Selling and buying - same conveyancing solicitor / how do I compare fees?

gelato_cat

If you're selling one house and buying another (ie you live in the first one and you want to move to the other one), do people generally use the same conveyancing solicitor for both of those separate transactions?

I'm asking because I am not sure how to compare fees.  I have only ever bought as a first-time buyer, so I was at the bottom of the chain and not selling anything.  I haven't been in a chain before.

Do I need to look at solicitors' fees for selling and separately for buying, or do they quote you for a "we will handle the sale of your house and also the purchase of your new one because we need to pass any equity from your current house up the chain to the one you're buying"?

In the latter scenario, are the fees generally the price of a sale fee and the price of a buying fee added together?

Jonboy_1984

Last time I just emailed several with:

We are selling a leasehold flat for around xx. 
We are buying a freehold house for xx.
We are intending to mortgage with bank y

They all then sent over quotes for the whole lot including stamp duty. 

Most included a list of what possible extras could be involved. 

(One did say my price would be xx but I am not on the panel for the proposed bank) 

prettyandfluffy

Having one solicitor deal with your sale and your purchase reduces admin and potential delays - when they receive info, for example from your buyer, they can send it up the chain.  Having an extra solicitor would add an extra layer of admin into the chain.

MikeJXE

I have used the same solicitor bur buying and selling all my (10) homes and never had a problem

user1977

Yes, yes, and yes respectively.

It would be a bit weird to use different solicitors, unless you had a good reason in mind?

gelato_cat

user1977 said:

Yes, yes, and yes respectively.

It would be a bit weird to use different solicitors, unless you had a good reason in mind?

I agree, it would be a bit weird.  The only reason I could think of was if one recommended solicitor had great value fees for selling but not buying, or vice versa.

Also, I wasn't sure if it would be more expensive if you did the selling and buying separately.  Eg sell your house, move into a rental and then offer on another house a few weeks / months later and therefore need to start a new transaction with potentially a chain.

It sounds like they just take their selling fee and buying fee and add them together with no sort of discount for doing both at the same time, is that generally the case?

user1977

Suzey said:

user1977 said:

Yes, yes, and yes respectively.

It would be a bit weird to use different solicitors, unless you had a good reason in mind?

It sounds like they just take their selling fee and buying fee and add them together with no sort of discount for doing both at the same time, is that generally the case?

No particular reason why there ought to be a discount, the only saving in time would be in relation to the admin of taking on a new client.

gelato_cat

user1977 said:

Suzey said:

user1977 said:

Yes, yes, and yes respectively.

It would be a bit weird to use different solicitors, unless you had a good reason in mind?

It sounds like they just take their selling fee and buying fee and add them together with no sort of discount for doing both at the same time, is that generally the case?

No particular reason why there ought to be a discount, the only saving in time would be in relation to the admin of taking on a new client.

It also saves them time and money in sourcing the customer, though.  If you've come to them for one thing, it's easier for them to get you to take the other service than it would be to attract a brand new customer.

It's all good to know, like I said, I've never done both transactions together so wanted to make sure I wasn't accidentally making a rookie error that every man and his dog knows to avoid, lol.

A different example is someone I used to know said she would take her cats to one vet for their jabs and a different vet for ailments.

ManuelG

It's bad enough getting solicitors to talk to one another, the thought of getting two of my own to have to talk to one another about completion dates and transferring cash makes me well up just thinking about it!

JM68

As others have said, yes normal to use just one solicitor.

However, I would add that it may make sense to ask for quotes for the costs of selling and costs of buying to be separated out. 

Indeed this was done by our solicitor without asking. 

Its not an uncommon scenario for a chain to collapse but not all the transactions falls through e.g. you find a buyer, who sticks with you, after your first intended onward purchase falls through (e.g. after the survey is done) while you find another to proceed on. 

In that scenario the solicitor will likely charge you the originally quoted costs for selling, ask for a proportion of the quoted costs for the work done on the failed onward purchase, and quote you in full again for the work that now needs to be done to buy the new, second onward purchase.

badger09

@JM68
That’s precisely what happened to us 3 years ago. Our vendor pulled out very late in the process, leaving us at the top of a chain of 4, with a ‘marmite house’ to sell. We broke the chain & moved into temporary accommodation as we’d said we would. Our conveyancer charged us the quoted fee for the sale, plus a large proportion of the purchase fee on the aborted purchase. That was galling but fair as she’d done the work. 

I think there are still some conveyancing ‘factories’ which charge only on completion, but I would always use a traditional local one. 

Good luck OP