Conveyancing

L

lov.ely

New member
Hello

I am about to phone a local solicitor for a conveyancing quote in regarRAB to a property soon to be sold

I've done this before, but not for a while. Anything particular I should look out for? I am purely selling with no further purchase on the carRAB

I am aware of online conveyancers but for the sake of convenience I'd rather deal with someone local and direct. Also if it's of any note I will be selling another property in the near future (whether than impacts my 'negotiating' position (do they even negotiate?!) I've no idea)

Many thanks
 
Do ask for a firm price before you actually instruct him.

Don't for goodness' sake just give him your personal details and tell him to do the job. Perhaps say that you are shopping around and his firm has been mentioned, so you thought you would ring and make an enquiry as to how much he would charge and how long it might take.

He will want to know if the job should be fairly straightforward and might ask you a few questions, eg, Leasehold or Freehold.

The fact that you will be selling another property quite soon should perhaps be mentioned after he has given you a price so that you can further negotiate it down a tadge more.
 
Thanks for your reply. I've yet to ring the solicitor in question

Someone told me to 'put £1k by for legal fees'. That sounRAB a lot to me! And if someone is charging £1k but someone else £600, what is the former doing for the extra money, for what is ultimately a formal paperwork exercise? Or is he simply overpriced
 
About six years since I last sold, it was relatively cheap (£300-£400 I think) compared to buying. I think all they have to do is draw up the contract. Solicitors usually have a fixed fee as there are no hidden extras that are likely to crop up as often happens with a purchase.
 
Well its been 5 years since I did conveyancing so prices have probably changed, but sales are always cheaper then purchases as there's a lot less work to do on a sale. They are usually costed on a sliding scale on sale/purchase price. So for example a £150k sale we would have charged something like £250+VAT. Of course they are just the solicitors fees, on top of that you will need a few surveys to provide to the buyer, probably another £150, a copy of the deeRAB (office copies) from Land registry, about £4 and there will be a telegraphic transfer fee, was £25 but could be more now. The big cost on a sale is that of the estate agents. There fee will probably be at least a £1,000 (cost of property dependant of course), so they get all the money for hardly doing any work!

In terms of a purchase, most places will charge a bit more as there's a lot more work to be done and more documents to pour over and analyse. Again working on a £150k property we charged about £450+VAT. Given the current climate in the property market there's certainly no harm in trying to negotiate a discount on one or both of the transactions. This is more likely if you go to a small firm who will probably be glad of the work rather then a big firm who could take you or leave you.

But with both sales and purchases everything should be itemised for you so there should be nothing unexpected.
 
Funny you say that, I had a viewing today at 5.30. The prospective buyer arrived on time..but the estate agent, despite calling me only 2 hours before, failed to show......at all

In the end the tenant showed the viewers (!) around the property and they apparently left quite chuffed

No call or email or anything from the agent. I shall be ringing them at 9am and voicing my displeasure

I find it astonishing that an agent can fail to show for a viewing considering the viewing is pretty damn fundamental when it comes to them selling the property!
 
My experience of cheap conveyancing is that you will get very little contact with the solicitor and they have lots of lower staff doing most of the work and contact.

It was fine just a little annoying when you're trying to get things moving and they're giving no contact. I didn't actually meet the person doing it till exchange, despite going into the office several times.

My friend went somewhere more expensive and got a much more personal service but at the end of the day got the same result.
 
I am in the same situation - Just accepted an offer on our house and I got 3 quotes from local solicitors for conveyancing - two of them where around £550+vat for fees and around another £50 for money transfer and document etc so all in at £720 which I thought was a bit steep. I found a smaller company and got it for £504 all in which seems more like it. So its worth looking around a bit. Yell.com is how I found them.

One thing I noticed on the most expensive quote was a £150 charge for dealing with our mortgage lender - this is a bit of a slippy one as I understand it and should be part of the fee not an extra so watch out.
 
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