Buying a house - help!

[Matchstick 10]

We have just had an offer accepted on a house. We have a mortgage just about sorted out. We have been told we need £1500 on top of this for solicitors fees and surveys etc.

 

We have had some quotes for these and they ranged from £270 - £300 (homebuyers report) for the solicitors and the same again for a survey. Does this sound correct? if so are there any other fees we need to bear in mind? As we seem to be missing £900 worth of fees....

[Kashul 10]

My Mum in Law just paid 1600 hon so sounds about right...xx

[EmilyM 10]

I think I paid about £1000. I got my mortgage with Northern Rock and they give you £1000 cashback, that covered all our fees.

[lynslou77 10]

we paid around 1100 including all our solicitors fees etc, with http://www.bbho.co.uk

[oatesortho@a 10]

I am in the middle of conveyancing - when you get a quote from a solicitor they often give you the "property fee" ie a fee just for "dealing" with the conveyancing, I am paying £450. This is not the whole job. Then you have to add in Land Registry £220, searches could be £100 depending on how many you have done, a fee for dealing with the legalities of the mortgage, electronic transfer fees etc etc. I am paying £1200 to the Solicitor + Stamp duty, then Valuation survey of £355 + full structural survey of £450. I have had several quotes and they were all similar. So that is where your missing £900 is!! About £1000 - £1300 seems to be the going rate for solicitors at the moment.

[AtticusFinch 10]

A full structural survey replaces a homebuyers report, or at least it did in my case. HSBC charge £150 for a mortgage valuation fee, £310 for a homebuyers report or around £600 for a full structural survey. I then paid £600 mortgage broker fee for a £100,000 mortgage. My solicitors fees were £670 from Mundy Coutts-Wood.

 

[tingle 10]

Hello

 

I am going through the same thing at the mo (though haven't had an offer accepted yet). I too felt that everyone else knew something I didn't and kept hearing horror stories about needing a spare 5k to 'cover costs' but was then told by the advisor that we'd only need to pay £400 for the survey.

 

Anyway, I found a book called Buying a Home on a Budget for Dummies really helpful. You'll find it on most websites like Amazon for under a tenner which is nothing compared to what you're about to spend.

 

The reason for the discrepency is that you have to pay stamp duty if the house is over 125k, there's fees that sometimes apply like a mortgage indemnity guarantee (easily avoidable) and then there's optional costs on things like life insurance and variable costs depending on the survey you get. That's why some people say you need a good few grand, and some say you can do it on a shoestring.

 

I would recommend this book though as it has handy checklists so ou can keep referring backto it to make sure you're not being ripped off. x

[bensonhedges 10]

Is your purchase expensive enough for stamp duty?

[w1zkid 10]

Hi,

If it is a normal mortgage valuation report you should be looking to pay around the 220 mark for a valuation upto about 200000

[7H Estates 10]

local searches cost around £250

a homebuyers survey around £300

solicitors fees another £300

stamp duty if necessary up to 125k 0%

125k - £250k 1%

250k - 500k 3%

anything over 5%

plus moving costs hiring van etc probably does add up to what you were saying

 

fiona

[jonhanson 10]

We are in the middle of our convayencing too, were getting charged £707 including all seraches and fees for the sols. Plus an extra £220 for our survey.

[Blackcherry 10]

I got all this legal blurb re costs from my solicitor for a house priced at £134,950. See bottom of email for how much stamp duty you have to pay for me it was 1% of purchase price. Get quotes from a few solitors, costs can vary.

 

Legal fees £490.00

VAT £85.75

Land Registry fee £150.00

Stamp Duty Land Tax £1,349.00

Completion of SDLT Return (inc VAT) £47.00

Telegraphic Transfer Fee (inc VAT) £35.25*

Search Administration Fee £270.00

 

Total quotation for your purchase including VAT £2,427.00.

The Search Administration Fee* includes all searches that will be required in connection with your purchase. A Personal Local Authority Search will be carried out to make sure, for example, that there are no public footpaths across the land you are buying, and will reveal any planning consents or building regulations approvals affecting the property. Personal Local Authority Searches are accepted by most lenders in the UK.

 

Stamp Duty Land Tax is government tax and is payable on all purchases over £125,000 at the following rates:

 

£0.00 - £125,000.00

0% of Purchase Price

 

£125,000.01 - £250,000.00

1% of Purchase Price

 

£250,000.01 - £500,000.00

3% of Purchase Price

 

£500,000.01 and over

4% of Purchase Price