Solicitors fees!?!!!?!?!?

peterc2609

I have gone with the solicitor who the EA recommended, and told me it wouldn't be more than £600.

I got a letter from the Sol today with estimate of costs...

House price - 140k

Legal Costs - 450
Transfer - 30
VAT - 84

Local Search - 85
Chancel Repair Check - 20
HM Land Reg Search - 6
Bankruptcy Search - 4
Land Reg Registration Fee - 150

TOTAL = 829

BUT, the property has HIP Report.

Can any of these charges be knocked off??

Gorgeous_George

Not really.

It annoys me when people only tell you part of the truth. I searched online and found a conveyancer much cheaper but, even then, the headline rate ignored most of the cost.

GG

peterc2609

I spoke to the EA and he was shocked and told me to call them and question the price, but they are closed now.

Its just i noticed in the HIP that is had searches etc already done

RHemmings

From what I've read about solicitors, I think I'd be phoning around trying to find one that wouldn't excessively delay, or balls up the process. Rather than trying to save a few hundred quid.

Gorgeous_George

If I was buying a house, I'd want the searches done by MY solicitor and as close to exchanging contracts as possible.

RHemmings wrote: »

From what I've read about solicitors, I think I'd be phoning around trying to find one that wouldn't excessively delay, or balls up the process. Rather than trying to save a few hundred quid.

I agree. I hope to sell but my usual solicitor is far too busy at the moment so I searched for a conveyancer. If I was buying, I'd take a bit more care.

GG

Tozer

That doesn't sound bad at all to be honest. Most of the costs are disbursements and will flow through the solicitor and be paid out. At the end of the day, go for the best solicitor not the cheapest service.

peterc2609

Tozer wrote: »

Most of the costs are disbursements and will flow through the solicitor and be paid out.

They all are disbursements.... what does that mean? Flow through????

lucysmumwork

Apart from the 450 plus vat for legal fees and this seems cheap to me, all the disbursements are fees the sol must pay, he has no choice. To complete the transation, all these fees mustbe paid. A local search only lasts i date for six months so that may be why you have to do another?

peterc2609

When do these need to be paid?

Doozergirl

You normally pay £200 or so up front for those disbursements and the rest upon completion.

£450 + VAT is fairly average price. It often depends on the price of the property.

It will depend on the age of the HIP and whether they have used official searches as to whether you can use it. Really, a search is only valid on the day it was produced, hence so many solicitors commission new ones.

Richard_Webster

The figures from the solcitor seem quite reasonable and there do not appear to be nay "spurious extras" that we so often find.

The £85 cost for the local search could be saved if the search in the HIP is reasonably up to date, that's all.

If I was buying a house, I'd want the searches done by MY solicitor and as close to exchanging contracts as possible.

I'm not really sure why there is so much distrust about searches commissioned by others - they provide the same information. Some Councils take several weeks to deal with a search and therefore if a buyer' solcitor waited until everything else was in place to exchange before doing the local search then there could be unacceptable delays.