Low cost Legal Fees

ninsaga

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There have been a number of offerings emerging in relation to low cost legal fees associated with residential buying/selling ie....

- REA
- Homebuyhomesell.ie
- ezhome.ie

....just noticed another one y'day called [broken link removed] that are advertising in Cork & Limerick.

Guess it comes to show that the time for excessive legal fees associated with home buying & selling is becoming a thing of the past. All good for the consumer of course!

ninsaga

Note: I am not associated in anyway with any of the above companies
 
ninsaga said:
Guess it comes to show that the time for excessive legal fees associated with home buying & selling is becoming a thing of the past.
Some of the offers pitched as low cost services (e.g. €x + VAT + outlay) can actually work out more expensive than going to another independent solicitor whose professional conveyancing fee (€x) will actually be lower. Don't assume that the "discount" offers are necessarily the best. Shop around. And not just on price alone either.
 
I asked Homelawdirect for a quote as I will be selling and buying and it was in the region of 3k, which isnt overly expensive but I got a better deal by using a solicitor that we do business with thru my employer. Some of the firms I asked were unbelievably expensive, one firm was 4.5k. I dont know if this is cheap in Dublin or whereever but in Limerick to me its expensive. Def shop around -
 
I need to get a solicitor to do the legal conveyancing on a new apartment I have bought. Anyone got any recommenadations ?? ( cheap and reliable service wanted)

p.s I have my mortgage already so don't need the all - in - one offerings
 
Have you searched the board for recommendations? There are many threads on this issue and a key post as well. A lot will depend on where you are based, so you might want to edit your post to include this info.
 
i personally would not trust an outfit which publishes the following on their web-site:

Interest only mortgages

This is sometimes called a tracker mortgage . You only pay interest instead of capital which makes for lower repayments. Not all lending institutions offer this option. We at homelawdirect can offer you strong financial advice in respect of the best option for you.

It may be worth considering taking an interest only mortgage for a specified period of time agreed with your lending institution & thereafter paying capital & interest.

see [broken link removed]
 
I'm based in dublin , sorry did not see the key posts ... as part of the package for the apt. complex theres an offer from solicitors for conveyance + vat + outlay of €1700 ... that seems quite reasonable , correct ?
 
What is the €1,700 figure? Solicitor's conveyancing fee only? Or fee plus outlay? Or an all encompassing figure including VAT?

Normally the only a priori hard/known figure is the solicitor's conveyancing fee (which should be anywhere from €600 to €1,000 or even higher as far as I know). The outlay cannot normally be accurately estimated up front but only when the work is done. Or maybe here they know enough to be able to do this for a flat rate in this case? On the face of it I reckon that €1,700 in total would not be excessive but (a) I'm not clear if this is an all encompassing figure and (b) the fee alone says nothing about the quality of the service that you will get. €1,700 would be very expensive if it turned out that they got a rookie or incompetent solicitor to do the job and they missed some obvious or subtle problem!
 
I can't recall exactly how much we paid-€1700 sounds roughly familiar. For that we got an utterly incompetent trainee, and the solicitor they were dealing with was also a trainee. I doubt that fully qualified and experienced solicitors get invloved in straightforward conveyancing cases (e.g. new apartments etc.).
 
ClubMan said:
What is the €1,700 figure? Solicitor's conveyancing fee only? Or fee plus outlay? Or an all encompassing figure including VAT?

Normally the only a priori hard/known figure is the solicitor's conveyancing fee (which should be anywhere from €600 to €1,000 or even higher as far as I know). The outlay cannot normally be accurately estimated up front but only when the work is done. Or maybe here they know enough to be able to do this for a flat rate in this case? On the face of it I reckon that €1,700 in total would not be excessive but (a) I'm not clear if this is an all encompassing figure and (b) the fee alone says nothing about the quality of the service that you will get. €1,700 would be very expensive if it turned out that they got a rookie or incompetent solicitor to do the job and they missed some obvious or subtle problem!

I think its €1700 and this includes the outlay and vat .... (have the leaflet @ home )
 
On a related note I saw a solicitor going through a property deed in the local coffee shop the other day and she seemed to be scanning it (I can't believe that she was actually reading it) at a rate of about 12 pages per minute. Assuming that this was a conveyancing job (admittedly a big, but not necessarily outlandish, assumption) would this be normal? Is it really just a case of looking for exceptions from the norm by scanning the doc rather than reading it in detail?
 
LizardKing said:
I think its €1700 and this includes the outlay and vat .... (have the leaflet @ home )
Whatever the price it would be prudent to shop around anyway and try to get good recommendations from trusted family, friends and colleagues. I personally would prioritise reliability over price but would obviously try to keep price low too.
 
Interest only mortgages

This is sometimes called a tracker mortgage . You only pay interest instead of capital which makes for lower repayments. Not all lending institutions offer this option. We at homelawdirect can offer you strong financial advice in respect of the best option for you.

It may be worth considering taking an interest only mortgage for a specified period of time agreed with your lending institution & thereafter paying capital & interest.
:eek: :eek: :eek: ..... strong financial advice hey???
 
Maybe I'm dumb but I don't see what the fundamental problem is with that extract other than the fact that they are confusing trackers and interest only mortgages? Or is that the point? :eek:
 
Heres the listing from the leaflet I got ...

Professional Fees including VAT - €1,374

Compulsory outlay (not subject to VAT)
Land Registry Fee on deed - €85
Land Registry Fee for folio and plan - €25
Certificate of charge - €6
Searches - €170
Swearing on affidavits - €40

Total : - €1700

Price Excludes stamp duty
(not relevant to me , 1st time buyer of new property less than 125 sqm)


My Sister works in a solicitors office and has said this is a good offer , as you could pay anything up to €2500 for conveyancing ...
 
I would have understood that their profession fee was €950 + VAT = €1149 as opposed to the €1374 they quoted you.

ninsaga
 
LizardKing said:
Price Excludes stamp duty
(not relevant to me , 1st time buyer of new property less than 125 sqm)
Not necessarily - stamp duty at 0.1% subject to a cap of €630 is charged on mortgages in excess of €254K unless the rules or rates/amounts have changed this [broken link removed] was published. This is separate from SD on the property itself which is 0% for FTBs of new properties under 125sqm.
My Sister works in a solicitors office and has said this is a good offer , as you could pay anything up to €2500 for conveyancing ...
Once again - price alone should not be the main or only arbiter here.
 
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