Choosing a solicitor for a house purchase and expected fees?

ac427

I am trying to find a solicitor for a possible house purchase.

Apart from being within easy travelling distance what other criteria  should i be concerned about?

I guess it changes across the country and varies on sale price but how much should it cost roughly?

Exodi

ac427 said:

Apart from being within easy travelling distance what other criteria  should i be concerned about?

I'd personally be most pursuaded by reputation, reviews, etc, added benefit if within a 30 minute drive. I only ever visited my conveyancer once or twice I believe, and once was to sign a Deed of Trust which is not typical. Most things can be handled by email/post.

ac427 said:

I guess it changes across the country and varies on sale price but how much should it cost roughly?

As you said, too many variables involved. Also depends on the type of house, e,g. leasehold can be significantly more expensive as it requires more work by the conveyancer.

Really you should look up some reputable conveyancers in your area and requests quotes from them for the intended purchase.

If you held a gun to my head and forced me to give a price, I'd suggest generally around £1.5k - £2.5k (the latter being for complexities, e.g. leasehold, indemnity, etc) but with so many variables involved, I wouldn't rely on it for much.

Albermarle

Recently a family member used a solicitor 200 miles North - recommended by mortgage broker, also 200 miles away ( an old friend).
No issues at all, but I guessed it helped that were very efficient and responsive. Unlike some local solicitors who took over a week just to quote a price and a more expensive one at that .
Price was around £1800 for a freehold house.

MyRealNameToo

ac427 said:

I am trying to find a solicitor for a possible house purchase.

Apart from being within easy travelling distance what other criteria  should i be concerned about?

I guess it changes across the country and varies on sale price but how much should it cost roughly?

Wasnt interested in them being in easy travelling distance, being in central London it would have considerably increased the cost had I wanted that. 

There are various things that will impact the cost like the number of buyers, if a mortgage is involved, if its freehold or leasehold, if gifted deposits are involved etc. 

The conveyancers own fee is likely to be around £1k but there will also be the pass through cost of various searches etc which can be around £500. If it's leasehold it's normally a couple of hundred more. 

Consideration should be given to what happens if you dont complete, costs are obvious lost monies but some conveyancers will do something about their fee assuming its not you pulling out due to cold feet if you then go on to use them on the next purchase attempt. 

Make sure you understand if the quoted cost includes disbursements or if they are on top plus anything else that could make the price move. Some do fixed cost, some do by the hour, you may prefer one over the other. 

Mark_d

ac427 said:

I am trying to find a solicitor for a possible house purchase.

Apart from being within easy travelling distance what other criteria  should i be concerned about?

I guess it changes across the country and varies on sale price but how much should it cost roughly?

The only time I've had issues was when I used a firm of solicitors within travelling distance !

They had assigned to the conveyancing job to a trainee staff member who clearly didn't know what they were doing.

Ever since, I used a firm of conveyancers based in Leicester...even though I've always lived in the South.

Most conveyancers will have cost estimators on their websites.

GDB2222

I recently used a firm in Manchester, for a property in Norfolk, despite my being in London. Everything was done by post/email. We never met in person. 

They were very good, and they dealt with everything the same day they received it. They were not the cheapest, but getting sensible replies to questions quickly is worth paying for. 

Bigphil1474

We used a conveyancer that was literally a 5 minute walk away. Saved a lot of time when we had to sign documents, or return stuff. My OH hated the app thing though so we did everything on paper. Depends on the purchase. If it has any complications, I would prefer someone local. If it's a really straightforward purchase, I might just go with cheapest. We paid around £2,300 for sale and purchase as far as I can remember, on a £325k house.

Albermarle

The conveyancers own fee is likely to be around £1k but there will also be the pass through cost of various searches etc which can be around £500. If it's leasehold it's normally a couple of hundred more. 

The Manchester solicitors my family member used were £1500 + VAT ( on most items so about £1800 in total).

We paid around £2,300 for sale and purchase as far as I can remember, on a £325k house.

That was the type of quote they were getting locally ( South East/Outer London)