# Site Transfer Cost



## regvw (30 Jan 2011)

Hi All, 
I'm in the planning phase of my self build. I am being gifted a site by my parents. I am basically trying to understand how i get the site in my name. 

From what I learned we will need two solicitors involved in this transaction, one to act for my parents and one to act for me. This seems like a lot of red tape to me. 

I'm wondering is this really necessary, has anyone been through the process. What is the whole thing going to cost me in solicitors fees, I know I will have to pay stamp duty now and my parents may be liable for capital gains tax. 

The solicitors fees seems to be the only thing thats in my contol on this one, but I dont know what would be a reasonable price for this work. I would apreciate any help on this.

thanks
Reg


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## onq (31 Jan 2011)

When we bought our first house, we bought it direct from the owners, not through an estae agent and one solicitor did all the legal documentation.
As far as I know it was entirely appropriate to do this and both parties benefited from the savings in professional fees.

You should approach a solicitor on this basis.
Perhaps one of the semi-retired gentlemen or ladies in your area who are winding down their practice.
Take legal advice, as opposed to laypersons rumour.

I too am a layperson in this regard. 

ONQ.


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## BMD (31 Jan 2011)

Just finished this process. 

You can get it done with one solicitor, it cost about €750. If you plan on using the same solicitor for your business then they will insist that your parents get independent legal advice as there is a conflict of interest in the solicitor working for both parties.

If the site is less an 0.96 acres and you act quickly you may avoid any SD or CGT


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## T McGibney (31 Jan 2011)

onq said:


> You should approach a solicitor on this basis.
> Perhaps one of the semi-retired gentlemen or ladies in your area who are winding down their practice.



Sorry, I don't understand why you advocate selecting someone who won't be in business in 1/2/3 years time?


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## onq (31 Jan 2011)

I didn't actually mention them not being in business in two or three years time.
As far as I know, the solicitor who handled our first conveyance may still be around.

Persons winding down the practice often continue to provide services from their sole domicile.
Persons who are stmi-retired still offer professional services to the public - just not the same level of work.

I trust that clarifies my comments fully.
Apologies for any confusion arising.

ONQ.


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## shoegal (31 Jan 2011)

Hi regvw, I went through this process and we used the one soclicitor. My parents and I showed up at the sol's office, she had the paper work ready and we signed on the dotted lines. The whole thing took about 15 mins. Best of luck with the build. This was a good few years ago and I then used the solicitor for my stage payments during the build process so I can't give you an accurate idea on costs, but I do remember it was a set fee rather than a percentage of the mortgage/build cost.


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## Vanilla (31 Jan 2011)

BMD said:


> If the site is less an 0.96 acres and you act quickly you may avoid any SD or CGT


 
Too late, there was an exemption on SD and CGT on a transfer of a site from parent to child, but it has been abolished in the last budget.



onq said:


> Persons winding down the practice often continue to provide services from their sole domicile.
> Persons who are stmi-retired still offer professional services to the public - just not the same level of work.
> 
> ONQ.


 
What? It costs somewhere between 15,000 to 20,000 at a minimum for a solicitor to get insurance and a practicing cert if they are a conveyancing solicitor and practice alone. Or even more. It costs more again to do CPD which is obligatory. So there are very, very few 'part-time' or 'semi-retired' solicitors. So I really don't understand what you mean. But I think you mean, a cheap job. As in everything, which you should well know, you get what you pay for.

To the OP, stamp duty depends on the value of the site. What is the value, and we can advise. CGT depends on your parents circumstances, when they acquired, how much for, what they have done with the land in the meantime etc. Legal fees will depend on what you are doing- just a site transfer or a site transfer with a mortgage and stage payment drawdowns.  There will be two solicitors involved but the first will organise the second, usually.


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## onq (31 Jan 2011)

Vanilla said:


> What? It costs somewhere between 15,000 to 20,000 at a minimum for a solicitor to get insurance and a practicing cert if they are a conveyancing solicitor and practice alone. Or even more. It costs more again to do CPD which is obligatory. So there are very, very few 'part-time' or 'semi-retired' solicitors. So I really don't understand what you mean. But I think you mean, a cheap job. As in everything, which you should well know, you get what you pay for.



