First time house buyer - help

Sorry if there’s been similar threads in the past, basically after years of renting I’ve just had an offer accepted on my first house. The estate agent is really trying to fly things along but I wouldn’t even be moving in until later in the year when the current occupants move to a new build.

Basically the reason for the thread is the estate agent is asking do I want them to sort the solicitors out . It will be around £1k. I have no clue if that’s good value or not and if the benefits of letting them handle it outweigh what I assume are the bigger costs.

Any help or advice on this or actually any other area of first time house buying would be hugely appreciated. Cheers

 

My advice would be appoint your own solicitors. There are numerous tied relationships between agents and conveyancers that generate commission, and it doesn't always equate to good service and your interests being served well.

My mum recommends Mills Kemp & Brown, but others have been mentioned here too. I'd say ring a couple of local firms, ask lots of questions and select the one you're most content with and you feel will explain things and have your interests at heart.

 

Why dont you just phone up a few solicitors and ask them for a quote to do the business?

I think 1k is a bit steep. My solicitor took either 1 or 1.5% (cant remember) of the buying price of the house and the same again on the sale of my house. So 1k would mean the house you are buying is in the 100k price bracket. Would that be about right?

 

I’m always sceptical when an estate agent is overzealous in offering to refer someone to a firm as it’s not uncommon for the estate agent to be then paid a referral fee by the firm.

In the past I’ve seen people being referred to a particular firm who didn’t have the requisite expertise where the transaction itself was being conducted by unqualified staff and ‘overseen’ in the loosest way possible by a qualified member of staff who had overall responsibility for the department.

I suggest that you ask the estate agent who they’re looking to recommend and whether the recommendation is due to suitability and expertise or rather a reciprocal arrangement based on referral fees.

 

Ian, I believe in Scotland, Solicitors act on the sale, in England, an agent has a selling fee, plus you have legal costs on top to do the conveyancing.

Can't recall what costs my mum had a few years ago, but the legal costs were a couple of hundred, plus all the other mandatory fees for searches etc

 

Tell him you'll use his mate if he reduces his fees...

As others have said, ring a few solicitors first pal

 

I realise that Scots and English laws are different. One thing does remain the same is that which ever way you do it expect to get ripped off.
Like it's been said best to shop around.

 

I bought my last house off a woman who had part-exed hers for a persimmon new build. It was an absolute disaster from start to finish.

They forced me to use their solicitor, mortgage advisor etc. And when i kicked off and stated its illegal they put it back on rightmove.

If its Persimmon id strongly advise giving them a wide berth

 

The fees we were quoted from 3-4 solicitors were between £1100 and £1400 on a 200k house. Something to bear in mind is if you are getting a mortgage then most banks have a specific list of solicitors (or types of e.g. must have a set number of partners in the firm) they will work with as your solicitor does work on behalf of both you and the bank. If yours aren’t on the list then you have to pay around £300 more for them to hire their own too.

My second tip is go for one that you don’t have to pay for until the sale is completed, or one that lets you pay a bit at a time as each disbursement comes up, then if you don’t complete for whatever reason you haven’t lost money. We had just sent a cheque for our first £300 instalment when our vendors decided not to sell, luckily our solicitor hadn’t received it before we contacted her so she posted it right back when it arrived.

The way the fees work is you pay a ‘labour’ cost of a certain amount as payment for them doing the work which varies by company and an amount of around £300+ which pays for the searches they do. The latter doesn’t go in the solicitor’s pocket, it just covers the payments that they have to make to the Land Registry etc. They all have additional fees if you have an Help to Buy ISA and if your deposit comes from a gift etc. etc. There’s a really good search function on the Halifax website for solicitors with a breakdown of costs, customer star ratings and location which you can look at whether you are getting a mortgage with them or not (infact there is a drop down box for you to choose your own provider). You can always get a quote from there and then contact the solicitor directly.

 

£700 for searches is an incredible amount. As a rough estimate based on a freehold purchase in the Barnsley borough the search costs are more of less as follows:-

Local Authority Search - £120.00
Drainage & Water - £50.00
Coal Authority - £40.00
Chancel - £20.00
Official search with priority - £3.00
Bankruptcy - £2.00 per name
Registration Fee - scale fee based on value

Official copies of the vendor’s title are provided by the vendor’s solicitor.

I’d love to see a breakdown of anyone quoting £700.00 for disbursements.

 

Ah yes, I had misremembered just a bit! I'd put the Help to Buy ISA and VAT costs under disbursements in my mind when thinking back. Here's a typical breakdown using the Halifax conveyancing quote search.

 

We are in the process of selling a house and have used Mills Kemp and Brown, their fees seemed very reasonable, give them a ring

 

If you’re having a mortgage check with the bank who is on their panel - You don’t want to end up paying twice.

Estate agents will receive a referral fee which is why they won’t to steer you to a certain firm.

 

When we bought our house our solicitor said estate agents should only act for the seller. If you accept a solicitor recommended by the seller's agent there's a clear conflict of interest. Your solicitor should represent you and no one else. You're paying them. If they're getting their work from the seller's agent then they can neglect you in their own interests and those of the seller.

 

Estate agents don’t act for the seller as such. They market the property for the seller but once a sale is agreed subject to contract the seller instructs a solicitor to act on its behalf.

If a purchaser instructs a solicitor who has been recommended to them by the estate agent then the solicitor may well pay a referral fee to the estate agent but the solicitor is only acting on behalf of the purchaser and a lender (if applicable), nobody, not even the seller’s solicitor is acting on behalf of the estate agent. I think there’s a degree of miscommunication there.

I don’t agree with the neglect remark, that simply doesn’t happen. A solicitor has a duty of care to its client and is heavily regulated by the SRA.

I think it was probably a throwaway remark that has done the profession a disservice.

 

Referral fees should be made explicit to the client. So the client knows know the tie up that's going on. This is very rarely made clear.

The most reliable and honest solicitors firms are those who have always refused to have any slimey backhand arrangements.

Like mine.

 

I completely agree.

 

Go for the cheapest reputable firm. At the end of the day it's probably going to be dealt with almost exclusively by a paralegal. You could probably do it all yourself but it's worth paying a solicitor just to ensure there is someone you can sue if there are problems rather than it being your own **** up.

 

That’s rather disingenuous.

 

It's not rocket science. You could find all the information you need online to do it yourself but it's worth paying a solicitor a few hundred quid to ensure you have someone on the hook for any potential cockups