Buying land privately

[TommyShelby]

Hi guys just after a bit of advice.

We are buying a plot of land privately, without estate agents. Each party has engaged a solicitor and we have settled on a price. The vendor has since come back to us to say that the buyer must also pay for the solicitors fees. Does this sound right to you? If we have to, we have to however I am a teeny bit miffed as our fees are £350 and his are £700

Anyone had any experience of this?

Yes, you both need to pay solicitor fees as you need independent representation, but you don't have to pay their solicitor fees. He just wants you to. We paid our vendor's. Fees as it was part of the deal. That's just negotiation.

We had this when we tried to buy a standalone garage, its not obligatory but it depends on how much you want the land. We actually lost the garage because we told them we wouldn’t pay their fees, the eventual buyer did.

Regrets.

Not standard but may be agreed as part of the deal.

It’s a negotiation, so it’s up to you. You could offer to make a contribution towards their fees and set a cap on it (otherwise fees do tend to be excessive)

You don’t have to. Our vendors paid ours but that was part of the deal and was already drawn up by the solicitors, rather than by our stipulation.

Btw - it’s pretty typical for the types of land deals that I get involved with to contribute towards vendors fees. If you don’t, the fees usually just get added to the sale price.

We bought a patch of land and agreed a price and we agreed to cover their legal fees. We knew even then it was a great deal. But we agreed all this up front.

Me too. Bought a sliver of land from local farmer and paid his costs. Our solicitor said it was fairly standard for deals where vendor was not actively trying to sell the ground, but purchaser wanted it

We paid the costs of the parish council when we bought a plot from them to build a house on. In the grand scheme of sale, their costs were pretty small compared to the overall price of the land. Also because their expenses are all covered by the grant of money they get from the local council to provide services in the community it seemed a bit petty to make them use those funds for legal costs.

Ok, so convention seems to be for buyer to pay the sellers fees. Just was slightly gobsmacked at the price differences! Our solicitor has assured us throughout that it is a really simple transaction so for his fees to be literally double !! Or is this another difference of Norfolk and South Wales lol