Solicitor fees

LukeS99

Hi all,

Me and my partner are first time buyers are we have just purchased a share in a new build property. I just wanted to come on here and share my solicitor fees to see if they are accurate and if more fees will be added on upon completion? As you can appreciate it’s the first time we’ve ever done this so I am not 100% on if all fees are correct/ what fees could potentially be added on in the process.

Legal fees - £1,794
Bankruptcy search - £4
Land registry search fee - £3

Additional Fees

Bank Transfer fee (professional time for time involved making electronic payment) - £54

Additional legal fee to deal with leasehold property - £478

Due Diligence ID, Money laundering and compliance check fee (Professional fee dealing with the same) - £72

LISA Drawdown fee x1 - £72

Government fees

Land registry fee - £330

All include VAT.

Thank you,

Luke   

Bigphil1474

Can't see anything missing from what is listed - if not it would only be minor fees if anything. The legal fee, first line, seems a tad high (we were quoted £1,200 plus all the add-ons), but solicitors seem to all do it differently, and not much you can do about that now. 

propertyrental

Most conveyancers include the 'professional time' for bank transfer in their basic cost - after all, there are countless things they spend 'professional time' doing - all of them required for the job to be completed. But I'd expect to see the bank's fee (£25? £35?) listed.

Likewise 'due diligence' is just another part of the job. Why charged separately? Should be withing the basic 'legal fees'

Read the whole T&Cs carefully - some conveyancers for example will charge extra for completing the SDLT submission

Otherwise a tad on the high side once the leasehold work is added to the legal fees.

What other quotes have you had? Are you at the stage of selecting a conveyancer, or have you already commited and this is part of their invoice/Completiomn Statement?

EssexHebridean

propertyrental said:

Most conveyancers include the 'professional time' for bank transfer in their basic cost - after all, there are countless things they spend 'professional time' doing - all of them required for the job to be completed. But I'd expect to see the bank's fee (£25? £35?) listed.

Likewise 'due diligence' is just another part of the job. Why charged separately? Should be withing the basic 'legal fees'

Read the whole T&Cs carefully - some conveyancers for example will charge extra for completing the SDLT submission

Otherwise a tad on the high side once the leasehold work is added to the legal fees.

What other quotes have you had? Are you at the stage of selecting a conveyancer, or have you already commited and this is part of their invoice/Completiomn Statement?

It's specifically to do with AML and Know Your Client stuff - not talking about the general due diligence throughout the transaction. (Looks like there is an extraneous comma in the sentence that shouldn't be there making it confusing.) An awful lot of firms are now putting this out to third parties like Thirdfort as it ensures that it is done to the high same standard on every case, and is often more straightforward for clients too.  

LukeS99

propertyrental said:

Most conveyancers include the 'professional time' for bank transfer in their basic cost - after all, there are countless things they spend 'professional time' doing - all of them required for the job to be completed. But I'd expect to see the bank's fee (£25? £35?) listed.

Likewise 'due diligence' is just another part of the job. Why charged separately? Should be withing the basic 'legal fees'

Read the whole T&Cs carefully - some conveyancers for example will charge extra for completing the SDLT submission

Otherwise a tad on the high side once the leasehold work is added to the legal fees.

What other quotes have you had? Are you at the stage of selecting a conveyancer, or have you already commited and this is part of their invoice/Completiomn Statement?

I did think it was rather expensive, we have committed to appointing them now as was recommended to us… should’ve searched for other quotes really so it’s my own silly mistake.

Luckily I noticed in the memorandum that the sellers solicitors are doing their own search pack so we managed to get this taken off the quote which was a saving of £275.  

Also for the SDLT, luckily we are first time buyers so we don’t have to pay this.

Do you think fees will be added on for exchange of contracts and completion or will this be included in their legal fees?

propertyrental

'Recommended' by who? Not the seller's estate agent I hope....

Even if there is no SDLT to pay, I believe you /your solicitors still have to submit an SDLT Return to HMRC. And although it's not listed in your post, some solicitors charge extra for this.

LukeS99

propertyrental said:

'Recommended' by who? Not the seller's estate agent I hope....

Even if there is no SDLT to pay, I believe you /your solicitors still have to submit an SDLT Return to HMRC. And although it's not listed in your post, some solicitors charge extra for this.

Unfortunately yes, by the seller’s estate agent so rookie error from me! Found this page a few days after appointing them and looks like in the future I will steer clear from recommendations from the seller!

I did wonder if the prices seemed a little ‘inflated’ and I’d imagine this is why…

Emily_Joy

SDLT form will have to be submitted or you get fined. I am probably missing something, but shouldn't the searches be included? ... 

user1977

Emily_Joy said:

SDLT form will have to be submitted or you get fined. I am probably missing something, but shouldn't the searches be included? ... 

Pretty commonplace for newbuilds to have searches provided rather than having to get your own.

Emily_Joy

user1977 said:

Emily_Joy said:

SDLT form will have to be submitted or you get fined. I am probably missing something, but shouldn't the searches be included? ... 

Pretty commonplace for newbuilds to have searches provided rather than having to get your own.

Yeah, but I think it would be a good idea to check! 

user1977

Emily_Joy said:

user1977 said:

Emily_Joy said:

SDLT form will have to be submitted or you get fined. I am probably missing something, but shouldn't the searches be included? ... 

Pretty commonplace for newbuilds to have searches provided rather than having to get your own.

Yeah, but I think it would be a good idea to check! 

OP says above:

"Luckily I noticed in the memorandum that the sellers solicitors are doing their own search pack so we managed to get this taken off the quote which was a saving of £275. "