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 😭

It blows my mind that people attach so little importance to the biggest purchase of their life that paying less than £4k is a “high price” - no wonder so many conveyancing services are 💩

I have done this, given a really high quote as I thought the client was going to be a nightmare. 🤣

Now I’m wondering if this is one of them 🤣

Sounds like the quote was a realistic reflection of the number of extra hours they thought OP would suck up. Perhaps other solicitors haven’t met them yet…

@cheekybunny if you’re still reading , it does seem high, we paid much less in London
I’d shop around (also check reviews as some of them can be a nightmare with delays )

good luck

In my experience you get what you pay for.

OP you have a stinking attitude!

In what way do you feel you could be being scammed?

Who told you to expect to pay about £2k and did they buy with LIFT? LIFT is more complex so I would expect it cost more than a regular purchase.

Who told you to expect to pay about £2k

I asked the OP that before and got a rude reply so put your hard hat on!

We bought recently in Scotland although not first time buyers. Our solicitor bill was just over 1K but we had LBTT and registration fees on top making total of over 6K. Does your figure include LBTT and registration fees?

You do get what you pay for generally. If conveyancing is too cheap then likely it’s not going to he quality

If someone seems like they are going to be difficult I chao more
Either they go elsewhere or if they instruct me at least I am reasonably compensated

I would definitely shop around. Some firms charge way more than others. You are right to be cautious

It doesn’t mean some are scamming though. Some firms specialising in conveyancing will have a load of relatively low paid paralegals and junior solicitors doing the work, whereas other firms might concentrate on more complex issues generally meaning the work will be carried out by senior solicitors whose expertise (and therefore related charges) is more than necessary for a basic conyevance. Some people might still want the more experience solicitor. Hence you shop around and decide what is important for you.

Maybe they don’t really want to act for you or think you’ll be a time consuming client

Worth bearing in mind that cheaper conveyancers will have higher workloads and less qualified / experienced staff. This means there is a higher likelihood of things going wrong. And although you won’t be out of pocket , if mistakes are made and not spotted it will come back to haunt you when you come to sell ( ie will take time and aggro and money to fix when you come to sell)

Unfortunately, you're not the only one who's had such a bad experience with lawyers 😏 As ordinary consumers, we tend to believe that lawyers are there to help us, support us with legal matters, and protect our interests. Sadly, there are also many in this profession who are primarily driven by profit. 🤑This is especially common in the UK. That's why it's so important to always read the fine print.

Wrong thread? Op has never answered any of the questions from PPs that might help to ascertain if the quotes were too high. All she has said is she has been quoted £3,500 but was expecting £2k (but has evaded even saying who told her to expect those fees so we don't know if they were for a comparable recent house purchase or something totally different 10 years ago). After being rude to everyone who tried to help her she has disappeared - presumably gone off in a sulk as her lawyer-bashing thread has not gone the way she wanted. I'm not sure why you think the OP is the one having a bad experience here.. 🤔

fair point. but I feel like transparency is something we can ask for in a client-solicitor relationship. and I understood that Op was told to expect 2k but ended with more than 3,5. and that is a bad experience imho. but probably you´re right regarding the fact that she disappeard....

She didn't say it was the solicitor that told her to expect £2k though - that's my point! And she didn't "end up" with £3.5k - it was just a quote.

No, she expected a quote to come back at £2k but is came back at £3.5k. At that point no work was done and OP had no obligation to take up the quote and owned nothing the quoting solicitor. She was totally free to look for another solicitor.