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Conveyancing - moving house

including wills and probate
Gaggsy
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Conveyancing - moving house

#429895

Postby Gaggsy » July 23rd, 2021, 11:43 am

Hello all, it's been nearly 20 years since we last moved but we've just put our house on the market and looking for a bit of advice. We're planning on arranging a string of viewings next Saturday so hopefully this will generate some interest.

Regarding conveyancing, the selling estate agent suggested we get someone lined up early so that we can get things moving as soon as we get an offer. How do we find a suitable one? Are there local listings? Is it necessary/better to go local? Conveyancer or solicitor - are they different animals? Do we need different conveyancers for the sale and the next purchase?

The agent has given our details to a company (GoTo Group) who've provided a quote just under £1,500 incl VAT on a no-completion-no-fee basis. Does this sound about right (it's a detached freehold house).

Any help or tips gratefully received!

-Gaggsy

Laughton
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Re: Conveyancing - moving house

#429905

Postby Laughton » July 23rd, 2021, 12:06 pm

More than happy to be contradicted but from my experience I would say:

A no completion no fee deal is a definite plus - not much worse than to have your sale/purchase fall through and then get a bill for several hundred pounds from the conveyancer. I don't know Go To Group but presumably your estate agent recommends them because there is a commission involved (oops, is one allowed to say that?) or because they know that this firm will get things done quickly (estate agenst don't get paid until the sale completes).

Bearing in mind that a detached house in Northumberland is not going to be as expensive as a detached house in Surrey £1,500 plus VAT doesn't sound that bad but is that to handle the sale AND the purchase (not so good if it's per transaction). I paid £1,100 plus VAT 13 years ago. Having said that, why should they charge more for a more expensive house - the work is the same.

I'd suggest that you want the same conveyancer to handle the sale and the purchase - why put and extra layer in the process. Hopefully having one conyancer will help smooth out the timeline.

Gaggsy
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Re: Conveyancing - moving house

#429908

Postby Gaggsy » July 23rd, 2021, 12:13 pm

The quote of £1,500 Including VAT is just for the sale.
They wanted to know the asking price so I assume they factor that into the fee scale. We haven't found the house we want to move to yet so I suppose it's difficult to quote on that unknown!

Laughton
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Re: Conveyancing - moving house

#429914

Postby Laughton » July 23rd, 2021, 12:32 pm

That's inflation for you. You could try using something like http://www.comparemymove.com - at least it will give you something to compare with.

Slightly off topic - but connected.

I definitely would not recommend using a surveyor recommended by the selling agent of the house you are considering buying. As before, the agent wants the sale to go through as quickly as possible and they don't want a picky surveyor gumming up the works.

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Re: Conveyancing - moving house

#430016

Postby Mike4 » July 23rd, 2021, 10:10 pm

Fo selling, solicitor or licenced conveyancer, it doesn't matter that much. Just make sure they are local so you can call in and bend their ear in person should the transaction begin to go off the rails or delays begin to develop.

For buying, a trustworthy local solicitor with a reputation to maintain is essential in my opinion. Ideally one who routinely expects to call their purchasers into the office to explain to them face-to-face the legal aspects and ramifications of what they are buying. If ever any of my property transaction begins to drag on, it usually turns out to be one where the other party is using a low-cost conveyancer not a decent solicitor.

Clitheroekid
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Re: Conveyancing - moving house

#430192

Postby Clitheroekid » July 24th, 2021, 11:28 pm

Conveyancing charges nearly always reflect the price of the property, so would you mind saying what the sale price is, so that I can judge whether or not the quoted fee is reasonable?

Gaggsy
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Re: Conveyancing - moving house

#431977

Postby Gaggsy » August 2nd, 2021, 10:22 am

Sorry for the delayed response, I've been on holiday for the last 10 days.

Clitheroekid wrote:Conveyancing charges nearly always reflect the price of the property, so would you mind saying what the sale price is, so that I can judge whether or not the quoted fee is reasonable?

The sale asking price is £775k.

Laughton wrote:You could try using something like http://www.comparemymove.com

That's a useful website - thanks.
That threw up 3 further quotes of £1,099, £1,005 (but for a single seller, we are a couple so probably and extra £11) and £1,180 (all no sale no fee). So, quite a difference from the £1,500 from the company the Estate Agent referred us to.

