Am I being scammed - Solicitor

[cheekybunny]

Husband and I are buying our first home. We’ve just been quotes £3500 for solicitor fees. We live in Scotland. Are purchasing through LIFT but I’m absolutely blown away by the cost of this as we were told to expect around the £2000 mark. I just feel like we are being scammed 😭

I would ask what's included in their quotation.

For example, some solicitors will get all the paperwork and just then send everything to you asking you to read through and let them know if you have questions.

Other solicitors will do a proper report on title, bringing to your attention all salient points and pointing out any negatives on both the title and the terms of the LIFT documents.

It's a big purchase so choose your solicitor wisely.

Good luck in your new home!

Honestly if your attitude is like this with them, then i'd charge you extra as well for being a brat and having to deal with you.

I paid £2794 in fees for a straightforward FTB purchase a couple of months ago. If there'd been any complications around eg foreign source of funds, etc it would have been higher so it does depend on your circumstances to some extent. I used a medium sized firm based in Edinburgh.
Are all the quotes you received around the same mark or is one firm standing out as being higher?

The quote should be itemised so you can see where the additional costs are coming from if the latter. Some costs are relatively fixed aa a % of your purchase while others depend on what the firm has chosen to charge. Will you be dealing with a partner or a more junior associate?

It completely depends on circumstances so nobody on here can advise you. I suggest you get a couple of other quotes if you think it is too high.

Solicitors can only estimate the time they think it will take to complete a purchase, so one firm's estimate will be different from the next.

A high quote can also mean they don't want you as a client!

lol, suspect the law firm doesn't want to act for you and quoted a high fee to put you off. I wonder why...

I think they should be charging you £5000, as you will obviously be really hard work with that attitude!

Also FYI - meaning of scam

A scam is a deceptive scheme or fraudulent trick designed to steal money, personal information, or valuables from an individual or organization. It often involves a confidence trick where criminals gain trust or create false urgency to manipulate victims into willingly handing over their assets

PP are right to point out you’ve used the wrong word. High price does not equal scam.
HTH

You are awful.

What has happened is they've heard you on the phone asking for a quote and thought "let's add the arsehole tax" hoping you'd not accept.

They're not holding a gun to your head. Christ, go elsewhere, precious.

Solicitors have to give fee quotes based on how much work they believe will be involved.

I suspect they thought your matter would involve a fair amount of work.

It's as simple as that. Plus if i choose to set my charge out rate at £500 an hour plus vat and disbursements then I'm free to do that. You're free to take your work elsewhere if you don't want to pay that.

So have you got other quotes to compare then?

phenomenal OP

My solicitor quote included stamp duty (LBTT for Scotland)

Did they give you a full breakdown of fees as I imagine it includes both land registry fees and stamp duty at that price which would bump the cost up considerably (especially the latter).

Gosh you're rude.

This! Wtf is your problem OP?!

You're being rude to people trying to help you OP. It's not on.

Glad you're not my neighbour.

I’m almost afraid to comment but, leaving aside the OP‘s rudeness, my son is just in the process of buying his first flat and there has been a considerable variation in the legal fees which we have been quoted. Your friends who have paid much less may have used an online conveyancing firm rather than a High Street solicitor which can sometimes result in savings, however you are very much on a factory production line with those online firms and if your sales process is in any way complicated or throws up anything unusual that is probably not the best way to go. Depending on the kind of property you are buying there may also be additional charges, for example, we were quoted an extra £600 by one firm specifically to check the EPC certification and also to ensure compliance with the new building legislation which has come into force since Grenfell. The more detailed and expensive quotes we received also included everything like bank costs for transferring money, the cost of cashing in our sons LISA and various other things which I can’t remember off the top of my head.

As you have suggested that you have indeed obtained multiple quotes, then you should be in a position to compare like with like and just go with the cheapest one, assuming that they include everything which is on the other quotes.

My ex is an electrician. He charges double for customers he doesn't want so he doesn't have to say no, but they aren't likely to want to go ahead. If they do, it's at least more worth his time...

Maybe this firm don't want to work with you...? I wonder why that might be?

Wow 😲😵‍💫🤯

Well don't start threads asking if it's a scam then?

What is the purchase price? Is it a new build?

Put up the full figures and I’ll let you know if it’s high. I can’t tell until I know what the value of the property is as it may contain LBTT.

Are you being scammed by a registered solicitor firm giving you an up front quote? Probably not.

Is it a fairly high price? Probably.

Solicitors have to collect the LBTT from you ane some put it in their quotes so it’s important to know what you’re comparing.

Your second post said ‘potentially is a scam’…

Anyone else feeling for the rest of the chain involved in this sale?

Presumably OP you don't find that everything in life costs the same regardless of where you buy it from, the quality etc, how is a quote higher than you expected something out of the ordinary?