Conveyancing

Strat_a_tat_tat

I'm selling my late parents' house. Any ideas what's the going rate for solicitors' fees for conveyancing for a sale?

Also... as the house is about 200 miles away... is it better to have a solicitor that's local to me or local to the property?  I assume there'll be stuff I have to sign... or can that all be done electronically now?

Many thanks for your help.

richardhomer

There can be advantages in having a lawyer close to the property - they are likely to have encountered every local ‘quirk’ - and assuming the buyer is local, they may know the solicitor acting for them, which may oil the wheels a little.

You can authorise a solicitor to sign a sale contract on your behalf, if getting it back by post is an issue.

Don’t be tempted to use a ‘Conveyancing Factory’ as often recommended by estate agents. These places promise efficiencies which they simply don’t deliver and no one individual has absolute responsibility for your case.

The fee is (depending on price and location) is likely to be £400-£500. As a general rule, any fee that seems too good to be true, usually is....  

Iamnobody

I’ve used co’s based in other areas of the country twice and not had a problem. One of the poor buggers was even working at nearly 8pm to pull everything together when it looked like going tits up. It didn’t.

I used a local company once and the theiving Cunts tried to charge us for Stamp Duty that was not applicable. I’d researched it myself though so pulled them up on it. 

Moral of the story - a good one could be based anywhere. A bad one could be local to you. Also it was easier to send signed docs electronically than drive 2.5 miles to the local one...

It’s pretty straightforward stuff particularly on a sale only. I’d trust my luck and go cheap and online...

mike257

Just bought a house, paid a little short of a grand all in for the conveyancing, which seemed to be about the average I was quoted. 

On a recommendation, we used a company called Home Legal Services, who turned out to just be a sharp selling front end that pass the cases on to a local solicitor. Our solicitor (Jackson Canter in Liverpool) were fantastic, but the regular updates HLS promised never materialised, and the progress checklist on their fancy web interface didn't update once throughout the whole process, even though I knew most of the boxes should have been checked as I was communicating directly with the solicitor daily. I'd rather have paid the whole fee to the solicitor than a chunk of it gone as commission to HLS for doing essentially nothing. 

I wouldn't imagine being local makes a huge amount of difference. I did hand sign and deliver some stuff, but that was more because we were in a rush to move and I was on everyone's case to turn it around quickly. Could all have been done electronically or by post with minimal fuss. 

ronnyb

There is a book called 'the conveyancing fraud' by a Michael Joseph which explains what little work is carried out for the conveyancing cost of buying or selling a house together with everything you need to know to do it yourself. I read it a good few years ago, it was first published in 1995 and must admit i've never actually done my own because i've never bought or sold since reading it. The whole process seemed pretty straight forward though.

ToneControl

cost have increased recently for me using the same small firm, £800 more likely than £400 (in North west England)
I think leasehold costs more than freehold

You can do it all over the web, and there will be cheaper firms, but some of them are a bit dumb, I've had to use some when switching mortgages

CarpeDiem

I'd be inclined to use a solicitor that is local to you, and their fees will be largely based on the sale price of the property. Whilst the process for a sale is easier than a purchase, I would use a solicitor and not an online conveyance company; the comparatively small amount you will save in fees is likely to be offset by the ease of having face-to-face conversations and the ability to complete and sign the necessary forms. I've read the conveyancing book that @ronnyb mentioned (plus another) to do conveyancing myself in the past and it's not complicated.

meltedbuzzbox

Last year I paid around £800 odd per transaction. I used one of the factory type lot and generally they were ok. 

The time before I went local and paid around £1200

(In Northamptonshire)

Strat_a_tat_tat

Hi Everyone

Thanks for all your insights and info. Much appreciated - and it helped me decide on the course of action.

Everyone... have a 'Wisdom' on me!

Thanks again.