How much did you pay your solicitor upfront when selling?

[CatAndHisKit]

Is 300 a usual amount nowadays (house just under the National average price)? I was selling about 5 yrs ago last time, and remember it being around 150. A bit shocked what with high survey expense to come.
Is it worth trying to negotiate with them, or is this standard and set in stone? Budget extremely tight currently.

It’s a normal amount to cover the cost of searches your Solicitor will be putting in hand on your behalf or do you expect them to pay for them out of their own pocket?

Did you not ask fir a full breakdown of costs before you hired them?

We asked several solicitors for a quote including a full break down of costs. Then selected the best value for money (in our opinion). The thought of negotiations after you've hired them is pretty cringe IMO

We've just paid £400 but with a very good local solicitor

It was a few hundred up front.

I paid £500

I paid £245, £30 for land registry bits and pieces and £215 for searches. They have had no fees upfront

That's not unusual
Op. It will be to cover initial
Disbursements. Nothing else.

I worked in solicitors for nearly thirty years.

We paid £350 for disbursements upfront. If you are selling leasehold it may be more for the management pack to be bought as well.

Zero as there are no searches etc if you are just selling. If you are buying as well then obvs you need to give them the money for searches etc up front

We just paid for searches. Paid their costs at the end

Sold our house last year. £300 upfront for searches, everything else paid on compilation. Totally normal.

We just paid £350 on account at the time of instruction. Selling only.

For selling only, absolutely zero! Just sold my house 2 weeks ago so this is recent. The solicitor just took what we owed them out of the sales proceeds when we completed.

For buying, which we did about 6 months ago, we paid for the searches upfront, so a few hundred.

I've dealt with two solicitors recently and both just asked for the money for searches (around £200), and a selling solicitor nothing.
I do remember in the past having to pay an 'opening file' deposit of £150, but not for a while now.

I've instructed solicitors but not sold or bought onwards yet. I've been asked for a £100 retainer which is fair to cover opening file and start doing ID checks etc, it's a firm I've dealt with before so I know it's not a con.

I pay nothing up front, just the one payment a few days before the sale.

We have just sold my late MIL's house. As we weren't buying there were no upfront costs. We just paid after completion. The solicitor we used were so unusually efficient and helpful that I emailed them and told them so, and received a lovely email back. I will use them again.

Nothing upfront - they deduct their fees from the income on the sale. All shown on the Completion Statement.

50% of the total fee, the rest will be paid out of proceeds when the sale completed.

*sale completes

I paid £500 - £250 for my sale and £250 for my purchase.

£500

£400 for a sale and purchase. I think £100 was for the sale of our property and £300 for the purchase. The rest will come out of the funds on completion

£400 for sale and purchase and £30 searches fee