Solicitor fees

Ding Dong

We're thinking of selling our house and are asking a few solicitors for a quote for the legal work and othe first solicitor back to us basically calculated his professional fee based on the selling price for the house ie. a flat fee for admin then a % of the final selling price. This solicitor gave a quote of approx €4k!!! Is that way off the mark or am I out touch with solicitor fees etc.
What would be a normal price range?

D3PO

anything under 2k would be seen as very good. 4k seems excessive.

I dont see why any solicitor should get a % of selling price thats ludacris IMO

Ding Dong

D3PO wrote: »

anything unddr 2k would be seen as very good. 4k seems excessive.

I dont see why any solicotiro should get a % of selling price thats ludacris IMO

THATS WHAT I was thinking. a % for the same work regardless of value. and our house isnt expensive....

Ding Dong

Is the general view that most work done by solicitors is non-commission based?

odds_on

Probably something to do with solicitors' insurance, in case they make a pig's ear of the work.

However, I do not understand why it takes at least 3 months to complete a property sale/purchase. My solicitor had to send the vendor's solicitor a "Requisition 27" (I think that its name) for further details/information.

Surely, the vendor's solicitor knows the questions that will be required to be answered and should have everything in order long before an offer is put in for the property.

To me, it is just keeping each other in employment by doing this. The Irish Law Society should have a detailed pack with all appropriate questions and answers that every vendor's solicitor should have at the ready.

The going back and forth between solicitors is ridiculous. Purchaser's solicitor requires information - sends letter /fax /email to vendor's solicitor - a week passes. Vendor's solicitor waits a few days, makes enquiries and eventually replies a week later. Purchaser's solicitor doesn't get round to the answer for another week. Thus a fortnight has gone by. This happens several times and you are into months.

I have bought and sold abroad and my last house that I sold, the deal was completed in 3 days - apart from a certified plan of the property (house and large garden). Also, the vendor and purchaser used the same solicitor and shared the expenses.

Solicitors are meant to be legal professionals - in the case of purchasing/selling property, they should not be trying to pull the wool over each other's eyes (or their clients eyes), but serve all parties to the same degree of efficiency and competence.

That's what you are paying for; a closed shop as is the legal profession.

pwurple

odds_on wrote: »

Surely, the vendor's solicitor knows the questions that will be required to be answered and should have everything in order long before an offer is put in for the property.

I don't think that's fair. It took us nearly 2 years to sell our house. We were about to take it off the market when we sold it. I know plenty of people who have taken the property off the market, or some other circumstances would come up. Why would anyone choose to do work when they might not get paid for it at all?

Grolschevik

odds_on wrote: »

The Irish Law Society should have a detailed pack with all appropriate questions...

It does.

RATM

OP I've heard that there is a solicitor in the Bray & Greystones area who does conveyancing starting from €750 for easy jobs and rising slightly for more complex ones. I can't remember his name (and I have nothing to do with him) but someone here might recall his company and add a link.

Henry Ford III

RATM wrote: »

OP I've heard that there is a solicitor in the Bray & Greystones area who does conveyancing starting from €750 for easy jobs and rising slightly for more complex ones. I can't remember his name (and I have nothing to do with him) but someone here might recall his company and add a link.

Is this him?

vicwatson

RATM wrote: »

OP I've heard that there is a solicitor in the Bray & Greystones area who does conveyancing starting from €750 for easy jobs and rising slightly for more complex ones. I can't remember his name (and I have nothing to do with him) but someone here might recall his company and add a link.

I imagine it's €750.00 plus VAT PLUS outlays?

groom

Cost me just under €2k all in for this guy http://www.jgs.ie/ that was recommended in this thread . There were some minor hiccups (not his making) that he solved. Everything went pretty smoothly and any delays were caused by me with completion taking about 6 weeks. I would further recommend him. The house was a 4 bed semi in Dublin.

The €750 quoted above is probably the professional fee which is net of VAT, registry searches etc. The profession fee I paid was €1000 but the total rises alot.

RATM

Nope, this is him
http://www.linkedin.com/in/manusbray

I was wrong to say he charges €750 for the conveyancing when buying a house, it is €895+VAT so still far cheaper than the €4,000 the OP has been quoted by their solicitor. If the conveyancing is complex it might cost a bit more, but should still be a lot cheaper than €4,000

I don't know the guy and have nothing to do with him but I did hear that his low prices are ruffling a few feathers in the legal game. No harm IMO, its about time costs came down- a relatively straight forward conveyencing involves about 8-10 hours work so (assuming the OP's freehold is straightforward) his solicitor is charging €400 an hour for the job which is just insane in my opinion.

groom

I've heard that the thing about the guys who notably cheaper is that they will normally attract a fair bit of business and will probably be noticeably slower to completion.

Em2011

You guys should check out O'Hanlon & O'Dowd in Cork. They do fixed price conveyancing- no matter how complicated it gets their price is fixed. Great service from them when I used them. Think we paid 800+Vat plus outlay (stamp duty and land registry fees and stuff like that). Their website is www.ohod.ie. Friendly guys and no hidden surprises when it came to the bill! Wud def recommend them.