bought a house - follow-up costs

murfilein

ok so i placed an offer for a house in cork city, and it was accepted - yay!

so going forward, the selling agency asks me to, amongst other things, provide my solicitors details.

my mortgage advisor gave me a name to contact. the guy does the calculation and comes out with around 4800€ (including the 2150 stamp duty, i assume). what the hell?! is that normal? i dont even have that much money left anymore after moving most of my money to my savings accounts for the mortgage.

i wrote to 2 other companies for a quote, waiting for an answer...

is there an affordable solicitor i can contact in cork city?

WildCardDoW

Your mortgage advisor should have made it clear to you there are significant follow up costs.

I'd imagine the fee you've got is standard for your area and it is line with the fees from anyone else I have talked to.

You will also need to consider the cost of a survey done on the house (to try find any glaring issues such as structural cracks, leaks, plumbing, electrics, potential boundary or insurance issues) and the LPT.

Askthe EA

That doesnt sound expensive OP, assuming that the 1% Stamp Duty is included in that.

Other costs you may / should incur;

Engineers Report €450 - €550
Drains Report €180
Local Property Tax €?

murfilein

WildCardDoW wrote: »

Your mortgage advisor should have made it clear to you there are significant follow up costs.

I'd imagine the fee you've got is standard for your area and it is line with the fees from anyone else I have talked to.

You will also need to consider the cost of a survey done on the house (to try find any glaring issues such as structural cracks, leaks, plumbing, electrics, potential boundary or insurance issues) and the LPT.

Askthe EA wrote: »

That doesnt sound expensive OP, assuming that the 1% Stamp Duty is included in that.

Other costs you may / should incur;

Engineers Report €450 - €550
Drains Report €180
Local Property Tax €?

oh man. whats LPT?

well the issue is, i basically moved as much money as i could form my currents account to my savings. now i'm not withdrawing anythign from my savings because thats what i need for the purchase price of the house, and i dont have enough money left on my currents account to pay 4-5k to a solicitor right now. that sucks. hope i'll have money going forward...

Sarn

murfilein wrote: »

oh man. whats LPT?

well the issue is, i basically moved as much money as i could form my currents account to my savings. now i'm not withdrawing anythign from my savings because thats what i need for the purchase price of the house, and i dont have enough money left on my currents account to pay 4-5k to a solicitor right now. that sucks. hope i'll have money going forward...

LPT is local property tax should only be about €100ish as it will only be based on part of the year.

Make sure that their professional fee quoted includes 23% VAT. You don’t have to pay the fees and stamp duty until close to the end.

Baby01032012

Well you have to take account of standard buying costs such as legal costs and stamp duty. Possibly get a personal loan or try credit union.

To be clear legal fees will be about 2.5k. It’s not something you want to cut back on when buying a house. They are acting on your behalf after all. Stamp duty is 1% which is payable to Revenue through your solicitor.

murfilein

Baby01032012 wrote: »

To be clear legal fees will be about 2.5k.

hm with that 2150 stamp duty we are back to around 4700 already, which is close to what i was quoted... man. looks like i'll have to get a loan from a credit union

jimmycrackcorm

I got quoted discounted legal fees of 3000 so 2500 is good

Corruptedmorals

Did your adviser not give you a breakdown at the start? Ours was spelled out in person at the bank and on the AIP documents that we would need 2-3k for stamp duty and same for legal fees and ideally more on top of that for essential furniture etc.

Is it an option for you that you could postpone the start of your mortgage payments to allow you use that money instead?

whiskeyman

That seems right.
I'd be wary about scrimping on solicitor costs.
As is often posted plenty of times here, you want someone reliable and that's on the ball.

Surprised no one never mentioned these 'follow on' costs before to you.
It's fairly standard to know as part of the process.
No offensive, but maybe get a friend or someone with prior knowledge of the process to talk it all though.
Buying a house and getting a mortgage is a huge decision and you should know everything about it before entering it.

Mike3549

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

I got quoted discounted legal fees of 3000 so 2500 is good

Does it include searches land registry fees?

I remember 4 years ago solicitor fee was 850-1000 + vat and government charges, 2 years ago everybody was talking about 1500 figure and now 3k????

myshirt

The reality is your offer was just accepted. It's going to take about 10 weeks until you can get the keys with all the messing that goes on. You have 40 days to stamp the deed when all done. And you can strategically cause delays aswell but I wouldn't push your luck past 2-3 weeks extra.

All in, you should be fixing up the solicitor for about 2,600 give or take. And the collector general for 2,150. That gives you 3 months to get the 2,600 and another month to get the 2,150.

Bite down hard and save everything you can. Start selling stuff you don't need too. Don't balls it up by going for a credit union loan. The bank will not like that at all at all. They will do searches on you right up to 20 minutes before they transfer the mortgage money.

If you go with AIB too then they will give you a 6 month holiday where you don't need to start paying until you are in the house 6 months. Bank of Ireland give cashback on their mortgages. Etc etc. You've loads of options.

Dolbhad

Mike3549 wrote: »

Does it include searches land registry fees?

I remember 4 years ago solicitor fee was 850-1000 + vat and government charges, 2 years ago everybody was talking about 1500 figure and now 3k????

