Solicitors fees

sarah2979

Sorry if this has been covered in another thread but I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for when I searched.

My fiance and I are FTB's and we visited a high street broker offering fees-free advice. The fees involved with purchasing were discussed, but there was one thing in particular we felt was amiss. The broker seems to want us to use their own solicitors, their reasoning is that if the sale falls through after all of the searches/legal work has been done, they will do any further searches etc all for no additional cost. My Fiance's mother was with us and when we we left she suggested that the fees seemed quite high, in all he totalled up about £1,400 for searches etc (I appreciate they are no doubt covering themselves a bit).

I would be grateful if anyone here could advise whether this is about right? If there is a thread regarding this that I have missed please direct me to it.

All advice welcome, thanks!

Doozergirl

£1400 just to buy?

Sounds like they're charging you twice to me, no wonder the second one is free! It obviously doesn't include anything like Stamp Duty as SDLT alone would be a minimum of £1250.

You should easily manage an all-in fee of less than £1000. Shop around.

BiggaThanBen

Depends where you are and what you are purchasing first of all ..but £1400 excluding Stamp Duty seems to be very high to me, I would say even half of that is not cheap ..

sarah2979

Thanks for the replies both.

Buying in Essex, looking at properties around the £145k mark.

I don't think we'll take this company up on their offer....

danilou21

Wow! £1400 for searches? I am also a FTB buying in Essex, I have just paid £270 for searches.

clutton_2

£1400 could be the grand total of all sols costs, fees, LR fees and all other disbursements i suppose - a bit pricey - i gauge around £1k for this price rrange

irrelevant

Agreed. We just completed a purchase, and with all the searches, fees to the LA (it was a RTB) and solicitors time, the total was a bit under £1K.

amz84uk

I've paid £850 in total for legal costs, which include the Solicitors fee's of £450 + vat, and the rest was the Searches fee's. They are very thorough and extremely efficient.

We have used them to purchase 3 properties in the past, and they are based in Cumbria - we live in Birmingham.

We had been advised to have a Solicitor nearby for face-to-face dealing, but these are absolutely fantastic, and communication is done via email, phone, and post.

Happy to provide you with their details if you wish - just PM me.

Richard_Webster

If OP can post a breakdown of how the £1,400 is arrived at and details of the type of property involved and the price then I should be able to cast a critical eye over it.

mitchaa

My total solicitors costs for buying was £1073 (June 2007 - Aberdeen)

This did not include the survey or stamp duty, but they have nothing to do with solicitor anyway.

Searched around for a bit, and this seemed to be the best. I too was getting some silly quotes of £14-1500

sarah2979

Checking the sheet we were given again, I was rounding up a bit. The total comes to £1320 and it's broken down as follows:

Up front costs
Legal costs (e.g searches) £300

On completion
Legal Fee (Solicitors / Conveyancers fee) £645 + £375

This is exactly as it was laid out on the form, doesn't include stamp duty it's just the legal costs alone.

Thanks for everyone's help so far.