £114.00 - No actual Stamp Duty to pay, but your solicitor still has to submit a return to HMRC
Land Registry Fees £20 - this is a disbursement, i.e. paid to a third party
Search Fees £360 - this is a disbursement, i.e. paid to a third party
Stamp Duty Land Tax £0
Bank Transfer Fees £48
File Storage Fee £48
ID Verification (each person) £12

NOTE also, that the quote stated "there may be occasions when additional work needs to be carried out on your behalf which may only become apparent as the matter progresses.  Your conveyancer will discuss and agree any additional fees prior to work being undertaken"


However, as the transaction progressed, there were more "additional fees" added to the quote above, because the property was not freehold, it was leasehold and the purchase price was £107,000 not £1. NOTE, the solicitor fee is still showing as £814:

Disbursements, i.e. payments to third parties (management company/freeholder/HMLR)

Freeholders Notice Fee £360
Deed of Covenant Fee £267
Management Companies Notice Fee £240
Rent/Service Charge Apportionments £118.30
HM Land Registry Fees £100
The Seller's Solicitors Document Fee £90
HM Land Registry Bankruptcy Fee £4
HM Land Registry Search £3

Solicitor Fees for "Additional Work"

Solicitor Fee for dealing with a Leasehold Property £240
Solicitor Costs for a Lender Supplement Fee £180
Solicitor Costs for work in preparing the Deed of Covenant £180
Solicitor Fee for dealing with a Restriction £174
Solicitor Fee for a simultaneous Exchange and Completion £120
Solicitor Fee for work done in connection with ordering your searches £42
Solicitor Fee for Lawyer Check £12 - The Law Society to check bank account/phone no details


There are some hefty extra fees here and I would query some of them with the solicitor as they should have discussed these with you prior to doing the work.  I would say, however, that the disbursements are a necessary addition to the purchase of a leasehold property.  Without them your purchase could not go ahead because the fees are set by the management company and the solicitor will not know what these are until they have sight of the management/leasehold pack.  The management pack has stated that a Deed of Covenant needs to be entered into, so therefore an additional fee is charged by your solicitor for the work involved in preparing the document and getting it approved and signed.  The apportionments are your payment to the seller for ground rent and/or service charges that the seller has already paid for, but is no longer the owner from the date of completion.

With regard to the extra solicitor fees, they will always charge more for a leasehold transaction than a freehold transaction because there is additional work involved, therefore £240 would be considered acceptable. 

Additional work that your solicitor was not expecting was dealing with a Restriction on the Title, so additional fee of £174 to deal with this extra work would be considered acceptable. 

You needed to obtain a search pack because you are purchasing with a mortgage, so the solicitor has charged you an admin fee of £42, however this should have been included in the £814 original solicitor fee, since they were aware that a search pack would be needed for the mortgage lender's requirements.  I would query this.

An additional fee for a simultaneous exchange and completion seems hefty.  What was the reason for a simultaneous exchange and completion?  I would query this. 

I have no idea what a Lender Supplement Fee is and I would query it.

I have no idea what a Seller's solicitor document fee was for, but presume this was a charge that you agree to pay, if not, query it.

Other Solicitor additional fees were included in your original quote:

Money transfer £48
Archive Fee £48
ID check £12

Land Registry fees differ depending on the value of the property and the type of application submitted on completion.  This is a fee set by HMLR and cannot be challenged.

OP, if your transaction had been a freehold purchase, a lot of the above additional fees would not have been applicable.

OP, hope this helps.

eddddy

I would question some of costs on that statement - but for various different reasons. You'd almost have to go through it line by line, and challenge different costs for different reasons.

For what it's worth, here's an explanation of some of the costs:

• Freeholder's notice fee (£360) - is probably a fee charged by the flat's freeholder for recording that you're the new owner

• Management Company's notice fee (£240) - is probably a fee charged by the flat's management company for recording that you're the new owner

• Deed of Covenant fee (£267) - is probably a fee charged by the flat's management company for signing a deed of covenant with you

I think the solicitor could have warned you at the outset that there would probably be a freeholder's notice fee - but your solicitor wouldn't have known how much it would be until they asked the freeholder. The other 2 costs are more unusual.


To be honest, I think the fees that the freeholder and management company are asking for are not reasonable (i.e. too high).

It would probably delay completion if you tried to argue with the Freeholder and Management Company about them now, but you might be able to challenge them later at a tribunal. But that's a lot of hassle.

If your solicitor hasn't paid those fees yet, you could ask your solicitor to say they are being paid under protest - which might make challenging them later easier.

To be honest, there are some legal complexities, so I'm not sure if a challenge would be allowed.



In an ideal world, the seller could have asked the freeholder and management company what their costs would be before putting the flat on the market - so the advert could have mentioned the extra £867 in costs.

staceyamy

Thank you both the last 2 posts were very insightful. Much appreciated