Talk

No not in England. Search fees yes but they usually take the rest of the fees once the sale has gone through.

Search fees are roughly £100 but can vary.

Oooh! I think we paid it all at the same time. They sent a bill that had everything on it... deposit amount itemised, outstanding purchase amount, their fees, etc.

We paid it, we owned the house. All done in one transaction.

We complete on Tuesday. We paid £300 upfront and the rest is due after completion.

Thanks for the reply.
We've paid the search fees in advance.
We move on Tuesday and the solicitor want paying today.
Just worried if we don't complete for whatever reason we've paid so they haven't got the incentive to work on it.

Wonder if you're part of our chain mummymeercat!

No definitely not they haven't finished the job

How strange. Could it be that they have confused your completion date or are invoicing you to give you an idea of the costs before completion? As all the proceeds of the sale go to the solicitors involved, it's normal, ime, for them just to deduct their fee (plus pay off estate agents, mortgage etc if appropriate) and send the balance on.

We transferred fees along with deposit and stamp duty prior to exchange.

We also transferred fees at the same time as deposit, but my understanding was that they had to 'hold' it until completion - i.e. if it all went wrong, they'd need to refund it therefore still had the incentive to work.

As it happened, it seems we overpaid on something and a couple of days after completing we received a cheque for nearly £300 back! That was a nice surprise!

Your solicitor needs to be "in funds" before they complete - so they may have asked for everything as one figure - fees, deposit, mortgage etc particularly if there is not going to be a surplus from which they can deduct their fees. Entirely normal.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I have paid them the money for the deposit, estate agent fees, searches etc and said I'll transfer their fees over once we complete.