The fees for buying a home is the biggest scam known to man.

Elliott.T123

SneakySpectator said:

I've just had a breakdown of the conveyancer fees and my god what an absolute joke. You basically pay a fee for every single element of buying a home.

File opening fee, search fee, ID check fee, electronic transfer fee, source of funds verification fee and there's like 6 others I can't even be bothered to list. 

I actually believe conveyancer fees are part of the government agenda to milk as much money as humanly possible from people wanting to exchange property.

Why can't it just be like buying a car? You go and inspect it, maybe hire a professional to give it the once over if it's an expensive car, agree a price with the seller, do a standard online check on the government database to make sure the guy actually owns the car, hire a solicitor to whip up a quick exchange contract and job done. 

It's utterly insane how much baggage is involved in buying a home. I wouldn't mind if it was a half million pound home but people buy cars that are 3x as expensive as my flat without needing all this extra crap.

What a joke. 3 days into the process and I'm already stressed, I can only imagine how much is involved when a company buys land to build something... Jesus Christ.

If you are buying mortgage free then you can do this is you want to. If you are buying with a mortgage then the company who are lending you a very large chunk of money want to be 100% sure they are able to get that money back if you don't/wont/cant pay them and so they run lots and lots of checks to be as sure as possible.

veronikamoneva

That is absolutely true - the fees on top of fees are just ridiculous. Don't think this money goes to the government and then to the society - you have a wrong idea. It's down to the conveyancer what they charge for - and how much. They usually send a list of itemized fees at the beginning of the process - you only proceed with them if you are ok. If you think they are extortionate and unjustified, you can say no and show around. 

_Penny_Dreadful

Do you work for free @SneakySpectator? 

It is possible to DIY the conveyancing but as you, I assume, require a mortgage the lender will require you to use a solicitor from their approved panel. Do you have the requisite academic and professional qualifications to get on the approved panel? 

MobileSaver

Peter999_2 said:

It is very backward in the UK when it comes to buying a house.    

Do many countries do it that much better? Can you name ones that do?

Peter999_2 said:

I bought my house last year and it took 5 months from offer to complete. This was a cash purchase with no on-going chain at all and yet it still took forever.   

Contrarily, I sold a house this year and had the money in the bank in under seven weeks from when I accepted the offer...

I'm fortunate to be retired so was able to respond same day to the EA and solicitor's enquiries but was very conscious that I was still at the mercy of my buyer's personal situation and how quickly they responded to their solicitor.

london21

You can get different quotes and ensure you read reviews before progressing. 

TonyMMM

Moving house is an expensive process ....my  move a couple of years ago cost me almost 30k in fees ( estate agent, solicitor, movers & stamp duty etc.) 

Not planning to do it again anytime soon.

saajan_12

SneakySpectator said:

The reason I say it's a government conspiracy is because yes the conveyancers set the fees but all the checks are mandated by the government, which they collect tax on. 

There are approximately 1.2 - 1.4million residential property exchanges per year, let's just assume each every exchange is successful (which they're not, a lot fall through) and each costs £2,000, which is low to average. That's £2.6billion in fees, of which the government then collects taxes on. 

The government mandated checks are a tiny part of the conveyancing fees, basically title transfer, stamp duty forms and AML checks ~£100 out of the £1-2000 for the other searches and surveys. The others are largely optional if you were a cash buyer.. of course you may choose to 
- have a mortgage lender which requires otherwise optional searches and surveys
- have a detailed exchange contract because you want the sale to be confirmed in advance of moving day, rather than just seeing the contents and completing there and then
- have expert reviews of the condition of the property

Also the government agenda because they tax the fees is ridiculous, by that logic any unhealthy or questionable business is a government agenda because its taxed, eg the govt is encouraging plastic surgery to make a beautiful population because they private plastic surgery clinics. 

IMO the government don't bother to hide the real profit every time a house is bought or sold by charging SDLT - which is significantly more than the conveyancing costs, and completely not reflective of the work involved just for a transfer.