Conveyencing fees - any insight?

[Justanotherdaytoday]

Sorry, I know this is chat and should probably be in property but I've just received the illustration of fees to buy my onwards purchase and they've quoted me 2.5k! House is being bought for just under £250,000... I thought that quote to sell mine, 1.5k, was pricey but 😱 Is this normal?! I feel absolutely sick. These are the solicitors my EA use so I just thought it was best to go with them. So far I have been allocated a solicitor and told everyone who that will be and we have exchanged a few emails. I have not however, actually signed anything. Help!

The fees are mostly search fees not the actual lawyers costs. Those search fees will be roughly the same whomever you use.

Sounds a lot to me but it will depend where you are. It’s about £1800 for a sale and purchase where I am but that’s the north of England. You can get some more quotes if you’ve not signed anything yet

It depends what sort of property you are buying.

Mine is leasehold (extra fee), shared ownership staircasing (extra fee) and LISA (extra fee) with an expensive local authority. £2550 including VAT plus probably a few hundred extra for other things.

I recommend you go through the fee illustration with a fine tooth comb. Don’t assume they’ve got the fees right based on what they’ve told you. You’re unlikely to get it reduced -more likely you will tell them xyz and they will actually increase the price. Best to know now!!

Appointing a solicitor has definitely been the most stressful part of my property hunt!

Is it a leasehold? And/or is it a new build?

Not a leasehold or anything else special involved in it!

Never use the EA in house solicitors. They are generally expensive and shit. Use local so you can go to their offices and actually move things a long.

I'm really shocked, just spoken to two people who have said theirs was closer to £1k! I just hope I haven't messed anything up now, I am really worried.

Ours was around £2500. My assumption was that they are generally around the same unless you have a complicated situation (we did have a few tricky legal things to be sorted out). I’ve never heard of anyone paying £1000 though, that seems ridiculously cheap. Perhaps the quote provided by the dodgy online conveyancer without all the other costs added in?

I work in new builds and this is extortionate.

Don't go with the agents recommended as they are getting a cut and not generally the best solicitors. Shop around locally and you'll find much cheaper quotes.

We pay about £1500 of which £300 is searches but we buy a couple of times a year.

Thanks all, the fees for my purchase of the house I'm currently in were under 1k last June, using a completely different solicitor, and I wondered if they had gone up stupidly but seems they are just super expensive! I've emailed round the solicitor to decline their services and both EA's to let them know that I will be changing - was this the right thing to do?