This is regarding my house sale which was sold at the end of April.

I looked for an online conveyancing quote to keep costs to a minimum.

I came across http://www.hbcconveyancing.co.uk/

i got a quick quote of £644.

When i went ahead with my order i phoned up and asked about any other fees and if the coal report was included.

I was told that price included all fees and its unlikely there will be any other charges.

after the sale the total my lawyer took was just over £1200.

£108 was for 2 chaps transfers, my request, so i got my money quicker.

Its a long way off from the quote i got.

What do you guys think here,

does these charges seem normal or excessive.

http://www.aaenpeach.com/ Aaen Peach Law

are the solicitors linked to this online conveyancing mob,

is there anything i can do apart from phone them up and moan at them?

here is the quick quote i got

here is a list below of the charges and fees

legal fee

----------

£384 legal fee

£54 chaps fee

£54 payment of mandates and invoices on your behalf £54

£60 expidited completion, post and incidents

£90 fee for acting on your behalf of your mortgage lender....

-------------------------------------------------

£12 transfre charge

£60 Registration of Dischage of Standard Security

£64 Registration of Advance Notice

£108 completion and submission of registration documentation

£170 property and legal entity multisearch

£45 coal report

£55 legal report

£9 electronic identification verification per legal entity

-------------------------------------------------

£54 transfer of redemption funds and charges and remittance

can you pop the quote up as a pdf please

upload

dx

Well straight away CHAPS fee should be between £25/£35 tops

Did they not send you an agreement for services and estimated charge for you to sign before acting?

Andy

here is the quote,

ANdy

i asked them before completion about the chaps fee,

they said £54 and i said everywhere else charges £25 to £30,

they just said that is what they charge.

My sale was fri 29th April,

nothing would happen Saturday or Sunday and Monday was a bank holiday,

i got my money on the Wednesday,

so i paid £108 to get it 2 working days later,

they were full of excuses why i could not get my money the same day,

i still dont know if it does take days to pay of everything and send me the money.

They did send paperwork though which i signed but its one of those things you dont read

and i have no idea that im going to be charged for so many things.

convert-jpg-to.pdf

If you could scan in your agreement (your authority for them to act on your behalf) and their final bill (less any identifiable details) and I will run through it for you.

I assume they have already taken their fee from completion...so this would have to be a back peddling excercise if there is any scope.

Ok andy thanks very much.

Ill see if i can find the agreement and take some pics.

Im in temp accommodation just now but i think i have the paperwork in the boot of my car somwhere.

Ill have a look tomorrow,

many thanks.

Not sure how it works up there in Scotland, but in England when you are sent the paperwork to sign there is a detailed breakdown of charges.

Those quick online quote generators are usually only in relation to legal fees and do not include disbursements

I did not get a detailed breakdown, despite asking if there were any other charges, this must be the way they do business,

Andy here is the document you asked for, it took a bit of faffing around, i could only take pics with my phone as i dont have access to my scanner.

doc.pdf

Thank you mystic...will take a closer look over the weekend but initial thoughts are they have covered themselves for further charges.

Andy

Andy many thanks for your help, i look forward to your opinion

Looks legit to me.

No rip off that I can see.

Just a couple of points...

This will be covered by the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 and you should have been offered opportunity the right to cancel within 7 working days of acknowledging their Terms and Conditions.

On arranging their services you should have been sent...

1.Client Information Sheet

2.Terms of Business Leaflet

3.Information Questionnaire

4.Property Information Form

5.Fittings and Contents Form

6.Conveyancing Charges Form

And an Estimate of Costs for Residential Sale as per your initial enquiry.

Assuming that you had received all the above and understood their proposed charging scales and they have complied with the above...then I really cant see a case apart from you not understanding or reading in detail the terms of the agreement?

Regards

Andy

Thanks for having a look at my document for me.

I had arranged the service over the phone after doing the quick quote thing.

As i mentioned i asked about other fees, i asked if it included all fees like the coal report,

i was told yes ad there should not be any other fees on top of what was quoted.

I was sent out a welcome pack with a letter and the included agreement document i have posted here.

At no point did i get a breakdown of what all the charges would be.

Thats why its a complete shock.

A lot of the information was included on the home report we have here in Scotland.

I was given a phone call just to verify what fixtures and fittings etc were included with the sale.

I did not take the matter any further. there is not much can be done.

Sorry but i hope someone can be of more assistance.

This is a house sale and your solicitors quoted that

Why was a coal report required.

This is something that the purchaser's solicitors would have to request and payable by the purchaser.

£108 for a TT fee

- this is usually about £25 or thereabouts for a same day transfer,

you should have received your monies the same day as your sale and yet your solicitors have sent the same by BACS which is at nominal cost.

