Solicitor costs and time for property purchase

S

Slimbo

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Hi All,

I have recently purchased a property in the North East of Ireland and have been to several solicitors to handle my business and put the sale through from start to close.

However, the best offer I am getting is €1,500-ish and a 3-month completion date.

As this is now my business and not a once off purchase (I have left fulltime employment to develop and refurbish property), I am looking for the quickest possible turnaround so I can start work.

Is 3-months acceptable and the norm?
Does anyone out there know of a quicker route or a way around this.

Lastly, is € 1,500 the normal cost?

Thanks in advance for your replies,

Slimbo
 
Slimbo said:
However, the best offer I am getting is €1,500-ish and a 3-month completion date.
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Check out the many existing threads on solicitors' conveyancing fees for more on this but bear in mind that you want low charges and quality of service and at some stage there could be a trade-off. Also - the completion time is unlikely to be totally under the control of your solicitor and depends on many factors involved in the transaction.
As this is now my business and not a once off purchase (I have left fulltime employment to develop and refurbish property), I am looking for the quickest possible turnaround so I can start work.
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Are you aware of the taxation implications of being a serial house buyer/seller?
 
I would have thought that 3 months from date of appointment of solicitor would be a remarkably optimistic timeframe in order to complete a property purchase transaction?
 
I can't say about the cost- that really depends on the work involved. If I were to advise someone who was thinking about going into property developing as a business I would say that it would be important for you to now identify a solicitor that you can trust, who is efficient and who you can build up a good working relationship with. Similarly an accountant and an engineer or architect. There will be times ( quite often) when you will need to be able to pick up the phone to someone of these professional advisers and get an answer there and then. You will not get this kind of service from a home-buy home-sell type set up- this will be all about only the purchase of this house and for smooth sailing. They will not deal with any contingency. Once you do build up this good relationship you should find that you will be able to negotiate a better fee due to repeat business. Many solicitors would give a reduced fee to existing clients.

As for time frame, again that really depends on the property and the title involved. If it is completely straightforward, with a willing vendor, vendors solicitor and your solicitor it is possible to complete very quickly. I have in the past closed sales within a week. This is the exception rather than the norm however and is only possible where the title and planning issues are all clear, where finance is readily available, where the property is unoccupied etc etc.
 
Sale agreed 19th February 2007
Sale closed and in funds on 11th April 2007

8 weeks. Two competent solicitors and prepared vendor.
 
davidoco said:
Sale agreed 19th February 2007
Sale closed and in funds on 11th April 2007

8 weeks. Two competent solicitors and prepared vendor.
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Just as a matter of interest, I presume you had appointed your solicitor more than a few weeks previous to the 'sale agreed' date?
 
I have similar experience to Davidoco.. It tooks us slightly less than 8 weeks from deposit paid to EA to getting the keys from solicitor.
Solicitor appointed after "sale agreed".
I think this is as short as it can get, and need a bit of luck as well that nothing unexpected will hold the sale.
 
davidoco said:
All the above applied in my case of the 8 week closing.
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Sale of our last house went even faster: Sale agreed 9 Nov 2006, sold and in funds 19 December. I'd notified our solicitor a little before we put the house on the market but he said himself that he didn't do much with it until we went sale agreed. At that point we had to conduct a forensic exercise to find the deeds which were in limbo between previous solicitor and the mortgage provider - subject of some panic at the time, but it shows you can have things go a little wrong and still do the lot quite fast, if you have the right solicitor.
 
ubiquitous said:
Just as a matter of interest, I presume you had appointed your solicitor more than a few weeks previous to the 'sale agreed' date?
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No, but dealt with her over the years.

She cannot, should not or does not, take up the title documents until there is a sale agreed.

What might be handy for new vendors is to have a look at a questionnaire for the requisition on title document to see what sort of questions they ask, all 40 questions which would put you on notice when selling what is required. Anyone want to see one can PM me with an email address and I will mail a copy.

.5% + VAT + outlay of sale price was the fee. I think .75% would be charged unless you look for a reduction.
 
davidoco said:
What might be handy for new vendors is to have a look at a questionnaire for the requisition on title document to see what sort of questions they ask, all 40 questions which would put you on notice when selling what is required. Anyone want to see one can PM me with an email address and I will mail a copy.
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Presuming you obtained this from your solicitor she may not be too happy with your offer...
 
Vanilla said:
Presuming you obtained this from your solicitor she may not be too happy with your offer...
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Firstly it's very likely a Law Society produced questionnaire which she uses and secondly I don't care what she thinks as in my opinion there is no copyright attached to the document as it consists entirely of questions and contains no original thoughts.
 
I think you'll find it IS copyrighted. You have no right to reproduce this document or send it around freely. I know the document in question. Each one must be purchased from the Law Society unless the solicitor has written up her own individual one- and in that case copyright will belong to her/her firm.
 
Vanilla said:
I think you'll find it IS copyrighted. You have no right to reproduce this document or send it around freely. I know the document in question. Each one must be purchased from the Law Society unless the solicitor has written up her own individual one- and in that case copyright will belong to her/her firm.
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Nice little earner for them there.
 
davidoco said:
What might be handy for new vendors is to have a look at a questionnaire for the requisition on title document to see what sort of questions they ask, all 40 questions which would put you on notice when selling what is required. Anyone want to see one can PM me with an email address and I will mail a copy.
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I hope you haven't emailed it to too many people in the Law Society! :)
 
we bought our home (second hand) using a solicitor from home buy home sell and it worked out i think under €1500 and took 6 week. He was really good and took calls and answered our greenhorn questions with style!
i agree that you will need a pro you can trust if developing is to become your full time job. Did you see property ladder C4 this week, a good and bad scenario outlined to focus any would be property flipper!
Good luck in your career change.
 
I would have thought you would know the answers to all these questions before you went into this full time. Have you done the up and sold on a few houses already? If I was going to give up a fulltime job I would have all of this sorted out before hand!
 
Solicitors fees vary from one office to another, likewise so does the service, basically you get what you pay for !! there a lot of solicitors around that come recommended some cheap some not so cheap, if you want to email me i can let you know of some that friends of mine used.
 
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