Solicitors Fees - Are they reasonable

J

jim

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Hi

I have recently purchased my first property and my solicitor has issued me with a fee statement. I just want to check if the various fees are reasonable, they are:

I will query these items with my solicitor but before I do so I want to check your thoughts :)

1. Solicitor fee - 1250 (i think this is reasonable)
2. Postage stationary and phone - 100 (I don't think this is at all reasonable)
3. Commissioners fee estimate - 24 (Iv seen online that this is 10)
4. Law searchers fee - 350 (not sure what this is or if its reasonable)
5. Purchase deed - 700
6. "mortgage" - 175
7. Copy folio and file plan - 40
8. sundries - 20 (not sure what these could be but its only relatively small)

Any thoughts are very welcome.

cheers!
 
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The ones above that I am particularly keen to query are the law searchers fees & the postage and phone...i think the other ones are probably ok.
 
Overall, its very reasonable. If you want to be picky, ask for a copy of the Law Searchers invoice.

mf
 
Fair enough Mf1 - i wont ask for that.

but 100 for postage and phone cannot be reasonable, can it?? It should be about €7.60?
 
For the stationery, postage to you and other solicitor, land registry, phone calls between all parties, ink, photocopying etc, not just for one letter or one phone call...

Overall, I think the fees are very reasonable also. In relation to law searchers, we tend to do an estimate of costs- if the costs come under, we refund the client.
 
Vanilla - you can say what you like about ink etc but 100 for print and phone and stationary is nothing short of a joke.

the costs themselves would be a fraction of that and should be included in the solicitors fee which he charged for above.
 
jim said:
The ones above that I am particularly keen to query are the law searchers fees & the postage and phone...i think the other ones are probably ok.
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I paid €60 for postage phone etc last year but €565 for law searches so it does vary with the amount of work required. Also bear in mind they have high overheads such as insurances, premises and legal secretaries who have to be paid.
 
Everything you've listed sounds totally reasonable to me. You're getting bogged down in nothing. It is common for solicitors to put in a figure of around 100 for postage/phones/paper. I send a registered letter to Ireland recently and it cost me near on 10 Euro. Your bill is 2659 Euro, that is probably what shocked you. But a lot of the costs there, apart from the fee, are costs that are inevitable (Items 3, 5, 6 7). Costs set by government that the solicitor has no control over. Cost 1 would have been agreed by you. Cost 4 the solicitor has no choice over either etc.

The searches are a cost on or around closing to confirm that there is nothing on the title that is negative - mortgage, debt or whatever - no two ways around this costs.

I've stated on here before that ideally solicitors should just put the 100 into their bill, as it just makes people say, look here he charged me 100 Euro for two phone calls to Dublin. I was overcharged !

It seems you got good service and you should be pleased with that. I think you did well on the 1250 fee.
 
jim said:
Fair enough Mf1 - i wont ask for that.

but 100 for postage and phone cannot be reasonable, can it?? It should be about €7.60?
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Without knowing how many letters and phonecalls were made, documents copied and printed etc it's hard to say for definite but bear in mind that these things don't just happen by magic, someone has to do them and someone has to be paid to do for them.
 
It's either for 'stamping' the document/deed or something to do with the Land registry, registration there presumably. One of the legal eagles will no doubt clarify.
 
The €700 will be to register the deed with the PRAI - it is paid over to them when the property is registered and does not form part of the solicitor's fee. Likewise the €175 is PRAI's fee to register the mortgage. €40 is also PRAI.

I see you haven't included Stamp Duty, presumably because you know the solicitor has no control over this sum, equally the PRAI fees are basically a tax.

The cost of searches will vary greatly - normally they would be about €100 but if you have a common name (eg John McCarthy) the searchers charge way more as they have a lot more to check, also certain properties will be higher - eg if the site was amalgamated from several bankrupt developers.

Commissioners fees are normally €25 IME.

The actual fees going to the solicitor are the €1250 and the €100, part of which are VAT anyway.
 
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thedaddyman said:
bear in mind that these things don't just happen by magic, someone has to do them and someone has to be paid to do for them.
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Ya dont say!

still i have yet to see a comment that goes at least half way towards explaining/justifying 100......its a rip off...even if you factor in 10 phone calls at a minute each at a few cent per call...price of paper? whatever ..and postage.

only thing i can think of is that he may have couriered stuff..
 
Bronte said:
You're getting bogged down in nothing.
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Not getting bogged down in anything Bronte (nor am I shocked by the bill) - just merely exploring the reasonableness of the fees. Iv come to the conclusion that they are reasonable. job done.
 
jim said:
Ya dont say!

still i have yet to see a comment that goes at least half way towards explaining/justifying 100......its a rip off...even if you factor in 10 phone calls at a minute each at a few cent per call...price of paper? whatever ..and postage.

only thing i can think of is that he may have couriered stuff..
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Ya, I do say !! :)

Let's say there was 10 phone calls and letters and the admin side of completing all of those tasks was just 2 hours. If the legal secretary was on a salary of €30k per annum then the cost of those 2 hours of that persons time would be approx. €41 (including employers PRSI and fringe costs). Postal and stationery costs would bring the cost up to somewhere in the region of €47. To that you then need to add fixed costs, for example, leasing a medium sized franking machine can be €2k a year, rent, rates etc etc. It's not unreasonable to assume the overall cost to the solicitor of those 10 calls and letters would be €50

To that he then needs to add a profit margin, a 30% profit margin (and I have no idea what profit margin a solicitor charges) would bring the price to you up to around €70

personally, I am always very wary of rounded charges of the likes of €100. That to me says he has a standard fee for such services regardless of the effort put in. If you are unhappy with it then you should go back and ask for an itemized breakdown
 
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