How Do I Find Out About Conveyancing Costs?

[MovingHousethisyear]

We met our Mortgage Broker and we now know what we can afford. We are just about to start budgeting as we want to be prepared for when our offer is accepted. One of the main problems we have found is that the internet has loads of comparison websites but very few or so it seems offer a service where you can view quotes without entering your contact details. We are just not ready to take calls or indeed discuss a possibility of us finding our dream house.

How have you searched for the best Solicitor before viewing houses?

We are nervous about having our personal details passed to lots of Solicitors as the obvious will happen - we will get loads of cold calls.

Any suggestions on how we search and compare quotes?

We simply typed in - no personal details conveyancing quotes and that brought up a full page of comparison sites. We then followed up and read reviews. Is that what you would do or would you go with the Estate Agent recommendation

It's a minefield and so any help would be appreciated.

We also want to sort out a Surveyor but i don't think we can prepare for that until we actually have an offer accepted

Its approximately 2.5 - 5k, depending on the house and how complex the purchase is, how expensive your conveyancer is. Thats all you need for now- find the house first.

I always use a local one so I can pop into their office if I need to.

Surveyor costs usually run £800-1500 depending on size and value of the property. It’s worth getting a full structural survey

conveyancing £700-1800, plus searches and stamp duty You can find the cost of searches on the local authority website

then consider moving costs on top

Moving house from rented has to be easier - so any tips on getting this done would be appreciated. We think we can afford it but now we have the problem of working out the notice period to the landlord to work alongside the anticipated moving in date. How do you manage this.

We think we have found a way of reviewing Solicitors. Anyone who mentions a name in the review, we think suggests that it is a real review.

You can email a few and advise them of expected house bug and sell price and they will give you a quotation but numbers given above are about right

I had 4 quotes recently for selling a flat. All itemised. They just emailed me quotes and no further contact. Not a problem at all. I chose one and bill was what he had quoted.

Hi @slipperypenguin - we did away with the individual emails. The comparison helped us, as we could see quotes from a few firms and then read reviews. So we think we have it sorted. Which is pretty much what you said do. We wanted high Street Solicitors and not online cheap conveyancing. I might take a quote and ask for call back to see if they call me back but i am a little early for that. Viewing 3 this weekend and so will update Monday on progress.

How much notice do you need to give your landlord? Ideally you don't want to give notice until after exchange, as the purchase might fall through if the chain above fails. Also in an ideal world, I would allow a week, after completion to totally vacate the rental, especially if you need carpets cleaned etc, in either property, or a quick paint job in a couple of rooms of your new house.

You can also haggle after getting quotes. We moved for a third time and wanted to use the people we used before, but they were £500 more expensive than other quotes. They were happy to match. So don't accept the first number if there is somewhere else you prefer but is more expensive.

Our solicitors fees for buying our house last year came to £2900. This was £150 land registry fee, £1800 legal fees +VAT, £36 bank transfer fee, local search £93, drainage search £106, environmental search £103, pre-completion search £24, electronic ID checks £15, £582 for various management company fees.

If you want local solicitors, walk into your nearest ones and ask them for a quote! That’s what I did. And you will quickly find out who is helpful and who isn’t.

Yeah this. Tricky to give notice before exchange which is typically 1-2 weeks prior to completion. So you may have a cross over of a couple of weeks (I found it quite helpful when i bought last year as meant could go back to clean later, although could have done without the extra cost obviously.

Choose two or three local recommendations. Contact them direct and they'll give you quotes based on approximate sale and purchase prices.

superb -thanks

A quick update. We had our call this morning on time from the Solicitor. They went through the quote and mentioned the BSA fee. They also discussed the search pack that included chancel and a pledge. I have told them that if my offer gets accepted I will be in touch.

Ended up using https://www.saveandconvey.com but you do have others that you can look at that require no personal details. So great for budgeting. We found a property that wasn't high rise and offer has been accepted. Just waiting for my call back from the Solicitor. I will advise if after the call the quote changes and reasons why.

Solicitor quotes normally cover basic information, i.e. freehold, freehold with management company, leasehold, Land registry fees, legal fees, search fees, bank transfer fees etc.

Therefore, the quote can (and often does) change during the course of the legal conveyancing work, when more information about the property is discovered along the way.

If you are buying a leasehold property, extra fees are more common, since these 'unknown' factors are only 'known' once the solicitor has all the information to hand, such as the management pack/information pack which advises of extra charges for (for example) a Deed of Covenant, Notices etc. Your solicitor won't have this information at the start, because the seller has to pay for the pack and his solicitor has to forward it to yours.