Conveyancer Fees

[Esseesse]

I've never bought and sold a house before and would like to get the opinion of more experienced PH members.

I'm organizing the sale of a house at around £250k, and purchase of another house at around £340k. I have been quoted:

Conveyancer said:

Our fees on your sale £550.00
Completion fee on your sale £40.00
Our fees on your purchase £600.00
Completion fee on your purchase £40.00
Land Transaction Return Form on your purchase £75.00

OUR FEES £1,305.00

Obviously there are other charges for searches, SDLT etc but they will be the same with whoever I go with so I think I'm right in thinking I should only worry about the fee.

Do the above fees seem reasonable? This will be a quite ordinary house sale/purchase I would think. If not, how much should I be looking to pay and can you recommend anyone (I'm in Bedford)? The quote above comes from somebody recommended by the estate agent selling the house, so I'm not sure how much weight I should give his recommendation (seems like a nice chap though, but he's pressuring to get a move on which is annoying me because I haven't found anywhere to go yet so can't understand the rush).

[sparkythecat]

You could always increase your selling price or reduce your purchase price by 1% to cover your fees and leave yourself change. Whether or not you got a perceived conveyancing bargain wouldn't bother you so much.

Edited by sparkythecat on Wednesday 13th August 10:46

[OllyMo]

Looks fairly normal. There's so much competition for conveyancing fees they are all much of a muchness. Just use the solicitor that has the most recommendations! ]


ETA - make sure you take into account VAT and searches as well, they will bring the cost up to about £1700 which is fairly standard.

Edited by OllyMo on Wednesday 13th August 10:52

[Esseesse]

sparkythecat said:

You could always increase your selling price or reduce your purchase price by 1% to cover your fees and leave yourself change. Whether or not you got a perceived conveyancing bargain wouldn't bother you so much.

Edited by sparkythecat on Wednesday 13th August 10:46

I'm selling at the difficult £250k threshold (ETA: And have offers at the threshold).

There's one place we like and it's likely to be a little more than above, if we get it at all.

I know in the grand scheme of things a few hundred here or there on conveyancers will make little difference, but I'm used to knowing what something is worth when I pay for it. Lack of experience makes their fee an unknown for me, so really I just want to make sure I'm not mugged rather than looking for a stellar deal. I'm aware that with things like this people can be too cheap and therefore useless too.

[Craivold]

Bought and sold last November. Not sure on the exact breakdown but I think it was just under £2k for the legal fees including searches - so seems about right to me. As someone above said I think they probably all charge similar fees, important thing is that you go with one that's going to keep you regularly updated on proceedings and chase up any slow stuff when there are the inevitable queries/enquiries - joy!

[Rude-boy]

Esseesse said:

Conveyancer said:

Our fees on your sale £550.00
Completion fee on your sale £40.00
Our fees on your purchase £600.00
Completion fee on your purchase £40.00
Land Transaction Return Form on your purchase £75.00

OUR FEES £1,305.00

1. I fricking hate the idiots that quote like that, it is very misleading and IMO adds an air of subterfuge and fudging that should not have any place in conveyancing. It's not like you aren't going to ask them to complete and, in all the years since SDLT came in, not one Client has said "Oh I'll do the SDLT Return". The reality is that the Fees are £590 on your sale and £715 on the purchase.

2. I am sure that those should be Plus VAT figures.

3. They are about on the money. If I were quoting you it would be 650-750+vat for the sale and £750-850+vat on the purchase.

In addition:-

Disbursements - these are not always the same firm to firm. Some use Electronic registration with the Land Registry and some the old paper system. We still use the paper system as whilst the LR fees are not discounted it adds in a back stop and means that the application is checked and completed then without and issues cropping up 3, 4, 5, years later.

With the searches these can be a mixed bag. All Conveyancers should be doing local, water and enviro searches. In addition to this some Firms do others as routine. We do a Chancel Check search for example. As such I say to clients to allow £300 and expect a little change from these. Because the cost of the Local varies from LA to LA it is hard to be exact unless you have a long list of all the charges. Most, IME prefer the 'man maths' quote so that they know the worst case and can work from there.

As above we also give a band rather than a fixed figure as it allows us discretion if there is extra work or it goes easier than expected. I'm dealing with a matter at the minute where I am having to draft and sort a Statutory Declaration. Most firms would need to go back to the Client and agree the extra cost of this. In my case there is no need as I have built the potential into the estimate and all that will happen for them is they will get a max estimate bill rather than have to find more than they had budgeted for.

In addition to this watch the bank transfer fees sting. We charge £18 (£15+vat) which is what it costs us. This is how it should be done. Some though charge £35 and still put it in the disbursements section of you Completion Statement but call it something like "Funds Transfer Fee" or similar, keeping the £17inc vat. This is highly frowned upon but is obfuscated in the quote/estimate, only flushing through on the final bill if they are doing it right, not at all if they are being 'naughty'.

As ever not all apples are equal.

I would also be asking if there is any referral fee involved in the recommendation. No point in paying £715 for a £500 job as £215 is going back to the Agent...

[Jobbo]

I've seen £40+VAT charged as the TT fee; we charge what the bank charges us (£21 inc VAT). £15+VAT is an excellent deal with your bank

I wonder whether the completion fee quoted by the OP includes (or is) the TT fee?

