to think £1,000 conveyancing fees for property sale is a bit pricey?

[crazycatlady]

Boring topic I know, but looking for a range of responses.

We've just been quoted £1,000 for conveyancing fees for selling our property. We are in London and the sale price is £420k. We are not buying a property so no conveyancing work to do on that front.

It is the same solicitor we used for our previous sale (and purchase) in 2007. Can't remember what we paid but I seem to remember it was less than £1k for the whole lot.

Does this sound expensive or AIBU?

[Misteranderson]

Just stumbled on this old thread after just buying my house. I worked with a fantastic solicitor who I a cannot recommend highly enough. No legal begal words, just plain speaking. You can tell I'm happy about it because I am actually taking the time to write this - I thought it was goign to be so stressful but it really wasn't.

I paid £529 for their fees and that included all the legal work, mortgage, etc on a £244k property. The search fees were £239 and it was all on a no win no fee sort of thing. If anyone is buying or has a family member asking, send them to Share a Mortgage Conveyancing Services - //www.sharemortgage.com/conveyancing.

I couldn't recommend them highly enough!

[Flossyfloof]

When I bought my first house I was advised not to go with the cheapest solicitor. I ignored the advice and he was a complet arse. He is now doing time for murder. Nothing to do with my house purchase, I don't think.
There is nothing to stop you getting quotes from other people; I think the costs vary according to the cost of the property. The price quoted doesn't seem unreasonable to me, but I bet you could get it cheaper.

[hospidium]

£1k is definitely overpriced. Quotes of around £500 - £600 plus VAT and searches is about right. We recently sold our house and used an online conveyancing comparison website that shows all of the solicitors and conveyancers and then lets you pick the one you want.

It's here if anyone wants the link www.theconveyancingnetwork.com/index.cfm/get-a-quote/. Worth taking a look

[sittinginthesun]

That's the way it works - there is almost no profit in conveyancing these days, even on the "easy" transactions. The indemnity premiums have made sure of that. Solicitors work at a loss in most cases.

[crazycatlady]

Yep we're going to stick. We need to exchange and complete within a fairly short time frame and they were brilliant last time at getting everything done super quick. It's the same individual within the firm that we used last time too so I feel I know what to expect from her.

Also want to be able to pop in to the office to sign contracts so we don't have to wait for the post, it's so unreliable in our part of London.

£1k does seem ridiculous for the small amount of work for a property sale, especially when there is no chain in either direction but what price peace of mind eh?

They probably made a huge loss on our last deal as it was a complicated nightmare of awfulness!

[sittinginthesun]

Stick with your old firm. You trust them, and know the service you are getting. There are plenty of firms doing stupidly cheap work, and you simply can't guarantee what you will get.

[mypersonalfavourite]

We've just sold for the same amount in London and paid £1k each for sale and purchase. Lovely!

[nocake]

Selling a house should be far cheaper in legal fees that buying so £1,000 is not only unreasonable. It's outrageous. Can I recommend Simpson Millar. They do all the communication with you via email, phone and post which is much more convenient than having to go into their office.

[Soupqueen]

I wouldn't get one in Scotland (as mentioned by a previous poster), we have a totally different conveyancing system up here!

[Thetallestsunflower]

Well we sold a house for 51k and the fees were around £500 (not including the estate agent fees which were over 1k) they were really good though in what was a difficult process.

[hayleysd]

We paid around £850 to purchase our first property 2 years ago and that was £133k in yorkshire

[crazycatlady]

Good point. We did end up having to do that last time. Decision made!

[AnotherJaffaCake]

Forgot to say that we always use a local firm of solicitors in our town and have got to know our solicitor well. He discounted his fees for us as he was doing two transactions for us (ended up as just one though). I think it does help to use a local firm as mrsravelstein says. If anything needs sorting, you can just drop into their office for a chat.

[mrsravelstein]

we paid over 2k for sale & purchase, but had been rec'd the firm by several friends and they were very local which meant when things started going horribly wrong (as they always seem to) we were able to camp out in their office and harrass them until they got things done.

[AnotherJaffaCake]

Some Estate Agents really earn their money, and others do virtually nothing and you wonder why you're paying them a vast fortune.

We sold an investment property recently and the Estate Agent did virtually all the work, chasing up and down the chain and keeping everyone informed and we didn't mind paying them. However, when we tried to sell our own home earlier in the year (different part of the country) the Estate Agent barely even got off his backside. We ended up doing all the work ourselves, but eventually the chain collapsed.

We must be mad but we're having another go.

[JamieOliveOil]

I think £ 1000 is excessive - I would expect to pay £ 500 & VAT & £ 8 Office Copy Entries of Title.

Funny how we moan about Solicitors fees but we pay Estate Agents charges which are thousands of pounds more??

[cwtch4967]

I used a local solicitor I trusted for a recent purchase as I wanted to be sure everything was done properly - buying carries much more risk than selling! When I sold my last house though, I used a company with fixed fees I found online - they were very good and very reasonable, I would happily recommend them. Selling is much more straightforward.

[crazycatlady]

ok I think we'll stick with what we've got. they were brilliant last time with a complex deal so hopefully worth the dosh and doesn't seem too much over the odds. thanks all, much appreciated.

[edwinbear]

We exchanged yesterday on a flat sale and house buy in SE London and we paid £1,000 for each side. House was just over £700k. I have to say though, she was fantastic and I would happily have paid double. We only moved 3 years ago and I was surprised by how much fees seem to have gone up.

[OberonTheHopeful]

Just totalled up my quote. It was £672 + VAT (so about £806 incl. VAT) with all fees and disbursements.

[crazycatlady]

hmm not sure what to do now. It's a firm we've used before so I feel comfortable with them but it does seem most have paid less. It's a house not a flat so no tricky leasehold issues to deal with.

Having spoken to DH again it seems the £1k also includes VAT, so not such a bad deal afterall?

[Angel786]

Oh and they need to respond to buyer queries too.

[Angel786]

Sounds a little high, you shouldn't have search fees as a vendor just got to use a standard firm contract to transfer title and set up the exchange of monies from my hazy law school memories. We recently used so one in east London who charged 500 when buying somewhere.

[OberonTheHopeful]

The only fees you should be paying as a seller are:

Archive Fee
Telegraphic Transfer Fee
Call Credit fee (per name)
Official Copy Land Registry Documents

The total should be less than £100 (excl. VAT)