The cost of registration annually was around €2,000 according to one SME I spoke to recently.

I cannot comment on the cost of professional indemnity cover insurance for solicitors, but it seems outrageously high.

Does this reflect the claims in relation to rogue solicitor Lynn and his ilk?

Unless its calculated under some set of protocols thagt are foreign to me, I expect the cost of cover will reflect the level of risk.

Accordingly, it will probably not be anywhere near €18,000.

Happy to stand corrected if you can post proof.

ONQ.


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## regvw (31 Jan 2011)

thanks for the posts guys, 
To sum up, it looks like this can be done with one solicitor, Vamilla you seem to think differently but others have posted that they have done this with one solicitor.

To me it looks like one solicitor is bound to cut down on cost and complexity in this simple transaction.

I think I will have no option but to pay SD and CGT


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## Vanilla (31 Jan 2011)

onq said:


> Accordingly, it will probably not be anywhere near €18,000.
> 
> Happy to stand corrected if you can post proof.
> 
> ONQ.


 

Have a look at this thread to see the reality of PII for solicitors.

 [broken link removed]

Bear in mind some of the quotes are for practices with more than one solicitor which are considered less of a risk, some are for non-conveyancing practices- also less risky. A sole, conveyancing solicitor is considered high risk.

And BTW your experience of one solicitor doing both sides of a transaction must be quite a few years ago as this is now frowned on by the Law Society. 

OP, some of the posters are referring to transactions that took place a few years ago. Since then the Law Society have stated that one solicitor should not act on both sides of any transaction as there is the potential for a conflict of interests. Normally in a site transfer one solicitor does all the paper work and registration etc but arranges for another solicitor to give independent legal advice.


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## onq (1 Feb 2011)

Hi Vanilla,

I am happy to stand corrected, but I am astonished!
Between the amounts charged and the lack of call-backs I started to form the opinion that the previous insurers didn't want their business.
And yes, the single-solicitor conveyance I am referrign to was a good while ago - 1992 IIRC - and our most recent conveyance involved two solicitors.

For the record, in that matter the first conveyance went flawlessly and caused no problems.
The second resulted in the keys not being at the Vendor's solicitors office for completion, the solicitor nowhere to be found, a mad dash to the estate agents office and us missing the guy from Bórd Gáis by two minutes on a cold Friday in February.
That left us and our young son in an unheated house for the weekend, and one that had been unnoccupied for a year previously - cold through and through!
So while the Law Society's rules may have been satisfied, the service was less than stellar and we certainly weren't "satisfied".

ONQ.


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## BMD (3 Feb 2011)

CGT exemption didn't go in the budget. SD did


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## mwhich (3 Feb 2011)

Hi,we're currently getting transferred over to my husband from his parents.  It is being completed by one solicitor, it hasn't been mentioned getting another solicitor.  We have to pay CGT, only because our site is >1acre.


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## regvw (5 Feb 2011)

Hi mwhich, 
Great to here you have just one solicitor, how much do you think he will charge ??

I think you will also have to pay Stamp duty at 1% and the Capital gains tax ammount will depend on whether the land is worth more now than when your parents aquired it. 

They use a multiplier to see if the value today is grater than what it was when your parent acquired teh land. With the way things are now I would expect that the land probably is worth little or no more so you should be ok on this front.


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## mwhich (7 Feb 2011)

Hi regvw, the solicitor initially quoted us 1750 last year but has since reduced the price to 1k for the site transfer and mortgage work.  We will have to pay stamp duty alright, but it is more than 1% depending on the value.  1% is only for residential property.  Thanks for your thoughts on the CGT, that's putting my mind at ease abit!!


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## Trilogy 1982 (7 Feb 2011)

Used the same solicitor. Its fairly straighforward and if the site is less than 0.96 acre (open to correction on exact figure) then you will not incur CGT.

Just a few forms to sign. Cost me around €2k for site tranfer and mortgage work which after looking at what others paid is making me sad


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## regvw (7 Feb 2011)

Thanks Guys, 
To clarify my solicitor told me today that no CGT has to be paid if site is less than 1 acre. Now he said SD was 1%, so hope he is right with this figure


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