Solicitors are getting busier so seems fees have increased since then.

OP To be honest you don’t want a solicitor with a low ball price and taking on loads of work but you cannot reach them or they are slow getting through the work.

Outlays can be €1k alone before you get it professional fee and vat. To be honest your price seems very good. We were around €3,100 for professional fee, VAT and outlay. You’ll have stamp duty of 1%. And maybe budget €500 for engineers report. When we got our mortgage the advisor put in the fees when calculating to insure costs were covered.

You’ll have to part pay LPT for the pay of year you’ll own. You’ll have to set up life and house insurance also.

myshirt

Mike3549 wrote: »

Does it include searches land registry fees?

I remember 4 years ago solicitor fee was 850-1000 + vat and government charges, 2 years ago everybody was talking about 1500 figure and now 3k????

I'd love to meet the solicitor that was charging a fee like that. Cowboys.

A cheap solicitor could be the most expensive mistake you ever make.

A grand would just cut it for a plain vanilla clean conveyance, but anything else absolutely not. Any quote below 1,500 plus VAT I'd be very suspicious of. 850 to 1,000 is an absolute joke.

Mike3549

It was discussed here on boards before that solicitors doubled their professional fees for the same job in the last 2-3 years. 850-1k was a normal price 4-5 years ago, that means most of them were cowboys according to you. It did come up to 4k though with vat, searches, land registry and other charges.

Phileas Frog

Wait a minute... Where exactly are you with your mortgage application? You won't get your formal loan offer unless you have your 10% deposit + 5k for legal fees.

physioman

myshirt wrote: »

I'd love to meet the solicitor that was charging a fee like that. Cowboys.

A cheap solicitor could be the most expensive mistake you ever make.

A grand would just cut it for a plain vanilla clean conveyance, but anything else absolutely not. Any quote below 1,500 plus VAT I'd be very suspicious of. 850 to 1,000 is an absolute joke.

When we bought 3 years ago. Solicitor fees were only 1000 plus vat and they were excellent. The boom is back and now they seem to charge whatever they want.

Turkish1

myshirt wrote: »

The reality is your offer was just accepted. It's going to take about 10 weeks until you can get the keys with all the messing that goes on. You have 40 days to stamp the deed when all done. And you can strategically cause delays aswell but I wouldn't push your luck past 2-3 weeks extra.

All in, you should be fixing up the solicitor for about 2,600 give or take. And the collector general for 2,150. That gives you 3 months to get the 2,600 and another month to get the 2,150.

Bite down hard and save everything you can. Start selling stuff you don't need too. Don't balls it up by going for a credit union loan. The bank will not like that at all at all. They will do searches on you right up to 20 minutes before they transfer the mortgage money.

If you go with AIB too then they will give you a 6 month holiday where you don't need to start paying until you are in the house 6 months. Bank of Ireland give cashback on their mortgages. Etc etc. You've loads of options.

Good advice and as described loads of options

guppy

physioman wrote: »

When we bought 3 years ago. Solicitor fees were only 1000 plus vat and they were excellent. The boom is back and now they seem to charge whatever they want.

Is that just solicitors fees, or everything you were charged for? I paid €2600 6 weeks ago, which did not include stamp duty, but which did cover all other fees, including VAT. As far as I know, most solicitors quote on that basis now.

Mike3549

guppy wrote: »

physioman wrote: »

When we bought 3 years ago. Solicitor fees were only 1000 plus vat and they were excellent. The boom is back and now they seem to charge whatever they want.

Is that just solicitors fees, or everything you were charged for? I paid €2600 6 weeks ago, which did not include stamp duty, but which did cover all other fees, including VAT. As far as I know, most solicitors quote on that basis now.

Thats solicitors fee only
If you paid 2600, approx 1k is for the land registry and related charges, and professional fee comes to 1250-1300 + vat which is a good price at this day and age.

guppy

Mike3549 wrote: »

Thats solicitors fee only
If you paid 2600, approx 1k is for the land registry and related charges, and professional fee comes to 1250-1300 + vat which is a good price at this day and age.

Thanks Mike, I thought that maybe there were some crossed wires here regarding solicitors fee only versus total inclusive cost.

I initially balked at the quote I was given, but broken down, and considering the purchase price of the house, I don't think it's bad value at all. Solicitors work hard for years in college, then at barely paid internships, I don't begrudge the associated professional fee.

JustAThought

Your mortgage advisor is there to advise and help you - not write blank cheques for you. Ask them what the breakdown of the figure hey gave you is.

Shop around by price for a solicitor. The idea of oaying kess and gettung a substandard service is scaremongering - if they do a runbish job and you make a complaint which is upheld then yhey will lose their luvluehood and license to practise. Get out the golden pages /google and ring about and ask for an all inclysive quote on closing a hkuse sale and any associayed costs - get it in writing. Then choose one.

As regards the aurvey - surely you had this done before you made an offer - my bank made this a condition of the loan approval.

