First time buyer, is my solicitor taking the pee ?

DogsBody

DogsBody

DogsBody

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With this being my First house purchase I am a little naive when it comes to solictor's fees.

I have a breakdown below of what they are going to charge me, but first I must explain that part of my deal with my mortage lender was "assisted legal" I think this means that they pay the Purchase fee and I pay the rest,
does all this seem reasonable ?

Purchase Fee 235 + VAT
SDLT Admin 50 + VAT
money trans fee 35 + VAT
mortgage admin fee 99 + VAT
electronic identity check (est) 10 + VAT
land reg fee 190
pre-completion searches 8
search fee (est) 300
new build fee 100 + VAT

Add the stamp duty on top of that. as well.
 
Pretty much spot on.

I used Birchall Blackburn recently and they were around that. Very good they were too, I cannot recommend them enough.
 
Cheers Guys

Orch said:
Yes that's correct. Still it's like anything, shop around a bit.
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Didn't get chance, the deal with assisted legal was that I used the solicitor suggested by my mortage lender, otherwise I foot the full bill myself.

It was about £250 more than I was expecting to be fair
and about £370 more than I was originally expecting, before I received a random letter through the post informing me about the extra costs because of it being a new build,

Was very annoyed at that one as it was about 4 months after we first applied for the mortage that they informed me of the extra charge, yet the fact it was a new build had been outlined from the start of the process.
 
Hang on a minute, just realised I didn't add the VAT. That is a little expensive. In what way is that 'assisted legal'? Normally, the lender provides free legal assisted (more common in a remortgage) or you just sort one yourself.

All they have done here is force you to use an expensive solicitor?
 
I purchased a flat last December and ended up paying:

Solicitors Fee - 350 ex VAT
Bank Transfer - 15
Land Registration Fee - 190
Search Fees - 220
Bankruptcy Search Fee - 2
Freeholder’s fees (total) - 430
Managing Agent’s fees (total) - 215

Who is your mortgage with?
 
Orch said:
Hang on a minute, just realised I didn't add the VAT. That is a little expensive. In what way is that 'assisted legal'? Normally, the lender provides free legal assisted (more common in a remortgage) or you just sort one yourself.

All they have done here is force you to use an expensive solicitor?
Click to expand...


All the above charges are the total, my lender is paying some of them, I think it will just be the 282 (inc VAT) to cover the purchase fee. ALthough they haven't confirmed yet.

And yes it does look like they have just forced me to use an expensive solicitor.
Very green to this experience and obviously this has opened my eyes a little.

Oh well I'll have probably forgotten all about this in 8 or 9 years time when we are ready to move again. :(
 
DogsBody said:
All the above charges are the total, my lender is paying some of them, I think it will just be the 282 (inc VAT) to cover the purchase fee. ALthough they haven't confirmed yet.

And yes it does look like they have just forced me to use an expensive solicitor.
Very green to this experience and obviously this has opened my eyes a little.

Oh well I'll have probably forgotten all about this in 8 or 9 years time when we are ready to move again. :(
Click to expand...

Oh so you're only paying £282?

In that case sod what the rest of the fees are, who cares, you've got a good deal!
 
Anything under £1000 is good!

My wife is a solicitor, the initial rate is always cheap, its the search fees that end up costing.
 
Yes, circa £1000. We sold recently without buying so it was less.

One hiccup was the solicitor having recieved the monies (240k) did not want to release it to us before the buyer moved in. Probably after some interest and it was a Friday. A couple of strong phone calls and the buyer waiting on the drive got them moving.
 
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