Solicitor charging £48 to return some money

Hello

Short story:

Just completed the purchase of my first house. Decided to go with the same solicitor as the vendor for ease/speed. I basically paid all monies (stamp duty, searches, fees, deposit) to the solicitor in advance. A couple of weeks before the deal was due to be complete (while searches were occurring I think) my mortgage broker said he had found me a better deal (which he did IMO) whereby my stamp duty would be paid by the lender. He said he had called the solicitor and they said it would not be a problem for the mortgage to be changed.

So fast forward to today (everything completed) and the solicitor emailed me saying it would cost me £48 to return my stamp duty to me. Seems a bit cheeky, maybe a £10-£20 fee I would have accepted but I think £48 is excessive. Especially as they will have made very good money out of the transaction.

Should I just 'suck it up' and pay the £48? Surely they can't just charge what they want to return money and any transaction fee has to be justifiable and reasonable? Otherwise where is the limit? Why not a £200 fee for instance?

if the money you are getting back is >£48 suck it up; he did you a favour finding the better deal and its money you didn't think you would have.

EDIT: Look at it a different way. Assuming your house is worth at least £125k (lower threshold for SD) if someone said "Gimme £48 and i'll give you £1,250 back" and they did, would you be having the same dilemma?

Can't they bank transfer you the money ?

I hate solicitors and there "fees" !

Any exertion by a solicitor costs you, even if it's actually one of their secretaries.

Handling your money a second time which wasn't arranged beforehand gets you a separate fee.

They make their money by charging for their time to do your paperwork and transactions.

Chances are this "cash handling fee" would have been in amongst all the other small print they would have issued you when you started dealing with them? So in this case unfortunately I don't think you have much choice =(

Tell him to get you some bread and milk too, get your moneys worth.

£48 is likely to be chaps fee. It should be covered in the letter of engagement or fee estimate they gave you when they commenced the work - look for "other disbursement" charges.

off course, how much they charge you and how much they get charged and two seperate things!

Hotwired said:

Any exertion by a solicitor costs you, even if it's actually one of their secretaries.

Handling your money a second time which wasn't arranged beforehand gets you a separate fee.

They make their money by charging for their time to do your paperwork and transactions.

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Thanks for the good answer, will just pay the money and move on with my life

It is why solicitors are so well paid, im glad i married one