Re:solicitors fees for house sale

Hi

We both have solicitors, stbx and me, who have been on board since the start of the divorce nearly 3 years ago.

I can't remember what fees there are to pay when selling a house, but if there is equity to be split post sale (at some point) would the solicitor do the work on account (ECP certificate and search fee around £220 in total) and take the fees back from the money raised from the sale?

I ask this because if my stbx hasn't got any money to pay for the ECP and search fee up front, then that wouldn't get us very far and the sale wouldn't be able to go ahead.

hope this makes sense
escaped

I'd say this was a matter for negotiation between yourself and the solicitors.

You should have received a quote from your solicitor for the carrying out of the work. But the point is that if the sale falls through there will be no sale price from which the solicitor can get his money back. So you might be asked, at the very least, to pay out of pocket expenses upfront.

LMM

Normally solicitors don't pay out of their own money other peoples expenses. As Mike says, the sale might not happen. In these difficult times, it's even less likely I should have thought.

thank you both, sometimes you just don't see everything from every angle

much appreciated
x

Hi

I work for a conveyancing solicitor and we charge fees on a sliding scale as per the sale price of the house.

The solicitor won't put in hand the EPC, that needs be arranged by either a EPC provider or the Estate Agent and if you speak to the agent they may agree to wait until completion to be recompensed for the cost and the solicitor would pay it with the agent's commission account out of the sale proceeds after redeeming any mortgage.

As you are selling, there are no search fees, you should just be looking at the solicitors fees for doing the conveyancing work, the cost of office copy entries £8,00) and also a telegraphic transfer fee to send the mortgage redemption monies to your lender. The only other charges would be if the property is leasehold (flat or apartment - there is quite a bit of extra work required to be done by the solicitor) and also if leasehold, you would need to get the leasehold information pack from your leasehold agents. This can vary in price but of course if your property is freehold (ie in general a house) this would not be necessary.

The only other costs would be the agent's fees and then the sale proceeds would be split between the pair of you, if you both wanted your proceeds to be sent to you by telegraphic transfer, there would be addition TT costs, but if you chose to receive the monies by cheque, you would not be charged.

Hope that has helped you a bit but I don't think EPC's are all that expensive these days, certainly under £100 - now that House Information Packs have been abolished, there is no need for the seller to provide them, the purchasers give their solicitors monies on account and the solicitors submit them.

Also, if you make sure you market the property in good condition and at a sensible price, you should attract serious buyers who will proceed to completion. That way hopefully you will proceed to completion and the sale not fall through as most conveyancers will charge an abortive fee depending upon how much work they have done, but also they will take that work into consideration if you use them on a subsequent sale to a new buyer.

Make sure you have all relevant paperwork, boiler servicing records, planning permission and building regulation consents and any certificates relating to them. FENSA certs for windows and doors are important too. If you don't have this type of paperwork, the buyer's solicitors will be asking you to pay for indemnity policies which can be a couple of hundred quid so worth looking out all the deeds and documents you have, although you may find that you can give an allowance on completion if you have to provide an indemnity, that way you wont have to fork out for it.

And one more tip, ask you solicitor to do pretty much nothing until your buyers have instructed theirs and put money on account with them for searches and also booked and paid for their survey if they are having a mortgage - often if a buyer has spent money, they are serious, that way you dont really have to spend any money until you know that they are serious.

Sorry this is a really long reply.

Good luck