I have copied here what you say they have charged you - I think you need to ask why?

Obviously I do understand you are in Scotland some processes in conveyancing would be different up there

£60 Registration of Discharge of Standard Security

- what is this I assume it is what is known as a DS1

- this is a form that your solicitors would have sent to your mortgage company to confirm that you have paid your mortgage and £64 Registration of Advance Notice

- never heard of this

- please ask them what this is for.

£108 completion and submission of registration documentation

- your solicitors do not at all register anything on a house sale the purchaser's solicitors do the legwork

- obviously depending on what happens in Scotland

170 property and legal entity multisearch

- what is this.

£45 coal report - as said before a seller's solicitors do not request this unless Scotland is different.

£55 legal report - what is this.

Again I know Scotland is entirely different to England when it comes to conveyancing but these charges do need to be questioned.

This company has charged you £108 for transferring monies to you and yet took 3 days to do it when in fact you should have received it the same day as completion and would have cost you approximately £25.

I know they would have sent your redemption monies for your mortgage as well so at a push it would have cost £50

This is an old thread, never pursued this as i had too much going on at the time.

Hi. Mystic_bertie There seems to be a common thread here - HBC & Aaen Peach

. I have just replied to a Facebook comment, on the HBC Review page, posted by Lauren Mulherron.

HBC give a quote for conveyancing fees, as advertised on their site -(in our case - £261 + VAT + Disbursements - total of £644, including VAT).

Then they pass the case on to AP, who do not itemise their bill and the client ends up paying as much as AP ( and presumably HBC get a healthy chunk) wants to charge.

On 28th March 2018, I phoned HBC in Edinburgh and spoke to Melanie, to accept the quote. She said that she would pass it on to a Solicitor and he would send out the acceptance pack.

This arrived the next day but was sent by Aaen Peach.

One problem here is that I organised this for the vendors, my son and his wife, so they missed the point of the case having been passed on to a completely different solicitor - without permission or informing them.

AP had the same conveyancing fees but there was no breakdown of the disbursements.

I have never been given Terms and Conditions, without this specific information.

As it happens AP were useless.

They seemed incapable of negotiation on our behalf and, by 24th April, the buyer's offer had still not been accepted, so we were able to cancel AP and went with a local Solicitor.

Things moved very swiftly after that

. There is at least one other complaint on this website.

I am trying to pull these together, to make a formal complaint to the governing body for Conveyancers in Scotland.

I understand that this is 2 years ago but I would appreciate it if you could contact me on [removed] or else add comments to the HBC review page.

Thanks

Hi. Mystic_bertie There seems to be a common thread here - HBC & Aaen Peach

 

. I have just replied to a Facebook comment, on the HBC Review page, posted by Lauren Mulherron.

 

HBC give a quote for conveyancing fees, as advertised on their site -(in our case - £261 + VAT + Disbursements - total of £644, including VAT).

 

Then they pass the case on to AP, who do not itemise their bill and the client ends up paying as much as AP ( and presumably HBC get a healthy chunk) wants to charge.

 

On 28th March 2018, I phoned HBC in Edinburgh and spoke to Melanie, to accept the quote. She said that she would pass it on to a Solicitor and he would send out the acceptance pack.

 

This arrived the next day but was sent by Aaen Peach.

 

One problem here is that I organised this for the vendors, my son and his wife, so they missed the point of the case having been passed on to a completely different solicitor - without permission or informing them.

 

AP had the same conveyancing fees but there was no breakdown of the disbursements.

 

I have never been given Terms and Conditions, without this specific information.

As it happens AP were useless.

 

They seemed incapable of negotiation on our behalf and, by 24th April, the buyer's offer had still not been accepted, so we were able to cancel AP and went with a local Solicitor.

Things moved very swiftly after that

 

. There is at least one other complaint on this website.

I am trying to pull these together, to make a formal complaint to the governing body for Conveyancers in Scotland.

 

I understand that this is 2 years ago but I would appreciate it if you could contact me on [removed] or else add comments to the HBC review page.

 

Thanks

pm sent

Why ...keep things on thread please

Read our rules

they cant use pm under 30 posts

Ok thanks for letting me know, they asked me to contact them for whatever reason so i did, not to worry.

Be aware of facebook groups wanting money

Hi Mystic Bertie.

I have been in touch with another complainant

Her case is just the same and her BBC was in Edinburgh.

Can I ask where yours were?

BTW PM can't be used until a user posts a minimum of 30 threads.

I like the idea of posting, because there is more chance of others picking up on this,

but I hope that we can reach the stage where we can make a joint complaint.

Thanks