Pah! Solicitors? Schmolicitors.

Well, today we have the first viewers for our house. We only agreed with the agents 2 days ago, and have only had the photos done yesterday - it's all a bit quick for my liking. Anyway, the place looks tidy enough, although I still need to do something to stop the water pipes banging every time you switch the water off, and I really must get the gas boiler serviced. We agreed a o.75% fee with the agent, and I'm now looking for a solicitor.

I've just had one quote of 0.5% plus some obscue legal charges (I'm convinced half of them are made up). What I don't understand is this - all the solicitor does is draw up a contract (ha ha - like they have to handcraft each one individually or something). This probably takes a secretary 10 minutes. Then they send a request for something or other from the land registry or something (there's another 10 minutes), and then they wait for queries from the buyers, which they duly ask the seller to answer (5 minutes?). Then they issue the contract, get it back signed, and receive some money. Phew - tricky, huh? So where do they get off charging a percentage? I would have thought £50 would do the job, wouldn't you? When I asked one of them this question, they said "Ah but the risk increases with the value of the property..." To which the reply must surely be "Ah but that's what you pay your bleedin insurance for..."

Chancers, the pack of them. I'm away now to see if I can find an honest one. I may be some time.