Haha... Someone doing conveyancing will not be earning 150k
Indeed. You don't even need to take the bar to be a conveyancer: £30k would be good going (outside London).
How do lawyers get away with their charging?
- Thread starter Aloreth
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Indeed. You don't even need to take the bar to be a conveyancer: £30k would be good going (outside London).
Haha... Someone doing conveyancing will not be earning 150k
I did say lawyers, I appreciate that conveyancers will be paid less.
In general we have had nothing but issues with letting agents in the past when renting but honestly the estate agents we are dealing with while buying a flat at the moment are brilliant. They communicate loads and have done lots for us and are usually very proactive.
Quite a few misinformed people in this thread about lawyers - I am a property lawyer!
Our fees are very very reasonable compared to almost any other type of profession out there and we often go far above our budget. We only make any sort of profit from the sheer volume of matters we take on and related work - conveyancing is not a big profit earner for any firm. People often pay for subpar solicitors or online conveyancing factories and then scream when matters take too long or don't go correctly. For a standard freehold house purchase you should be paying no less than £500 + VAT & disbursements and that is very reasonable given agents charge £2000+
Someone above mentioned you can do the work yourself which is incorrect unless you are going mortgage free!
Our fees are very very reasonable compared to almost any other type of profession out there and we often go far above our budget. We only make any sort of profit from the sheer volume of matters we take on and related work - conveyancing is not a big profit earner for any firm. People often pay for subpar solicitors or online conveyancing factories and then scream when matters take too long or don't go correctly. For a standard freehold house purchase you should be paying no less than £500 + VAT & disbursements and that is very reasonable given agents charge £2000+
Someone above mentioned you can do the work yourself which is incorrect unless you are going mortgage free!
Not true, you can still do all the conveyancing work yourself but you will have to pick up the fees for the legal side of arranging the mortgage so the saving will no be as significant.
Personally I wouldn't bother I'd shop around for a reputable local firm that offered a reasonable fixed price (less than the £500 quoted here!) I've heard to many nightmare stories from online firms when it gets complicated.
IIRC solicitors firms have to be owned by solicitors.... If that were to change you might well find prices dropping for more routine things.... There is probably an oversupply if law grads something like 'Virgin Law' 'Tesco Legal Services' etc... could probably shake up the market a bit when it comes to conveyancing.
I had a £300 fee added on at the last minute for stock transfer for example, they just needed to change the name of the shareholder for the buildung management company from the previous leaseholder to me - that just takes a short form which can get sent to companies house... Yet they charged £300 for it, something which appeared on the invoice after contracts had exchanged and just before completion. Pretty dodgy practice, had no choice but to pay the fee... could have been £800 if they'd wanted I'd have to pay regardless.
I had a £300 fee added on at the last minute for stock transfer for example, they just needed to change the name of the shareholder for the buildung management company from the previous leaseholder to me - that just takes a short form which can get sent to companies house... Yet they charged £300 for it, something which appeared on the invoice after contracts had exchanged and just before completion. Pretty dodgy practice, had no choice but to pay the fee... could have been £800 if they'd wanted I'd have to pay regardless.
Not it is true. You can "do the conveyancing" yourself but the solicitor representing the lender would still need to certify title, so you may save something on the quote but certainly nothing that would be worthwhile. Certainly you cannot act for yourself in a transaction where a lender is involved.
I was going to start a thread about timescales but I'll jump on this one
Why does it take so long to buy/sell a house.
I understand from offer to acceptance to valuation to mortgage offer will take as long as it takes. But searches etc dont need anyone to physically go and check records anymore.
Apart from the usual letters taking 10 days to get from their lawyers to your lawyer for them to put a covering letter together to ask you if you know where the telephone socket is etc etc.
Why so damn long
Why does it take so long to buy/sell a house.
I understand from offer to acceptance to valuation to mortgage offer will take as long as it takes. But searches etc dont need anyone to physically go and check records anymore.
Apart from the usual letters taking 10 days to get from their lawyers to your lawyer for them to put a covering letter together to ask you if you know where the telephone socket is etc etc.
Why so damn long
Realistic timeframes:
2 weeks for all searches to come back and 1-2 days from the date that you pay fees to the solicitor to order them.
Everything else relates to enquiries raised / answered and on a straightforward freehold purchase there is little or no negotiation regarding the contract and transfer as these are relatively standardised - this is the main part of the transaction and can take 2-8 weeks depending on what the seller has provided.
Exchange & completion - 5 -10 working days normally
There are opportunities to merge some of the timeframes.
2 weeks for all searches to come back and 1-2 days from the date that you pay fees to the solicitor to order them.
Everything else relates to enquiries raised / answered and on a straightforward freehold purchase there is little or no negotiation regarding the contract and transfer as these are relatively standardised - this is the main part of the transaction and can take 2-8 weeks depending on what the seller has provided.
Exchange & completion - 5 -10 working days normally
There are opportunities to merge some of the timeframes.
Plenty of conveyancing warehouses exist already. You don't need to be a qualified lawyer to do it
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Such a thing does/will soon exist, non-contentious stuff will be streamlined
As said way down the thread, charging is by the 6-minute unit so that is how you work out the fees. Are they worth it is another matter