Ripped off by solicitor?

N

nurse

Guest
My husband & I just purchased our first home and have received our solicitors bill. We were expecting it to be expensive but are both shocked by the actual total price of 4900 euro all inclusive of vat, professional fees etc. It seems excessive im just wondering would this be normal for a four bed house purchased for 230,000 euro? Any comments appreciated..
 
Have you seen this recent thread? €4900 sounds a bit on the steep side, but — as Vanilla says — you'd need to give a bit more detail to get any balanced reactions here. Did you not ask for/receive a quotation beforehand?
 
Here's another thread where this topic was discussed, with an example of fees paid for the purchase of a property.
 
If it includes stamp duty and other land registry fees the solicitos your bill should have been broked down to show all outgoing costs.
 
Ripped off by solicitor update...

Further to my last post I have below details of the total cost for the purchase of our house for E230,000.
Fee for professional services for purchase of the house E2000
Fee for professional services for mortgage E1000
Outlays including land registry, commissioner for oaths, internet access, petty outlays E1125.49
Vat on the total of E661.50
Therefore total balance due of E4786.99
Having spoken with numerous people we have been told that the above is outrageous and had we chosen some other solicitors services it would most likely have come to half that! Just curious as to what other people think?
 
The fee of 3000 is higher than some solicitors charge.
The first questions that have to be asked are

Did you not ask what the fee was before you engaged the solicitor to do the work ?
Did you not ring a few solicitors and compare prices ?
 
Why did you have to pay for your mortgage? You shouldn't have to pay a lender to lend you money.

I borrowed straight from bank, not through the solicitor. I don't understand why you used a sol to borrow.

My sol charged 900 fee + 189 VAT = 1089. House cost 278k.

The outlays were 236, they were low as my house was Registry of Deeds, not Land Registry.

I don't think there should be VAT on the outlays. You should query that.

My total costs = 1325.

People should shop around, I used a sol as recommended here on AAM.
 
He charged you for internet access. That's a good one!

I paid 1800 including vat and the usual outlays (no internet access charges listed!) about 2 years ago.
 
I borrowed straight from bank, not through the solicitor. I don't understand why you used a sol to borrow
Click to expand...
I presume the solicitor is charging this to process the mortgage paperwork.
Seems excessive , €2000 prof fee is high and then to add and additional €1000 for prof fee to process mortgage paper work is excessive, I've been quoted professional fee of €2890 for a sale of 310k and a purchase of 340k, with outlays the total cost is €4500.

Did you ask the solicitor for a written quote before you engaged their services.
 
If this was a straightforward purchase with mortgage, the fees of €3,000 plus V.A.T. are very high. Perhaps there are additional factors which made this job unusually difficult, but absent such factors, I would say that the fees are very close to being indefensible. I would certainly consider sending the bill to the Law Society. You should first set out your concerns in writing to the solicitor who charged this fee. You should set a deadline for a response from the solicitor.

Regarding the "internet access" charge, this probably relates to online search fees incurred at the Land Registry or the Judgments Registry. This online access costs money (€2.50 per item checked in the land registry, for example), so it is only normal to pass on the cost to the client.
 
MOB said:
Regarding the "internet access" charge, this probably relates to online search fees incurred at the Land Registry or the Judgments Registry. This online access costs money (€2.50 per item checked in the land registry, for example), so it is only normal to pass on the cost to the client.
Click to expand...

I'd also imagine this is preferable to the alternative which I suspect would entail sending a junior down to the registry to queue etc. which might end up costing quite a bit more in terms of their time spent.
 
Hello,

did the solicitor arrange the mortgage for you, if so you should hav been issued with a terms of business stating the commission/charges that would apply. I would speak to the solicitor about this,
 
If it's relevant, we just got our total fixed-price purchase estimate sent to us, all inclusive of everything and VAT of €1860.

From what I gather from previous threads you should have been given an estimate beforehand. Were you?

If so, it was excessive compared to the norm these days, but I would imagine you don't have a leg to stand on.

On the bright side, the experience will probably save you a fortune in future life negotiations (trades, legal, financial), regarding the lesson learnt.
 
Thanks for all comments. In reply, my husband specifically asked our solicitor for a quote prior to him carrying out the work, however as the solicitor had previously carried out work for his parents for many years, the solicitor insisted he would "look after us". In hindsight I do realise that we should have insisted on a written quote but being new to the game we assumed this meant a good price! In fact he did give us E500 off his professional fees!!! I have decided to write to him with our concerns as suggested by MOB. Will keep you posted and again thanks for comments.
 
nurse said:
Thanks for all comments. In reply, my husband specifically asked our solicitor for a quote prior to him carrying out the work, however as the solicitor had previously carried out work for his parents for many years, the solicitor insisted he would "look after us". In hindsight I do realise that we should have insisted on a written quote but being new to the game we assumed this meant a good price! In fact he did give us E500 off his professional fees!!! I have decided to write to him with our concerns as suggested by MOB. Will keep you posted and again thanks for comments.
Click to expand...

He looked after you alright. Name and shame.
 
Your solicitor is legally obliged to provide you with a written estimate of costs as provided for in section 68 of the Solicitors (Amendment) Act 1994. However the fact that he /she did not do this does not automatically mean that the final costs are unreasonable. You can complain in writing to your solicitor and if the issue is not resolved you have a legal right to appeal to the Law Society or the Taxing master.
 
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