Conveyancing legal fees: 1% on sale and 1% on purchase - reasonable?

Scenario:

family want to sell house in small rural town in west of Ireland, and buy a larger house around the same town.

Assume selling price is 250k, assume buying price is 350k.

Local firm of sol have quoted the following:

Sale fee: 1% (with 1,000 min) + VAT + outlays (seven outlays listed in quote, total 273)

Purchase = 1% (1,000 min) + 250 extra if mortgage involved + 23% VAT + outlays (five listed)

The fees could be 2,500 + 3,500 + 250 = 6,250 + VAT + outlays.


In my opinion, these fees seem crazy high.

In 2019, I sold in the northwest, and paid 1200 + 23% VAT = 1476 + zero outlays = 1,476 total.

Am I correct in thinking it shouldn't be hard to find a good sol in Mayo/Sligo that will do a sale + purchase for more like 3,000??

Yes, that's high.
Stay away from anyone quoting fees as a percentage for residential property - its the same work regardless of the value.

You should be able to get professional fees around 1100 to 1500 + VAT per transaction.

The outlays are on top of that and should all be real 3rd party costs except for 'office fees' which some add for overheads.

Wowsers. Run a mile from those fees.

I recently sold in Dublin for €1950 including all outlays. That wasn't the cheapest quote I got but it wasn't the most expensive one either.

I've bought and sold many times and never have paid a percentage fee.

Fixed fee + outlays.

And solicitor doesn't have to be from the immediate area either.

Sunny said:

Wowsers. Run a mile from those fees.

I recently sold in Dublin for €1950 including all outlays. That wasn't the cheapest quote I got but it wasn't the most expensive one either.

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Sunny, I'm in the process of buying and I got quoted at 6000 for fees! I would really appreciate it if you could pm me the name of the solicitor that you used.Thank you

5stars said:

Sunny, I'm in the process of buying and I got quoted at 6000 for fees! I would really appreciate it if you could pm me the name of the solicitor that you used.Thank you

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Just go to literally any other solicitor and get a quote.

Thank you

I think its important to break down the fees. I have seen people including stamp duty in their legal fee quote, which makes comparisons messy and unclear. I have sought many quotes in the past year, none were percentage based.

They should have sent you a statement breaking down the makeup of the fees. Steer clear of anyone quoting a percentages.