Solicitor fees when selling & buying property.

[imsorryiasked]

Relative needs to sell house for say £300K and downsize to sheltered housing costing under £250K. I know what the estate agent fee will be, and can calculate the stamp duty, but what are the solicitors fees likely to be? We may need to use our power of attorney as relative currently incapacitated (but fully aware) if this makes a difference.
Also are there any other costs I've missed?
Many thanks

Money transfer fee and the land registry

Phone round and ask solicitors ours has a fixed rate and they have been great, so make sure they work full time tho as our vendors solicitor only works 2 days a week and that's caused endless delays

Good luck

Thank you.

If I budget £1000 for selling and £1500 for buying plus £300 for searches does that sound about right?

How easy is the house you are selling? The easiest houses to deal with are freehold houses where you haven't done lots of work. Ask around and see which firm you like the look of - try some Licensed Conveyancers too as they are differently qualified but tend only to deal with resi sales so can sometimes be a better bet. I'd try phoning them on a number from the website and seeing how easy it is to be put through - some of the old dinosaur firms don't give out direct dials or e-mail addresses for the lawyers which you're likely to find a pain. Good luck!

Thanks will give them a ring. The house that's being sold is a lovely grade 2 listed terraced house which hasn't been touched since the 1950s so it will go to a developer. It's mortgage free.

OK - it should be an "easy" property to sell (legally) in that case. Hope it all goes well.

Is the sheltered housing a flat of any sort? There's extra legal and management company fees to factor in if so.

@Minniemountain it will be a leasehold flat yes. Are those costs in addition to the usual service charges etc?

Yes.
Leaseholds take more legal work, so the majority of firms charge more.
The owner of the freehold or the management company will also charge extra for dealing with the change in ownership their end.

Ok thank you, will bear that in mind.

Ask your mortgage broker to try e-conveyancer. It checks the prices of loads of solicitors and gives you a full breakdown of costs on each quote. You can then go away and research the cheapest firms for reviews. If they're unwilling, remind them that they'll get a small introducer payment if you choose a solicitor through the site. Saved me over £500 compared to local firm and I have no complaints about the service from the firm I chose.

You can find instant quotes online. I used reallymoving.com to get a generally sense of solicitor and surveyor costs. Didn’t use them for solicitor (preferred local recommendations), but the quotes seemed fairly accurate and helped me select a building surveyor

Add removal fees for packing up your relative's belongings and taking them to the new place. Will you be getting a house clearance firm in to dispose of what is left?

I would get quotes but for buying our house it was 700 plus vat (she's a partner) so probably not the cheapest but she's brilliant and got purchase through in 6 weeks including 2 weeks she was on holiday. 350 for searches, land registry etc. If there's a mortgage there's a few fees there, like a set up fee, we also had a 30 fee. Then obviously removal fees and any disposing of rubbish fees. We also had mortgage broker fees of 350. If it's a second property there's extra stamp duty but sounds like its not.

The other cost is if any work needs doing / if need new furniture / cleaners.