Conveyancing costs

[motheroreily]

I am looking to buy a flat (for £160,000). When I brought a house previously I used an online company, I can't remember how much it cost but it was really cheap. A few years later I had a letter saying they were closed down and they were contacting people about errors with stamp duty! Anyway, because of that I don't want to be careful but have no idea about the cost. I've had one quote but I don't know if it's reasonable or what sort of cost I should be considering

Discounted Legal Fee
£524.00

Mover Essentials Fee
£100.00

Leasehold fee
£125.00

Mortgage fee
£50.00

Stamp Duty land tax form
£75.00

Electronic bank transfer fee
£45.00

Anti Money Laundering checks (£10 per person)
£10.00

Searches
£250.00

Additional searches
£20.00

Archive fee
£20.00

Land registry fee (no VAT)
£95.00

Stamp Duty* (no VAT)
£700.00

VAT
£243.80

Total purchase fees (including disbursements)
£2,257.80

That seems steep. Our legal fees are £882.20 which includes everything apart from mortgage valuation fee (paid directly to mortgage provider) and stamp duty. Only difference I can see is that yours is leasehold; we're buying a freehold property. The house we're buying is also more expensive than yours; though I don't think that matters much.

Thank you that is helpful. Did you use a local company?

I've just had another quote for £1,900. Might try shopping round a bit more.

It’ll vary a lot depending upon your area but that’s very steep IMO (I’m a Conveyancing Solicitor).

They’ve broken the fees down so it seems better value, but really their own legal fees are actually adding up to £894 - that’s the legal fee, mover essentials fee (what even is that?!), the leasehold fee, the mortgage fee, the stamp duty form fee and the archive fee. All of those are just your solicitor’s costs wrapped up in another name. They must also be adding a fee for themselves onto the bank transfer fee - Barclays charge my firm £18 including VAT for bank transfers, definitely not £45!

Shop around as much as you can. I’ve just had a look and my firm would charge about £700 less to deal with a leasehold property of that value, including stamp duty and all other disbursements. Although admittedly were up north where things are cheap

Argh we’re not were. Stupid autocorrect!

Searches, stamp duty and land registry fee are fixed. The rest is overpriced, chaps costs £30, the sdlt form takes five minutes.

Ask

• what happens if sale falls through
• what happens if your contact is sick, on holiday, dead : many firms can't delegate
• what time they knock off on Friday ( completion day)

Thank you that's really helpful. I've had three more quotes. All a bit cheaper but not loads. Will keep looking

I agree with specialsubject here. The bottom rate seems cheap (although it isn't) and they have then bumped up prices for other things.

Any decent solicitor or conveyancer in my opinion would put the true costs of the disbursments and then their fees so you can compare correctly.

I think this is high as when I purchased my last property 7 years ago When taking out SDLT, for all disbursments, fees etc it only came to £900 and this time I am selling and purchasing and again, taking out SDLT it's only coming to £1300 and there are substantially higher values involved and this is a solicitor with a physical presence, not an online one

Seems expensive. Maybe try the conveyancing quote on reallymoving.com (a bit like comparethemarket etc).

Given me lots of options with reviews from other clients.

Good advice above about finding out the fees situation if the sale doesn’t complete! Also, that you get a dedicated solicitor and that they have backup if they are on hols or off sick. Good luck!