solicitors fees for house move - help I don't understannd!

[traceface]

I'd appreciate some advice as I haven't a clue what I'm doing with this...
We've put our house on the market and the estate agent we used recommeded a solicitor, so we agreed to use them (not signed up - just for them to contact us). We were told it would cost £465 plus VAT plus disbursements (what are they?). We got the official quote from the solicitor which came to £760, including things like Mortgage Redmption Fee (£95), Telegraphic Transfer Fee (£45) - I'm guessing these are the disbursements.
Anyway, I thought it was worth doing a little comparison with some other firms to see if this was a reasonable price. I used a comparison website which asked for details on the house we're selling (marketed at £180 000) and what we want to buy (max £250 000) and we got some quotes which were about £8000 - massively different from the letter we had. What am I missing? Is this including stamp duty?
I got an email quote from a company who would charge about £3400 for sale and purchase, but this seems to include stamp duty.
I am so confused! Can anyone explain to me in very simple term what I need from a solicitor in selling and buying a house, and why these quotes are so varied? I don't want to miss something vital, or sound like a complete ignoramus when I ring these companies!
Thank you

Trace, as far as I remember it, these are the major costs about moving house:
Solicitors actual fees, for them writing letters, etc
Costs for searches to land registry, etc (usually paid to solicitor) - these may be the disimbursements?
Mortgage fees - paid to bank or can be added onto mortgage if they agree to it.

• Stamp duty - paid for us in the same lump to the solicitor
• Removals fees (obviously paid to removals people)
• Estage agents fees - i think these were paid via solicitor too.

I don't think you will sound stupid for asking what the extras are and how much they cost. 8K MUST include stamp duty I would suspect.

Personally I would try and get local recommendations as the solicitors vary vastly with how helpful they are and how responsive. I know some people who have had conveyancers (i.e house moving solicitors) who will never be available when you call them!

Generally speaking, you pay a solicitor a fee for the sale and a fee for the purchase. Most firms now do this on a fixed fee basis (i.e. £200 plus VAT for a sale) but many will still charge you on the basis of a sliding scale for a purchase (i.e. if you're buying a house less than £250k, they'll charge for example £500 plus VAT and disbursements, £1000 plus VAT and disbursements if its over £500k etc). Obviously some firms will charge you one figure for both - this is why it can vary so much.

Basically, the fee for the sale is usually less than the purchase as there is not very much work for your solicitor involved with the sale. Disbursements is just the legal word for expenses that the solicitor has to incur on your behalf (i.e when they are dealing with the purchase, they have to contact the Council and the Land Registry etc to carry out searches which they are charged for - this should be the same fee irrespective of the solicitor). The Mortgage Redemption Fee is a charge that is applied by the mortgage company for paying off the mortgage - check the fine print of your mortgage to see what charges have to be applied. The transfer fee is the charge that is applied by the bank to the solicitor for sending money electronically very quickly - you are right in that these are all expenses / disbursements.

The biggest variable is stamp duty and whether the fees quoted include this (as it is usually classed as a disbursement). If you're buying something for less than £250k then you have to pay 1% of the purchase price. There is no reason why any solicitor, even if they're including stamp duty, should be charging anywhere near £8k (the only thing I can think of that would bump up the charges to £8k would be if you were having to pay an Early Redemption Charge on your mortgage i.e. if you've had a fixed rate mortgage and are getting out of it early). If you buy something over £250k, then the stamp duty is 3%.

I would speak to friends / colleagues about solicitors they'd recommend. There is usually no requirement to use the solicitors recommended by the estate agent so shop around.

I think those quotes you got sound very odd - as Summer says, they have to include other things because there is no way solicitor's fees (unless they have to write a new lease or the transaction is very complicated) should come to more than a few hundred.

Generally, although you pay your stamp duty through your solicitor and the solicitor will ensure that the estate agency receives its commission, these payments aren't included in their fees. You are paying them for a certain amount of time checking the title and freehold/lease of the property you are buying and providing the same information to the people you are selling to. Disimbursements include search fees, Land Registry fees, bank transfer fees - they usually come to 200-300.

To be honest, I wouldn't use the estate agency recommended by your EA - they are suggesting them as they receive commission for the recommendation, I would ask around friends and see if they used anyone that was good.

x-post with Mandy.

I'm a bit sad, so I have a spreadsheet that lists all the fees we have to pay during buying and selling. I've copied it for you below as it should cover pretty much everything you can expect. Excluding Stamp Duty it comes to nearly 3k.

Small tip: When you get quotes, ask if it includes or excludes VAT because that makes a big difference.

I. Estate Agent Fee

II. Solicitor - Buying:

1. Fixed Fee
2. Telegraphic Transfer
3. SDLT Return
4. Leasehold Fee (not required if you buy a freehold property)
5. HM Land Registry
6. Stamp Duty
7. Land Registry Search Fee

III. Solicitor - Selling:

1. Fixed Fee
2. Telegraphic Transfer
3. Leasehold Fee
4. Official Copy entries
5. Mortgage Arrangement Fee

IV. Mortage Fees:

1. Mortgage Completion Fee
2. Valuation Survey for new house

Trace, a solicitor should cost anything between £500 to £1000 to cover all their fees and the bits and bobs (disbursements as described above) then you will also have to pay stamp duty. I know an extremely efficient and reasonably priced conveyancing solicitor and though he is based in Oxford I am sure he'd do it for you. Let me know if you want his email address for a quote.

Yes, I agree with legs about not going to the one recommended by the EA. THe amount they are charing you will include the EA's referral commission fee.

You don't necessarily want to go withe the cheapest quote though. Personal recommendation is the best.

Don't do what we did, and use an online solicitor. We thought we'd save money, as the fees they quoted sounded good - but we didn't as there were so many extra costs that they kept adding on. For example, they arranged between solicitors to exchange and complete in the same week, not telling us that this would be an extra £150. I was livid!

And it was a right pain not having them anywhere near us, because there was a postal strike right when they were sending out all the important paperwork. Next time I move, I want to be able to physically go in.

I would find yourself a nice local conveyancing firm that you get a good vibe from, one that is friendly and easy to access, answers their phone and is straight with you.

thanks everyone. It feels so confusing! So if we are sorting our own mortgage ourselves with the company who our current mortgage is with, is there any need for to pay a solititor a Mortgage Redemption Fee?

Ok so I just found the other half of the stuff from the solititor which has the fees for the purchase - £4016. So the £760 was just the sale. It's becoming clearer now That would make a total of £4800 ish including stamp duty (if we buy for

another question... we have only had our house on the market for a week, have had no viewings as yet and obviously are not in a position to offer on another house until we have an offer on ours - so should we be filling in the forms for the solicitors yet or waiting until it's all happenning?

Wait until it happens.