Buying a house / Solictor

The solicitor charges his fee for doing what is called a conveyance (say

500). For this he has to check that the current owner of the house is indeed the legitimate owner (checking the title, as it's called), he has to transfer the ownership to the purchaser, and do checks to ensure that there are no problems with the house (like a motorway going to be built through it, or any rights of way that exist that the seller is not mentioning, or problems with the neighbours, for example). Also checks with the Land Registry. The costs of these Land Registry checks incur an additional bill (known as disbursements) The solicitor incurs them on your behalf and then charges them to you. There will probably be other small amounts like telegraphic transfer fees when the money is sent by the lender to the solicitor for onward transmission to the vendor.

Some just charge more than others - you'd need to phone a few to get a picture of costs.

or is there a rather

No, they vary.

No. The time spent on the job is not dependent on the price of the property.

The purchase itself should be

Won't make much difference. But some solicitors are much more efficient than others. Difficult to tell in advance unless you get a recommendation from someone.

Rob Graham

Competition will mean that charges shouldn't vary wildly, but there will be variations. Conveyancing is generally not very difficult, just bread-and-butter work for solictors, so the main discriminators are price and efficiency - for the latter you need to get word-of-mouth recommendations. You could try looking at

which will at least give you a reference price to compare with local firms (plus some general information). I used them and ended up with a solictor in Bradford who did a perfectly good job. (Somewhat ironically, for the survey I went with the lender's surveyor because it seemed less hassle, only to find that they had used because I was out of their area.)

Depending on whereabouts in the country, a fee of 300+VAT plus disbursements (search fee, telegraphic transfer, Land Registry fee etc) is pretty common. Always get a package deal instead of per-hour fee, which will be much more expensive.

Alec

If the apartment is a new build, presumably you're buying direct form the builder.

Congratulations. As a first time buyer you've successfully avoided a typical 1.5 - 2.0 % charge made by estate agents on property you want to sell. Its always seemed ludicrous to me that estate agents charge more than solictors.

If possible use a local solicitor who comes recommended from someone you know.

You're paying for his/her expertise in sussing out whether there are any onerous or restrictive covenants on the land/property that you're buying, whether there are any potential planning implications on the land or its immediate surroundings, or any local authority compulsory purchase implications, and of course that the seller has a good title to the property, which can be passed on to you.

The cost of the solicitors fee is no longer related to the cost of the transaction, (as it used to be). If the searches and conveyance are reasonably straightforward, and you choose a solicitor who doesn't have expensive West End offices and overheads to recoup, I'd have said that a fee of £400 - £600 would be reasonable

Rgds

Thanks for all the helpful responses. They are very much appreciated.

In message , Alec writes

I pay mine, (in Manchester), £350 + VAT. I could get it for about £250+VAT, but I know that the service will be poor at that price.