Selling a house and Solicitor Fees

Hi Guys,

I am trying to find out some informatoin and cant find what I'm after. Basically I bought a house with a friend a few years back and am now in the stage of selling. My friend is taking over the mortgage so we are not going through the whole selling saga. However, as we have mutually agreed a price(after valuations done) they have gone to the solicitors and are in the process of purchasing the house.

My question is this. I have agreed to pay half of the solicitors fee as we would have to pay for that if we sold. However, what I want to know is what I should be paying for exactly. I'm happy to pay my way, but dont want to pay for half of the solicitor fees if they are only doing things for buying the house. So can anyone more knowledgable give me a little information, or at least point me in the right direction so I can find out what I should be paying. My soon to be ex-housemate is a bit useless when I ask.

Cheers

As you were the half owner I would expect you to pick up 50% of "All" the expenses.

If there are no "ongoing issues" between you and your housemate you should have considered using a specialist conveyancing practitioner as opposed to paying exorbatant solicitors fee's.
They normally only charge about £200 + expenses such as searches etc.

In my experiences using a solicitor to handle my house sale ends up costing 000's and taking far too long!

Thanks, the only thing I wasn't sure of, is what is the cost for buying a house and what is the cost of selling a house. This is the first time that I have sold a house and I dont want to be paying twice for things. As it turns out, it isn't a huge amount of money, but as I will be looking to buy somewhere in the near future I'm counting all my pennies:)

Edit: There are no ongoing issues, the reason I'm moving out is circumstances have changed. It's just that I feel a little bit helpless as I cant sort things out myself.

You could consider doing it yourself - there are books you can buy - as you know the person and the house, you shouldn't find any tricky problems.

for example

[ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Your-Own-Conveyancing-Paul-Butt/dp/0852029926]Do Your Own Conveyancing: Paul Butt: Amazon.co.uk: Books[/ame]

Quite agree with the Spuffmonkey.

As there is just the two of you involved, you do not have to watch out so much for being cheated.

The mortgage company will need to transfer the loan into the sole name. Pretty easy.

The deeds to the house will need to be passed into the sole name, which is no great hardship with the "Tinternet"

Searches should not be required as your mate lives there already!

Like divorce and the like, the lawyers just want to keep this a 'closed shop' so they can rake in money for doing next to nowt.

There is no legal requiremnt that I know of that says you HAVE to employ one.

Just as long as the paperwork gets done.

Surf the web and go "Self service".

http://www.lawpack.co.uk/Files/SampleChapters/SC_B612.pdf#search="selling your house"

(Sorry if the link is in the wrong format, would someone please point out the error of my ways?)

I have used these guides, (not this one!) to rent out my house. Well worth a look.

If the solicitor has already been approached then you should be able to ask for a breakdown of the fees - in fact they should give you one anyway - which will show you which bits you need to contribute to and which you don't

It was the breakdown I was wondering about. I wasn't sure which bits I should be paying for. All I thought that we needed to change was the transfer of loan into 1 new name, and the transfer of the deeds. I am waiting for the breakdown.

It should be sorted now anyway,

Cheers.