Flat rate legal vs. 1%

Having discussed the legal costs today with our solicitor he advised me the costs on our €180k house purchase would be 1%+vat+ outlay. However he reckons the outlay will amount to less than €100.
Happy to go with him as he's a friend of the family as such and is regarded as very thorough and reliable, which is vital in practice and for peace of mind.
A point to mention would be that the property would well over 100 years and the previous owner has had it for only about a year.
Just trying to compare as to what my options were,
from the calculator on moving.ie with the flat rate of €895+vat+outlay, the est. of outlay was

Estimated Outlays

Register of Mortgage:

€125.00

Cert of Charge:

€6.00

Commissioners Fees:

€22.00

Searches:

€150.00

Copy Folio and File:

€25.00

Land Registration Fees:

€375.00**

Misc. Outlays:

€121.00

Estimated Total Costs:

€974.00





Based on the following information

Property Price:

€180,000.00

Mortgage Required:

€165,600.00

Owner Occupier or Investor:

Owner Occupier

New or Secondhand:

Second-hand

First-time Buyer:

Yes

Buying with Partner:

Yes

Partner is spouse:

Yes




So either unless I’ve misunderstood the above or possibly because the property has only recently changed hands, my calculations would be:



1800(1%)+100(outlay)+399(vat)=2299

vs

895(flat rate)+978(outlay)+393(vat)=2266



Goes without saying of course that my own solicitors outlay could increase and the above extract from the website is only an estimate, but could the difference in the flat rate be compensated with the outlay although I’m sure it would all be documented in the invoice.

A genuine question before anyone pounces and accuses me of being “anti-flat rate”.

The outlays should be the same, regardless of who you go with. €100 seems remarkably low for outlays to me.

I agree with RainyDay. For more background on the work and typical costs involved in conveyancing see this topic. If you are confident that the solicitor in question is reliable and will do a good job for you then this is arguably worth more than any minor savings that can be made.

The estimate of outlays on the second quote is correct.....I think the first solicitor possibly hasn't handled conveyancing in a very, very, very long time!

Sarah

www.rea.ie

If the house is an old one, it is likely that it is a "Registry of Deeds" title. This means that the registration fee for the conveyance (transfer) is €44.00 and the same again for the mortgage.

If it changed hands last year, the relatively recent Registry of Deeds searches should be with the title documents and need only small updating (at minimal cost). Other searches ( e.g. Judgment and Bankruptcy ) would still be needed, but the cost of searches would be relatively modest - less than €50.00. Commissioners fees would be €20-€30.

So, although the figure of under €100 is a touch optimistic, it is possible to have relatively small outlays only slightly over €100.00, depending upon the circumstances of the individual title.

No matter who you go to, the outlays should reflect the money actually spent, except for the catch-all "petty outlays" figure. Also, some solicitors avail of a "flat rate" searches service, so that the client knows beforehand exactly what such a service will cost. In this example, you would lose out by your solicitor using a flat rate law searcher, but it is the nature of such a service that a solicitor either uses a flat rate for all transactions or gets individually billed by the law searchers for all transactions - it is not possible for the solicityor to cherry pick.

Cut Price Conveyancers

Sirs

I have had discussion on this subject previously and I am still at sea.

My issue is that (potentially libellous comment removed) are one of 4 National Debt collectors for The Revenue Commissioners.

A colleague of mine had to pay them €500 at one stage to release his files and where they had mucked up his conveyance. Apparently the cost was for them to take a copy of the files, and which he specifically did not wish them to have for very valid reasons. The charge was approved by the Law Society and who are still investigating the muck up, some 2/3 years later. The matter was eventually rectfied at a cost of about €5,000.

What would happen though if uncle Joe is giving you a help to buy your house, HBHS are doing the conveyance, and the Revenue Commissioners are examining his affairs.

This stinks of Conflcit of Interest to me. Now like all things, you will probably not be that unlucky, although my colleague also thought that!

Another issue is that with HBHS I believe there are now 2 solicitors involved? Now where does the buck stop?

Any responses to this? Anyone ever have similar experiences? I would really like to get to the end of this as we are up to our necks in it.


Mrs Kingdom Man

Hi Kingdom Man,

Well done for making a scurrilous comment under the cloak of anonymity.

Here's a big shock for you.

Lawyer's often have more than one client. Guess what, sometimes this leads to conflict.

To suggest that because a solicitor's firm acts for the Revenue Commissioners they are conflicted for just that reason is simply ridiculous. Now if the same firm acted in a case for a client against the revenue commissioners and also acted for the revenue commissioners, that would clearly be conflicted but you haven't shown that to be the case in your "colleagues" situation.

Go on, give us your name if you really want to stir things up!!!