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Re: Conveyancing - moving house

#431988

Postby Mike88 » August 2nd, 2021, 10:47 am

I sold 2 houses at the same time. For one I used a solicitor and the second through an online firm called Abode conveyancing which appears to be a kind of middleman.. The experience with the online firm was far better. The solicitor for the first house used a very low grade clerk who in fact made a complete hash of the thing but the online firm were great. This is the company here where conveyancing costs are £499 plus VAT.:

http://www.abodeconveyancing.co.uk/

Obviously do your own research as my experience is a few years old and things might have changed. However, this is a recommendation from a very satisfied company.

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Re: Conveyancing - moving house

#432133

Postby Clitheroekid » August 3rd, 2021, 12:12 am

Gaggsy wrote:
Clitheroekid wrote:Conveyancing charges nearly always reflect the price of the property, so would you mind saying what the sale price is, so that I can judge whether or not the quoted fee is reasonable?

The sale asking price is £775k.

Typical charges in this area would be around £800 - £950 + VAT. However, they are firms of solicitors who aren't paying for the introduction.

The firm to whom you have been referred will be paying the estate agents an introduction fee. These vary, but are typically in the £250 - £350 range. In order for the conveyancer to make a profit they have to bake this in to their quote, which is why they're often more expensive than many local firms.

These arrangements appear to rely on the fact that many people don't realise that conveyancing charges vary, and assume that, like estate agents, they all work on a percentage basis, so are all more or less the same.

The customers also presumably believe that if the firm is being `recommended' they must be good, not realising that the prime driver of the `recommendation' is the introduction fee.

Some firms that rely on this method of getting work are OK; many are very poor, as I know from personal experience of having dealt with them. However, because of the extra overhead they do tend to be more expensive.

They're also notorious for a Ryanair method of jacking up the headline charge by charging for extras that any decent firm would include in the charge. One firm I came across not long ago had an 8 page list of supplementary charges, and managed to more than double the headline charge (until I intervened! ;) )

Of course, not all local solicitors are good, either. I'm extremely sceptical of review sites for being far too easily manipulated, so I'm afraid the most reliable way of finding a good firm is still very much word of mouth.

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Re: Conveyancing - moving house

#432246

Postby nimnarb » August 3rd, 2021, 2:33 pm

Of course, not all local solicitors are good, either. I'm extremely sceptical of review sites for being far too easily manipulated, so I'm afraid the most reliable way of finding a good firm is still very much word of mouth.

And we have one of the best right here, albeit he is too modest to say.

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Re: Conveyancing - moving house

#434633

Postby DiamondEcho » August 13th, 2021, 8:14 pm

Beware also where an estate agent recommends services (conveyancy/solicitors/mortgage brokers) they'll be on commission from any of them. Considering an agent might only get to bank 20% of the selling commission a vendor pays, these add-ons can make up a significant part of the potential personal income from getting a sale through.

And if there are two competing deals, one who has taken all the recommended services and the other not, guess which one the agent is going to focus on 'recommending' and driving through...

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Re: Conveyancing - moving house

#434870

Postby quelquod » August 15th, 2021, 11:46 am

DiamondEcho wrote:Considering an agent might only get to bank 20% of the selling commission a vendor pays

Explain?

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Re: Conveyancing - moving house

#434875

Postby pochisoldi » August 15th, 2021, 11:58 am

quelquod wrote:
DiamondEcho wrote:Considering an agent might only get to bank 20% of the selling commission a vendor pays

Explain?


Estate agents have a 20% net margin on property sale commissions?

Or put another way, for their day job of selling property they spend 80p to earn £1 in commission. (with "slow to sell" properties costing them proportionally more).

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Re: Conveyancing - moving house

#434959

Postby DiamondEcho » August 15th, 2021, 7:00 pm

quelquod wrote:
DiamondEcho wrote:Considering an agent might only get to bank 20% of the selling commission a vendor pays

Explain?


The estate agent banks the gross commission, the individual negotiator is only paid a small proportion of that, on top of their intentionally basic salary.


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