[Esseesse]

Thank you very much for the replies, really helpful.

Yes it is plus VAT so £1,305.00 +VAT total

I cannot see any other mention of a charge for bank transfers, so yes they're probably in that £40.

[DeltaTango]

As a friendly agent I can only recommend you don't go with a cheap quote from a large conveyancing firm/farm as the transaction will likely take longer and any issues won't be dealt with pragmatically.

Another thing to bear in mind is that you need to use a firm with at least 3 partners as many lenders require this for that conveyancing firm to be on their 'panel'.

Average fee is £1,250-£1,750 at the price you are buying I believe.

[Rude-boy]

Jobbo said:

I've seen £40+VAT charged as the TT fee; we charge what the bank charges us (£21 inc VAT). £15+VAT is an excellent deal with your bank

I wonder whether the completion fee quoted by the OP includes (or is) the TT fee?

We are on quite a good rate with them to be fair, helps that we have a very long standing relationship and that they are our tenants

[JimM169]

As others have said it seems pretty reasonable to me, it's about what we paid for a £350k sale and purchase. Personally I think conveyancing fees are a bargain compared to the £3.5k (+VAT) the estate agents charged on the sale!

[Esseesse]

DeltaTango said:

As a friendly agent I can only recommend you don't go with a cheap quote from a large conveyancing firm/farm as the transaction will likely take longer and any issues won't be dealt with pragmatically.

Thanks, yes I'm aware of this and am therefore wary of anyone who is too cheap. I've instructed this conveyancer that I'm happy to proceed with them, the transfer fees are indeed included in that £40.

JimM, yes compared to most estate agents they do seem reasonable. Fortunately our estate agent has just started up and we are paying a very low % as part of an offer he's doing to drum up business. If anyone is near (Beds, Herts, Cambs, Northants) and is thinking of selling, send me a message if you want to take advantage of the offer (till Sept).

[Rude-boy]

[quote=Esseesse]

...the transfer fees are indeed included in that £40.
[quote]
Makes more sense, although I still don't like the way that they are doing it. IMO TT fees are a disbursement and your office time in inputting, verifying and sending is part of your overheads and so should be built into your quote/estimate, not an additional bill.

[spikey78]

Apologies for gatecrashing this thread-we're just starting the moving process and are getting quotes for conveyancing and I'm a bit confused. We're selling at 305500 and buying at 415000 in High Wycombe-some quotes list HM land registry at £135, but one says £270. I've googled it a bit, but to be honest i'm none the wiser-anyone got any advice please?

[Rude-boy]

spikey78 said:

Apologies for gatecrashing this thread-we're just starting the moving process and are getting quotes for conveyancing and I'm a bit confused. We're selling at 305500 and buying at 415000 in High Wycombe-some quotes list HM land registry at £135, but one says £270. I've googled it a bit, but to be honest i'm none the wiser-anyone got any advice please?

One is quoting based on the reduced fees for electronic registration and the other based on the paper registration fee. Some firms have moved to the electronic system, some have not. We have the ability to do it but have chosen not to as the electronic system does not offer the backups to a client that the paper system does and not all transactions can be registered on line yet. if you had any idea of the disparity between the deal described on the phone and the one on the heads of terms we sometimes get you'll understand that it is better to just do the paper registration and then there are no nasty surprises.

Honest truth is that you should go with the firm that you feel most comfortable with and who you believe will give you the best service and quality. Ask the firm who have quoted you £270 why they are not doing eDRS. if they give you an answer similar to my highly abridged one above then the chances are they are very much on the ball and a better bet than the ones who have quoted you the lowest possible figure. If they just say because we are not set up for it yet then perhaps they are not the firm for you...

[spikey78]

Well that's a pretty comprehensive answer, thankyou-i shall ask them!

[AC123]

Hi

Also jumping on the bandwagon here, sorry.

What sort of figure will I be looking at for a 46k purchase only, with a mortgage?

Local firms are around £820, but a quick internet search has given me quotes of £630. Could do with saving some money so quite fancy the cheap one, but will the service be there?

Cheers

[Rude-boy]

AC123 said:

Hi

Also jumping on the bandwagon here, sorry.

What sort of figure will I be looking at for a 46k purchase only, with a mortgage?

Local firms are around £820, but a quick internet search has given me quotes of £630. Could do with saving some money so quite fancy the cheap one, but will the service be there?

Cheers

The 'Service' with be a web based log in and the ability to talk to an untrained call handler who will tell you nothing more than the screen says and if you are lucky once during the transaction you will be able to speak to the legal person from what I have heard.

You should also look very carefully at the whole fee and disbursement structure and treble check for 'extras' that you have to have.

[AC123]

Rude-boy said:

The 'Service' with be a web based log in and the ability to talk to an untrained call handler who will tell you nothing more than the screen says and if you are lucky once during the transaction you will be able to speak to the legal person from what I have heard.

You should also look very carefully at the whole fee and disbursement structure and treble check for 'extras' that you have to have.

OK thanks, will have a close look at it. I've never done it before so don't know how much work these things actually take.

Thanks

[Rude-boy]

AC123 said:

OK thanks, will have a close look at it. I've never done it before so don't know how much work these things actually take.

Thanks

At that price it sounds like leasehold.

Answer is a st load more time and effort than you can actually charge the client for on these matters, especially if they are having a mortgage.