# Solicitors fees (buying a house)



## Igcuimhne81 (15 Jun 2011)

Not sure the correct forum to put this but as Im buying a property I thought I would post it here.

As I need a solicitor to complete the purchase of a house I took Mary Harneys advice and decided to 'shop around'. The only problem is that after calling 5 solicitors they all came back with a 1% of purchase price plus VAT plus Outlay.

1. How is it, that in times of economic hardship, in a 'free market' economy could it possibly be that every solicitor office I called all charged the same price? Where is the competition in this sector?

2. Also, without even asking for the purchase price of the house they all quoted me a 1% figure. So if Im buying a €200,000 or a €300,000 there will be an extra cost of €1,000 if I buy the €300,000 house. Not becasue the solicitor has any extra work to do but simply because it is the price I negotiated.

3. One solicitor quoted me that on top of the fee a charge of €120 for post and phonecalls would be incurred. This is before any phone calls are made or anything has been posted.

With everything going on in this country, how is this rip-off allowed to continue without question.


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## T McGibney (15 Jun 2011)

Did you enquire yet of friends/family/colleagues for recommendations based on their experiences?


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## Woodie (15 Jun 2011)

One of the issues that IMF stated should be sorted.  After experience buying in UK and in Ireland I can only say that broadly the "professional" in Ireland leaves a lot to be desired when involved in this kind of work and charges about 10 times as much for doing the same job.   Also in almost every instance with several solicitors there has been problems with simple work done incorrectly or not done at all.  Great little country eh?


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## NOAH (15 Jun 2011)

are you not glad you posted here,  as a blow in I am appalled, disgusted, etc etc how the Irish professions rain on their own people.  go here for a proper price

Why does it continue?  because people pay without question, simples.

[broken link removed]

noah

ps you can get same deal in other parts of country, google


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## browtal (15 Jun 2011)

In todays Irish Independent there is an article about legal costs of £250 from some company. Unfortunately I cannot find the article again to give you the page. Good luck Browtal


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## Spear (16 Jun 2011)

Keep shopping around. You should be able to get it for less than 1.2k plus vat plus outlay.


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## Laughahalla (23 Jun 2011)

1000 euro + vat +outlay at the height in 2005/2006..Other solicitors were doing as low as 650 euro + vat+outlay 

Shop around, Tell them that you are willing to pay so much ..They will either accept it or reject it.


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## Protocol (24 Jun 2011)

I can never understand how if there are hundreds of sol unemployed, then the conveyancing fees are still being quoted at 1%?

I thought % fees were gone.  Obviously not.

All over AAM we hear of massive, massive legal fees for probate.  Examples of 10k, 15k for reasonable simple estates.

And here is yet another in a litany of examples of overcharging by sol.

The IMF say it, the OECD say it in every survey of Ireland, the National Competitiveness Council say it, yet nothing ever changes.


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## colm5 (24 Jun 2011)

Got a quote for <1000€ inclusive of everything & VAT, which was nothing near 1%. Dont go with a %, fixed fee plus costs


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## Woodie (24 Jun 2011)

colm5 said:


> Got a quote for <1000€ inclusive of everything & VAT, which was nothing near 1%. Dont go with a %, fixed fee plus costs


 
That is refreshing to hear that there are options to dump the stupid % fee, looks like from your experience and the other quotes in this thread that things are finally changing.


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## ger49 (24 Jun 2011)

I bought house recently. I was quoted 800 for professional fee, 35 for misc(telephone calls, postage etc). and 800 for outlays. The final invoice was exactly as initially quoted.
Get quote in writing.


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