Solicitor charges

[Asian]

Hi All,

Needed your advise, I am in process of buying a property. Our solicitors had sent us an estimate of around £1400 inclusive VAT before the start of the process, they have now sent us a bill of around £2200, adding miscellaneous charges for number of things. Is this fairly common? I obviously haven't accounted for this extra expense.

An estimate is just that. We've been given an estimate for our conveyancing, but know that every little extra will mount up to a much bigger bill by the time we complete.

There will be words in the estimate that cover them for charging for additional work if it arises.

Does the bill / invoice include things like Land Registry fees, Stamp Duty or other outlays because they would not be included in the solicitors fees. Their estimate will be for the time spent on the file by the solicitor. There are always added extras like I've mentioned above. Others include things like courier's fees and searches. If this is not obvious on the invoice ask them for a detailed bill showing everything included.

What are the additional payments for?
If there are going to be additionals the solicitors should have contacted you to advise. The whole point of a quotation is to stop extras being added on.

Are you sure the £1400 was including VAT. That would be strange. Did they actually say inclusive or, perhaps, just quote £1400 which you assumed to be inclusive.

We're you given an engagement letter at the start with all of this outlined?

There are always extra disbursements. They may have mentioned disbursements in the original quote but without mentioning their cost as, presumably, they can change with different clients

Yes it was £1400 inclusive of VAT. The £2200 bill they have given is also inclusive of VAT.

My solicitor quote was £1500 + vat so £1800 and it also showed the extras for searches, land registry, stamp duty, bank transfers, etc. Excluding the stamp duty this was another £900 and that didn’t include the searches which I paid up front. I was expecting it though.

Ohh thanks, wondering why do they give quotes though. I was not expecting it.

The original estimate should refer to disbursements , or clearly specify that they are not included.
Was there anything unexpected? Like fees for an indemnity certificate?
If it's not clear, go back and ask them - they may have made a mistake or you might have misunderstood, but they should be able to clarify.
There shouldn't be any big surprises- I was doing conveyancing more than 10 years ago, and even then it was required that we notify clients in writing if we became aware that things would cost more than originally anticipated .
Don't be worried about asking them, they should be able to justify their bill.

Your original quote should have itemized what was included. Things like searches, acting for lender, I'd checks, bankruptcy checks, if you are using a LISA that is charged extra, if you have gifted deposit that is charged extra, transfer of money fee. It all adds up. Some quotes include most of these and others don't. That why you need to ask for a detailed breakdown with every quote. Your quote seems ridiculously cheap and I think your final bill is reasonable. I'm assuming you must be a FTB and have not had to pay SDLT or it would be a few thousand higher.

Yes I am FTB, hence accounted for the quote for budgeting :), now I know what to expect in case if I ever buy again :). Thanks.

The original did not have extra £700 as it is in this quote. I have written to them that I was caught unaware and they should reconsider. Hopefully they will.

What does the extra £700 consist of? As others have said things like searches and stamp duty are for you to pay as disbursements and will show on the solicitor's bill separate from their fees.

Exactly this. Does your quote mention disbursements? These are things that the solicitor does/pays for on your behalf but they're your responsibility and the solicitor doesn't charge a mark up on them. You just pay them back exactly what it cost them.

I have paid for searches and stamp duty separately. The bill has random charges like money laundering check, archive fee, special conditions fees, acting on behalf of lenders fees etc.

Have a look at your quotation to check for small print. If not, send them a letter enclosing a copy of your quotation saying you are surprised to be charged for extras which were not mentioned in original quotation. Please can they explain.

Surprised how many people are using the words ‘estimate’ and ‘quotation’ interchangeably. Those are completely different things.

I can give my client an estimate of £5000 to advise them on XYZ, but if the client rings up every day to ask questions for thirty minutes, my final invoice may be several times that. If however they never phone or email me and no unexpected legal issues come up, the invoice could be less than my estimate.

If you were given a fixed fee quotation, that’s different, but it doesn’t sound like you were.

Read the engagement letter you were sent (and probably signed) when you instructed them, read the final invoice again and if you still have questions about the final invoice total, ask your solicitor to explain.

Good that you've written to them to query. As others have said, there are many explanations but they should be spelling it all out to you.

My shitty conveyancers added several extra fees onto my final bill last year. Some of which weren't listed in their 'things we may charge you for' info pack, some which were duplicates. Always worth double checking what should have been included in the first quote.

Most conveyancers do fixed fees nowadays. If something unexpected comes to light you should receive a notification detailing this and how much it’s going to cost. SRA require transparency and most firms adhere to this.

Yes I have done that. They had quoted £200 for some charges but charging £400 for it now.

Are there any notice fees/Deed of Covenant that the Freeholder/Management Co require? When a solicitor provides an estimate, they won't know if there are any fees to be paid to a Management Co until they have sight of the Management Pack. These fees can easily be a few hundred pounds for each document needed.

No none of these :(. I have asked them the breakup and other details.

Those are all normal.charges. They have to do money laundering checks by law. You have to pay for your solicitor to act on behalf of the bank or you couldn't buy the house. The archive fee is to store your documents safely. It's a pity you didn't read about this but unfortunately you'll still have to pay it. The original quote was obviously far too cheap to include everything.

@Asian, are you buying the property on your own or with another person because if 2 people buy together a lot of the fees are per person not per property sale. So if 2 of you 2 X ID checks, 2 X money laundering etc.