Am I being ripped off by my conveyancing solicitor? Over 2k already

[Icanlickmyelbow]

My Conveyancing solicitor's fees are coming in at £2,236.23. The house I am buying is probate with no chain and no issues. With a purchase price of £185,000.
I am a first time buyer so foolishly took the advice of the estate agent to go with their conveyancer as they said it would be quicker.
The original quote was about 700 cheaper and they keep adding shit on. Is this normal? I have already asked them to remove a couple of things such as 'lifetime file retrieval' and 'fraud protection'.
In addition to the pictured breakdown they charged me £399 upfront for searches and another £50 upfront for 'other' searches. There is also a charge for coal-mining searches of £38.43. I just feel so ripped off by it all.
The house is a total dump and completely unmodernised. I will be living there with my 3 young children. I had planned to do some work to make it habitable, but it but it appears I won't have a penny left after the solicitor has taken their fee.
Can anyone tell me if this looks right?

No, as some higher price properties are straightforward while some lower price properties are complicated, it isn't linked to purchase price.

Yes. Looks very like my fees from last year for my purchase. I appreciate it’s annoying as it’s a higher proportion of the overall cost of that house. But at least you live somewhere you can buy a house for that amount!

If the conveyance fees will wipe out all your savings, then is it wise to buy a house that needs complete modernisation when you have three kids as I presume you won’t have time to do it yourself? Is it in a state you could live in for the foreseeable future? Renovations cost a fortune, the conveyance fees would be a drop in the ocean compared to new kitchens, bathrooms, etc.

The OP asked if they looked right, the solicitor is probably the best person to ask that question to. Presumably when the solicitors do their work it throws up extra things that need to be done?

We may charge the Client if the transaction falls through but that doesn’t mean they actually pay the bill….

I know what an agent does, I used to be one before I retrained and I have no issue with telling you that lawyers fees are exceptional value for money considering the expertise and risk involved.

Oh come on … if you’re talking about clients not paying the bill then obviously that can happen to the EA just as well as the solicitor.

I’m not debating that solicitor fees are justified. I’m questioning why you seem to feel EAs don’t earn their fees if the sale gets to completion. There are some bad EAs around (& some lazy solicitors) but my experience has been both sets of professionals earn their fees.

@DandyTealSeal My confusion would come from the fact the professional fees exceed the original quote without any of the additional searches. I was wondering why they would quote £700 if they knew the basic fees (that won't fluctuate) superseded the total quote.

You can compare prices by going to www.localconveyancingdirect.co.uk and getting an estimated cost, you do not need to fill in the phone number field (you do't want them all calling) but gives a break dowin of pricing estimates and details of what normal cost would be

Hoa do a similar calculator/estimate calculator

Those are very similar to my conveyancer costs, purchase completed 3 months ago. Does OP have to pay stamp duty?

When I bought my house I rang the solicitors & they asked me the value or the house & gave me an inclusive quote which was exactly what I paid. I would never use a solicitor connected with the estate agents because you can bet there will be a slice of what you pay going to them.

My house that I was buying was £90k and solicitor was £1,089 (so 1.21%)

Considering your house is more than twice the price then twice the solicitor price might not be mad.

1.21% of £185k is £2,238.50... so right on track at the same % of sale.

Your budget to do works on a full modernization reno was only £700? A rewire alone is likely to be 4x that even on a small 1 bed property.

You're not being 'ripped off' you literally cannot buy without this and over all for doing all the work they charge very little.

ID check is a legal requirement under money laundering laws.

This looks completely standard. Did the quote say ‘X plus disbursements’ or words to that effect? The stuff you think are ‘extra’ are the disbursements the conveyancing solicitors have to pay out of your behalf and then charge you for. They’re not making money on those costs.

I'm not saying the id check isn't required just charging separately is questionable. My firm don't charge for that as we need to do for our own compliance purposes.

But EA fees are a percentage of the property and ours are not.

By the same token as some posters are pointing out about lawyers fees, same work is involved in selling a £250k house as it is for £1m…

Yes this. Estate agents make more from each transaction yet the lawyers do far more of the work.

Most of the searches are fixed costs, and they do need to be done

Sounds about standard. Am just buying my first house which is around the same price as yours and my costs are similar.

I sold a house last year and - as seller - I paid for the coalmining search. I didn't think that the buyer paid for it.