Apartment sale - Managing agent “scrivenary fee” & service charge

H

HarryPD

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I’m in the process of selling an apartment which is part of a large multi unit development. The managing agent (one of the big ones in Dublin) has been requested to forward the usual documents to enable my solicitor complete the formal requisitions. While not expecting the managing agent to do any work for “free”, what does grate is the €430.50 “scrivenary” fee they have charged to copy the documents to my solicitor. This was €369.00 last year but clearly they decided that what with having vendors over a barrel, they may as well hike up their fees as they please. Pure extortion but I am left with no choice but to pay up. Anyone else out there recently paid a scrivenary fee to a MUD managing agent and if so, how much?

To add insult to injury, the 2019 service charge has recently issued (€1900.00!) and the agent will not provide the required documentation until both their fee and the full 2019 service charge have been paid. I understand that it is standard practice for the solicitors on both sides to agree that the purchaser repays to the vendor on closing an apportioned fee for the rest of the year’s service charge as and from the date of closing. This would seem fair but before I inform my solicitor that this is how things roll (he does not seem overly familiar with the apartment sale process), it would be useful to know if anyone has any experience of this?
 
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You will have your service charge pro rata returned for the unused portion from date of closing.

Look for your property tax paid to also be pro rata.

You are stuck with the agent fee which is stupidly high.
 
Yes this is absolutely normal for management fees and property tax to be apportioned i.e. refunded to the vendor for the remaining period.
 
Thanks for clearing things up, comforting to know I should get something back. I feel like I am being fleeced at every turn with the sale of this apartment.The whole process is costing far more than I had anticipated (although the mental load that will be lifted once the place is finally shifted will be priceless!)
 
I’m in the process of selling an apartment which is part of a large multi unit development. The managing agent (one of the big ones in Dublin) has been requested to forward the usual documents to enable my solicitor complete the formal requisitions. While not expecting the managing agent to do any work for “free”, what does grate is the €430.50 “scrivenary” fee they have charged to copy the documents to my solicitor. This was €369.00 last year but clearly they decided that what with having vendors over a barrel, they may as well hike up their fees as they please. Pure extortion but I am left with no choice but to pay up. Anyone else out there recently paid a scrivenary fee to a MUD managing agent and if so, how much?

To add insult to injury, the 2019 service charge has recently issued (€1900.00!) and the agent will not provide the required documentation until both their fee and the full 2019 service charge have been paid. I understand that it is standard practice for the solicitors on both sides to agree that the purchaser repays to the vendor on closing an apportioned fee for the rest of the year’s service charge as and from the date of closing. This would seem fair but before I inform my solicitor that this is how things roll (he does not seem overly familiar with the apartment sale process), it would be useful to know if anyone has any experience of this?

A couple of things.

Providing the paperwork is quite time consuming and very paper heavy.

The fee includes VAT.

You don't expect them to work for nothing.

This board is littered with queries about people/managing agents not providing this information.

It's not extortion.

mf
 
I sold an apartment last year and was happy to pay the 350 euros for the paperwork to mgt committee.
Also needed a BER ,but was surprised to find that I also needed digital mapping of the apartment.
I had never heard of this before and it cost me over 500 euros. The legal fees were over 1300 ,So a low value sale ended up costing more than I had anticipated in fees.
When did this mapping become mandatory. Anyone I asked had never heard of it. Even the mgt committee did not know about it.
 
I had to instruct a surveyor to complete the digital map (think it’s also known as a geometric survey?), was charged €400.00 for it. It looked like a downloaded ordnance map with a map of the apartment floorplan attached. Think it’s been a requirement since 2012, the map has to be registered with the Land Registry.

Can I also just add, I do not expect the managing agent to provide any service for free, I simply regard their fee as rather high. There have been 5 other apartment sales within the complex recently and it seems a handy little money spinner for them. Between the geometric survey, agent scrivenary fee & full 2019 service charge, that’s nearly €3000.00 paid in a week.
 
Thank you HarryPD. Is it only needed for apartments?. I sold a house early last year and it wasn’t mentioned.
 
Not sure to be honest but I suspect the 2012 requirement might have been introduced to pull apartments into the mix as a house would always have been mapped/included within the Land Registry (ie your house was already recorded).
 
It would be interesting to know if the new owners also have to pay the full service charge.
 
" Between the geometric survey, agent scrivenary fee & full 2019 service charge, that’s nearly €3000.00 paid in a week."

But you have to incur these costs anyway?

You can't complete your sale without them and you recover a proportion of the service charge on closing?

I can't see what the problem is.

The title of all properties for sale, if not already registered, is now compulsorily registrable

See this link:

https://byrnewallace.com/news-and-r...ion-of-title-nationwide-from-1-june-2011.html

If the title is already registered, no issue arises for mapping. The property is already mapped in the PRAI.

If the title is not already registered, the Vendor is contractually bound to produce Land Registry Compliant Maps to the Purchaser.

And the PRAI don't accept hand drawn maps by Vendors.

mf
 
You pay the full service charge to year end- in the event you sale closed without you paying it the purchaser would have to pay it.

When the sale closes the service charge from the date the building sold to the end of the service charge year will be refunded to you(purchaser will pay this)

The MUD reply fee is standard- all the agents charge something similiar
 
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