Conveyancing cost question

[user1488290202]

Hi everyone,

Have just had a breakdown of conveyancing costs from the solicitor we were thinking of using (first time buyers) and it's come back quite high.

It includes something listed as 'fee for solicitor to act for lender' which is down as £420 including VAT.

This isn't something I'm able to find anything about online - does anyone know if this is a usual cost? Or is it something I need to ask the solicitor to clarify?

Thanks in advance!

Quite a few of the Solicitors round here did an online estimate of costs. Can you find one round you that will quote online so you can compare the totals?
When you say quite high, how much do you mean compared to house cost?

Your mortgage lender needs a solicitor too. Usually they will use the one you use as it's cheaper than having a separate one. So yes, if you are using a mortgage to buy then it could be right. That sounds like a lot extra, from memory last time we moved it was something like £50 extra to act for the lender - but no idea if that's standard in terms of cost.

Thanks for your reply. The total is £1975 including disbursements, house price £420k.

There's pressure on us from the seller to use this solicitor for speed.

I will probably get another quote for comparison still, but was just curious if this particular fee is something that we would be paying whoever we went with.

Thank you - looks like getting a least one other quote to compare would be a sensible thing to do then.

Definitely worth another quote. Ours was 1300 on a very slightly cheaper house recently - and all 3 quotes we got were very similar.

DS is just about to compete on a flat and his fees were 1700, a lot for a flat under 170k BUT she came highly recommended and has been shit hot. Get another quote and don’t be pushed by the vendor or lender into who you use.

Hi, I work in conveyancing and £420 is very high! We charge £100+vat

That sounds decent but I'm used to London prices.

If you are getting a mortgage then you will almost always have your solicitor also work for the bank but they don't always split up their estimate to show that. I wouldn't get bogged down in the specifics (i.e. some places say "SDLT filing fee - £50") but you can't usually say "Oh, I'll file that myself so can I not pay that?") it's just the way they're expressing various things that they will have to do as part of the conveyancing process. Just look at the total amount of fees and compare that across other quotes.

They were acting for a previous buyer so the searches have already been done I believe, and agreeing to use this solicitor was part of getting our offer accepted. I'm wondering whether they've quoted quite high as they're aware of this fact.