Going rate for conveyancing?

[jaffacakesareabiscuit]

I've just received 2 quotes from local solicitors for buying and selling, they're both within the same ball park figure but it's a fair bit higher than I was expecting!

Have conveyancing costs gone up recently or am I just way behind the times?! I was a first time buyer last time so only paid the purchase costs, but these quotes are more than double!

[FiveShelties]

If you are buying and selling this time, they will be at least double than when you just bought.

[Needcoffeeimmediatley]

We've just started this process and got a few quotes.
Buying from £1300 - £1700
Selling from £950 - £1100

[FiveShelties]

Apologies, forgot to put the quote I have just received for just a sale -

750GPB for a leasehold apartment sale.

[jaffacakesareabiscuit]

I've been quoted 3496 for everything all in, does that seem reasonable then? Maybe it is.

[notheragain4]

It shouldn't be double, selling is usually cheaper. But just make sure you go through the quote with a fine tooth comb, some solicitors' quotes are really opaque and you have to go through all the extras and add them on (I find this really frustrating when you tell them you are buying with a mortgage but rather than adding that charge to the quote you have to seek it out yourself, with some)

SureMove based in Bourne have an online quotation service and this includes everything, if you wanted to compare to someone else.

[Spickle]

Moving is expensive unfortunately.

Considering the legal work can be time consuming and not straight-forward, legal fees should be a fair representation of the hours spent on the transaction. Too many legal firms offer a fixed fee and no fee no completion deal, based on a normal transaction without any 'additional work'. Trouble is, these normal transactions are often not normal and sellers/purchasers get fed up waiting so long, so pull out. The result is solicitors doing a lot of work for a transaction that has to start again with a new buyer or their client pulls out of, which then means no fees are paid and the solicitor has earned nothing. The solicitors are now putting up prices to cover the amount of work that goes nowhere, purely for survival of their business.

Perhaps people should query the amount of money a local estate agent earns from advertising a property and finding a buyer for it. Fees are often 1% or more of the sale price, which can mean easily earning £5000 for a £500k sale price, a lot more income for the EA than the solicitor earns. This is why Purplebricks and the like will end up pushing out local estate agents altogether.

[moveandmove]

My fees for buying and selling come to £1800 .

[juneisbustingout]

I sold for 375,000 and am still to buy but it'll be a similar priced house.
I've paid 1,700 up front to an online conveyancer for both sale and purchase

[UnconsideredTrifles]

We've gone for buying only at about £850 (local solicitor, Wales, fixed price). We had quotes ranging from about £600-1200 and went for the one with the local address so I could camp on their doorstep if necessary...

[Burnout101]

Ours is £810, cheap house in cheap area tho and we're only buying not selling too, but the total will be more like £1k as things like HTB isa are extra charges.

[jaffacakesareabiscuit]

It seems to vary so much! The professional fees are 1250 for buying and 900 for selling but then there's VAT on every single aspect of the quote which just takes the totals way higher.

I'm in NI so not talking about really expensive houses or anything, selling at 180k and buying around 260k. If that's normal it's fine...just wanted outside opinions

[user1487194234]

It is important to make sure you are comparing like for like or does quote include all disbursements (and obviously VAT)

[user1487194234]

A lot of conveyancing solicitors are very busy at the moment so they are not so bothered about new work so are quoting more
Although costs are very important the solicitor fees are relatively low in the grand scheme of things
I would always go with personal recommendation rather than purely on cost

[Soulstirring]

We’re paying 2k all in

[jaffacakesareabiscuit]

@user1487194234 Yeah it's 3500 including VAT and all disbursements. Totally agree with going on personal recommendations. I do plan on using the firm I used last time as they are used by everyone in the family and sorted my purchase last time, I just wanted to get a few quotes to see if they were competitive price wise.

[Dinosauraddict]

I'd say those quotes are high. I tend to expect to pay around £2k all in if both buying and selling and both are freehold properties.

[jaffacakesareabiscuit]

@Dinosauraddict yeah I had imagined it would be 2.5k to be honest. I've just asked for a quote from a solicitor in a different town so it'll be interesting to see if it's any cheaper for the same service!

[user1487194234]

For the same service .... ?
Sometimes youget what you pay for

[AbyssusAbyssumInvocat]

Are you using an online solicitor? Assuming nothing is different in NI here so I could be wrong but we have always used online solicitors and always saved a packet with no extra hassle.

When buying only it was £660. Buying and selling were £500 each. We used premier property lawyers I believe.

Remortgaging which we always do at the end of the fixed period around £400 (though it usually included or there's a cash back to cover it)

[AbyssusAbyssumInvocat]

That was a £200k house at the time.

[jaffacakesareabiscuit]

@AbyssusAbyssumInvocat no it's a local long established firm. I'm a bit wary of online conveyancing in case it's not a straightforward transaction and I've heard it's easier to be able to pop in to the solicitors office to discuss issues etc if necessary. Good to know you had a positive experience though!

@user1487194234 I don't doubt that. But I think it's sensible to check I'm not paying a premium for choosing a solicitor in a more affluent area. Not sure if it works like that as I'm pretty new to this, but no harm in checking.

[Baxdream]

I'm halfway through a purchase and sale. Our solicitor is phenomenal. Just go for one that's recommended by locals who've moved.
I asked on our local community group. I ignored the 'recommendations' where it's clearly a family member etc. The one I went for was recommended by a friend of a friend and I couldn't be more pleased.

[AbyssusAbyssumInvocat]

How "non-straightforward" is it?

I have heard people recommend locals and our first house we started with a local (at twice the cost) and she was such an outstanding bitch that we didn't use her.

I can understand if it is something complicated and that people have different preferences but they will be trained for these things. I feel it is wasting money to use a local, in normal circumstances, when online do the same job.

Has anyone ever had to actually go in? I imagine you get the receptionist saying no anyway?

[Baxdream]

Our solicitor is working from home so all signed paperwork I'm posting through her door. It saves the delays of the postal service

[jaffacakesareabiscuit]

Got another quote from a recommended solicitor in a nearby town and it was £600 cheaper for the same itemised things. So it seems the "big" firms in the more well off area are charging more.