# Solicitors charges - excessive ?????



## carrabrowne (2 Feb 2005)

My father died some months back and we engaged a local solicitor to arrange or probate. This involved putting the house (valued at 150,000 Euro) and about 10,000 Euro was his estate and the entire estate passed to my mother by will.

When we approached the solicitor  the Secretary stated that there was a fixed charge. Now the bill has come for 5,600 Euro.

This seems outrageous .. have we any recourse, there are no funds to challenge in court.


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## rainyday (2 Feb 2005)

Did the solicitor provide any quotation of costs beforehand?


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## EAMONN66 (2 Feb 2005)

i dont know what is normal here but it does seem excessive . ive read before that you can apply for probate yourself without any difficulty and if the house was in both names and without any mortgage , the transfer  should not have involved anything more than removing his name. i think the land registry do this if you send in the death cert.
ive been quoted €350 by a solicitor to remove my mothers name from a property that we jointly owned. no mention was made of the necessity for probate
if she had unrestricted access to the 10k and assuming your mother is retired and not looking for to use the house as colatteral for a mortgage, there was probably no need to go through the transfer process at all. it and any associated expense could have been left for her kids to sort out after she eventually passes away,as it will have to be done anyway at that point.


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## tobo (14 Feb 2005)

*solicitor fees*

1. The solicitor is obliged to set out the fees or basis of calculation of the fees at the outset.  This is referred to as a 'Section 68' letter.

2.  You should raise your concern with the solicitors concerned and advise them that if your complaint is not sorted to your satisfaction then you will refer the matter to the Law Society.

3. Without seeing the file in question, I would have thought that 1% of the value of the estate would not have been an unreasonable charge.

4. If you do not get satisfaction from the solicitor then put your complaint in writing to the Law Society at Blackhall Place, Dublin. They will investigate and have powers to reduce the bill you have received. You should not have to take this matterto court and therefore you do not need to concern yourself about further legal fees in challenging this apparently excessive bill.


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