If you have to get a CU loan then factor in interiors as well if you can not sure if you're buying a new home (no stamp duty) or secind hamd one or the type or size but its well worthwhile if you are borrowung to have a little extra to make sure you are not living in 1980's style and eating off crates with olastuc cutlery! Negotiate a discount for everything you buy for the house and make sure the past local property taxes are paid up or discounted from the price you offered .

Congrats on your new house/home!!!

Phileas Frog

JustAThought wrote: »

Your mortgage advisor is there to advise and help you - not write blank cheques for you. Ask them what the breakdown of the figure hey gave you is.

Shop around by price for a solicitor. The idea of oaying kess and gettung a substandard service is scaremongering - if they do a runbish job and you make a complaint which is upheld then yhey will lose their luvluehood and license to practise. Get out the golden pages /google and ring about and ask for an all inclysive quote on closing a hkuse sale and any associayed costs - get it in writing. Then choose one.

As regards the aurvey - surely you had this done before you made an offer - my bank made this a condition of the loan approval.

If you have to get a CU loan then factor in interiors as well if you can not sure if you're buying a new home (no stamp duty) or secind hamd one or the type or size but its well worthwhile if you are borrowung to have a little extra to make sure you are not living in 1980's style and eating off crates with olastuc cutlery! Negotiate a discount for everything you buy for the house and make sure the past local property taxes are paid up or discounted from the price you offered .

Congrats on your new house/home!!!

Have you drink taken? Or typing on a French keyboard?

There is stamp duty on new homes by the way!

Dolbhad

JustAThought wrote: »

Your mortgage advisor is there to advise and help you - not write blank cheques for you. Ask them what the breakdown of the figure hey gave you is.

Shop around by price for a solicitor. The idea of oaying kess and gettung a substandard service is scaremongering - if they do a runbish job and you make a complaint which is upheld then yhey will lose their luvluehood and license to practise. Get out the golden pages /google and ring about and ask for an all inclysive quote on closing a hkuse sale and any associayed costs - get it in writing. Then choose one.

Congrats on your new house/home!!!

Any solicitor who does conveyance can obviously help buy your house. In reality you can complain that if they make a mistake on the review of legal title. You can’t have a complaint upheld cause their slow to get back to you. But that’s what matters most and I think sets the “good” from “bad”. You want a solicitor who can deal with your file as quickly as possible and has time to talk to you and go through any questions you have. That’s where sometimes the difference of price comes in. A solicitor with a low fix rate can do the job. But will obviously have more work than someone more expensive which will mean their slower to get through the work.

In reality so not skimp on engineer or solicitor. A house is the biggest thing you’ll buy and you want to employ the best that look after your interest. Recommendations are important so chat to mortgage advisor or colleagues and friends and see who they used and liked.

Don’t get a loan. The bank will do a credit check before funds are released to your solicitor so any new credit cards or loans that show up that weren’t there when you applied will be a red flag to bank and they won’t release funds. Solicitors fees and stamp duty aren’t payable until solicitor is requesting funds so you may have time to save.

riclad

IF your bid is accepted ,and the house is old, 20 plus years ,you may choose to pay for a structural survey, cost 400-500 euros to
show any issues with the house .it,s not a legal requirement .
Most buyers will not get a survey unless the house is old and it looks as if it need major repairs , rewiring , etc
last time i looked stamp duty is 1 per cent on homes under 1 million euro.


If you pay VAT on a house, you only have to pay stamp duty on the price of the house before the VAT was added.
So, for example, if you paid €340,500 (including VAT) for your new house, this is made up of the base price of €300,000 plus 13.5% VAT (€40,5000). So – you only pay stamp duty on the base price of €300,000 at 1% – which is €3000.
Note : VAT on residential property – If you buy a brand new house from a builder or developer, you will be charged VAT at 13.5%. If you are buying a “second hand” or existing property, you do not have to pay VAT.


from ;
http://www.moneyguideireland.com/stamp-duty-rates-in-ireland.html

Sunrise_Sunset

We are buying and selling and have budgeted 12k for all of the fees and associated costs.
We're hoping it's enough.
So far we've spent almost E1,500 of that on estate agents advertising fees (selling), the BER assessment (selling), MUD fees (selling), bank valuation (buying) and a surveyor (buying).

ted1

myshirt wrote: »

I'd love to meet the solicitor that was charging a fee like that. Cowboys.

A cheap solicitor could be the most expensive mistake you ever make.

A grand would just cut it for a plain vanilla clean conveyance, but anything else absolutely not. Any quote below 1,500 plus VAT I'd be very suspicious of. 850 to 1,000 is an absolute joke.

The price you pay does not in any way reflect how good a solicitor is. Your comment is just wrong. It’s a legal process being conducted by a licensed qualified professional. Some firms offer low conveyance as they specialise in it and are more efficient.

L'prof

Based off your stamp duty figure I’m assuming the purchase price is €215k. Our advisor in the bank would have advised to have €27450 put aside for deposit, moving in and other expenses

Grumpypants

Just looked up my cost from 4 years ago and it was 1250 for the professional fees and around the same for land registry etc. So came in at 2.5k. With stamp duty the 4.5k sounds about right.

But to go into a contract of this size without doing a smallest bit of research seems odd. Even a Google would give you a rough breakdown.