is £300 normal for solicitor to witness a document?

[TennisBunny]

We're moving abroad, and the estate agent has sent us the documents to sign, which need to be witnessed by a solicitor.
The documents are straight forward enough, and all in English.

Because of the obvious, I had to call several solicitors who are local who'd be willing to do it.
This solicitor is about 5 miles away, and travels to us to conduct the deed outside our house. All Covid-safe.

The fee for this has come to £100 per document (there are 3 documents) = £300.

A quick google says that usually it's £5 per document, though I recognise its a different scenario because of the travel.

Does this seem normal?

I had to get copies of three legal documents certified and two documents related to a house sale witnessed - local solicitor charged £5 for each. I think £300 is totally unreasonable.

Sounds ridiculous I paid £25. Maybe the solicitor has money problems.

sounds a lot - call around for quotes
obviously if they are travelling to you its going to cost more

Think it's usually the £5-£20 mark. BUT that's usually when you can pop into the solicitor's office and get it done at the front desk (or round to a friendly solicitor neighbour one evening). Most solicitors are now working from home where possible, so the cost could be because instead of a solicitor nipping to the front desk for 5 mins, they'll now lose up to an hour's working time getting out to you. Obviously they'll charge for the travel time too.

Only time I've had it done there was no charge as I was a previous client.

We charge £5 to £10 per doc. You will be being charged for time and travel tho if they're coming to you so if sol's hourly rate is £250 tof £300 with mileage and witness fee too, that's about right. Can you travel to them and do it in their car park?

I'm a solicitor. The £5 is the prescribed rate per document from the Law Society. It's been the same for years (at least 20 years anyway). The thing is now most solicitors can make far more money doing their normal work in the same time so it's not really worth it. These days (pre covid anyway) if anyone calls the office asking if we can do it, we say no. (I will do it free for friends and family though!)

So I can see why sols won't do it without getting able to charge usual hourly rate for travel and attendance.

I paid £5 at a small local solicitors. Call around a few smaller preferably the ones without the £50 flower arrangement on the reception desk & get a few quotes.

Is the solicitor a Notary? If so, that is about right for foreign docs.

I'm a solicitor and if we get any general enquiries of this type we usually turn them away. I do it for free for friends and family (GP surgery charges £50, the robbing....) If our senior partner approved I would do it for £10 a document. For context, my hourly rate is £295 plus VAT. I see no reason why they need to travel to you, it sounds like an excuse to charge travel time. BTW official stamp is needed if it's just verifying originals, you literally just write on the document that you confirm you have seen the originals, sign, date, print name and firm name.

BTW NO official stamp is needed...

🤦‍♀️

In Scotland all solicitors are also notaries and have stamps and £300 for 3 docs perfectly reasonable. Solicitors time generally around £200-250 per hour. Firm is right to say solicitor must travel to OP and all in will probably take solicitor away from work for an hour at least. Solicitors firms and any businesses in general don't really tend to do things cheaply to help you out... it has to at least cover costs (but hopefully also actually make money) or not worth doing. Existing regular clients may be able to get cheaper as money is actually made from them but someone who bought a house once and did a will 20 yrs ago then no.

I’m a long term lurker, but registered to reply to this as I am a solicitor and a notary public.
Those talking about paying £5 are paying for affidavits or statutory declarations where the fee is set down. It hasn’t increased since the early nineties and doesn’t cover the cost of time spent dealing with the swear, so is effectively a public service.
Solicitors who are actually witnessing documents should be very careful and consider their professional indemnity insurance as there is an implication if a solicitor has witnessed that they have advised on the documents. Certainly our practice would not allow that.
That goes doubly so for a document to be used abroad. The estate agent may have said solicitor, but does that jurisdiction actually expect the documents to be notarised? Some countries will reject a document which has a solicitor witnessing it. Notaries are a separate legal profession, although most notaries are dual qualified as solicitors, or are retired solicitors. We deal with documents used all round the world, so have to be aware of requirements of many countries. The duties are very different- we owe our duty to the transaction and anyone who relies on the documents. We have to ensure the client understands what they are signing and have to keep records of anything notarised, as well as ID. That’s quite different from a quick in and out swear for £5, where no ID is needed and no copy needs to be kept. As a minimum, for one straightforward document I would expect to spend half an hour talking to the client beforehand, looking through the document, identifying the client, ensuring they had understood, witnessing them sign, binding the document and attaching my Notariat seal, scanning and writing up my records.
If you add travel time and additional documents £300 is not of the way, particularly if that is actually £250 plus VAT.

The documents do not need to be notarised.
It is literally signing a copy of our ID and signing their name (and address) next to ours on the form
The form is unbelievably simple - our name and address, property name and address, vendors name and address, solicitors name and address.

@TennisBunny

The documents do not need to be notarised. It is literally signing a copy of our ID and signing their name (and address) next to ours on the form The form is unbelievably simple - our name and address, property name and address, vendors name and address, solicitors name and address.

It's not the simplicity that you'd be paying for but the professional qualification of the person signing and, in this case, under Covid circumstances, the travel. Still seems on the expensive side, but don't think of it as just signing a name.

We've found a solicitor who's happy to do it for £5 per document!
We're going to take a bottle of wine and some chocolates too, as he won't take more than the £15. We emailed the docs over and he insists he can do it in 5 minutes in his lunch break.

I feel a bit bad for the other guy (he followed up twice) as I wonder if he's a bit low on business at the moment. Had he said £100 we'd have just taken it for speed.

A few years ago, paid about £70 for a notary to witness and seal a foreign language document. £300 sounds ridiculous.

I'm a solicitor, I'd charge maybe £10.if someone comes to me. But if they need to travel to you, then even £100 isn't worth their time so they probably didn't really want the business in the first place.

In Scotland all solicitors are also notaries

This isn’t true @justwanttobemum - some are. Most will not have stamps. Notarising is a separate skill.

Witnessing in office is usually £5 a doc but I know most Solicitors won’t do at minute due to covid even if office is open. Simply not worth risk.

@Splodgetastic

No! £5 per document and £2 per exhibit.

That’s for a statutory declaration. The fee is set by statute.

I’m a solicitor and I can’t advise on just the information you have provided. But I can say you’ve said they don’t need to “review” it. I would also review something I’m putting my name to and understand what it is.

That's crazy, I have one of my friends (solicitor) do it for free

Yes it's bollocks, get a different quote.

It's a notary public type job, as others have said. Used one a few months ago to certify docs, cost £120.

When we bought abroad 14 years ago we had to use a notary, we rang our solicitors and they gave us details of one. I think it was around £75 but obviously a long time ago.

Why are they coming to you? That would take them a lot longer and therefore cost a lot more than if you went to them.