Solicitor - what is a good price ?

I am thinking of putting an offer on a house.....so should have a solicitor lined up ....yeah ?
It's 6 years since I bought property before .......hated my solicitor then....

What can I expect to pay for property purchase (no subsequent sale).......any recommendations in city centre to Inchicore area....

The usual fee is 1% of the purchase price (plus VAT + outlay), but you may find better offers if you shop around. If you're a member of a credit union, check out homebuyhomesell who are a group of solicitors who offer a fixed price (+VAT + outlay) for their services.

You can put the offer on the house first, and if it's accepted, you can then get your solicitor organised.

You should be able to get a flat rate - I've seen companies online quoting 995 + outlay + VAT - Google for conveyancing Ireland .

i've purchased a few houses in the past couple of years the solicitors fee was always around the €2,500 mark

You should get a good solicitor for about .5% of purchase price plus outlay. I would concentrate more on getting a solicitor who is good and gets a personal recommendation than cost. If you're solicitor does a crap job sorting it out when you come to sell will cost you a hell of a lot more than the few hundred you will save at this stage.

Worth reading this key post:

Useful background information on the legal work involved in conveyancing

if a solicitor starts quoting percentgages to you, hang up...most solicitors will give you a set fee (plus vat plus putlays) in todays market, if they want your business, the day of the % fee is well gone, don't be fooled by the big story they give on whats involved, its a selling stratgy, shop around, offer them the sale of your old house and purchase of your new house, the most you should be paying is 1200 euro's.
Alternatively if you are remortgaging, choose a bank that pays your legal fees so all you have to pay is for your house, best of luck and don't be conned

As ever - when choosing a service provider such as a conveyancing solicitor don't shop around on price alone and make sure to go on trusted recommendations if at all possible. A cheap professional fee will be very expensive if (in spite of all the supposed protections and guarantees) the job is done shoddily or you don't get the level of customer service that you expect/require. Note that a professional fee of €999 offered by some flat rate providers is not necessarily cheap. And, as mentioned above, remember that the total cost will be professional conveyancing fee plus VAT plus outlays (as outlined in the link that I posted earlier). Make sure to ask for a written estimate of charges (and for regular readers - yes - I have forgotten what it's called again - a section "something" document ).

Tanx. I contacted homebuyhomesell via email at the weekend. I got a phonecall on Monday to agree which solicitior they would allocate to me. Solicitor called me yesterday when I was in a meeting and was perfectly understanding - said would send me an email. Got email with entire estimate and cost breakdown. Spoke to a friend who used the same website - very complimentay. So, so far I am impressed even though I am not committed to use them yet.....

shellie_13 said:

Got email with entire estimate and cost breakdown.

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Bear in mind that (as with similar estimates from any other solicitor) at least some of this is most likely illustrative and some of the specific costs will not be known for certain in advance. So maybe budget for a bit more than the estimate or ask the solicitor for a best/worst case price scenario so that you can be prepared.

shellie_13 said:

It's 6 years since I bought property before .......hated my solicitor then....

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If you had problems with bad service from a solicitor in the past, it strikes me as odd that you now decide to shop around on the basis of price rather than personal recommendations.

shellie_13 said:

I contacted homebuyhomesell via email at the weekend. ... Solicitor called me yesterday when I was in a meeting and was perfectly understanding - said would send me an email. Got email with entire estimate and cost breakdown.... Spoke to a friend who used the same website - very complimentay.

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Your friend's recommendation means nothing unless HBHS allocate the same solicitor to you.

I recently bought a house for €338500 and the solicitors fee was €2100, the fee itself was €1000 and the rest was made up of land registry fees etc. I knew the solicitor through a friend so I think I got some money off but another firm quoted me €2700. My solicitor now didn't indicate that the fee was a percentage of the price of the house.

It is going to be interesting to see how the Lynn/Byrne scandals and the slowdown in house sales affect the conveyancing market. I would anticipate that there will be fewer direct 999 deals and that the best prices will be where there is a tie in with the lender.

However we may see three way closings again which may mean that the banks will have to have their own solicitor anyway and may not be willing to pay for another.

"....and that the best prices will be where there is a tie in with the lender"

I can't see this becoming the norm - it would surely be illegal on competition grounds. However, there is clearly a need for a change in standard procedures so as to ensure that the type of conduct alleged in the Lynn and Byrne cases cannot so easily happen again. There are various relatively simple steps which could and should be taken to achieve this outcome.

I think that the current situation, where the solicitor for the borrower is also the solicitor for the bank, is here to stay.

The situation giving rise to the problems alleged in the present cases seems to be that the solicitor acted for the bank, acted for the borrower and also WAS the borrower. This was clearly open to abuse: I have remortgaged a few times myself and it did strike me as a little inappropriate that the lender each time was happy for my own firm to handle the mortgage of my property (though I have given them no cause to regret it). I have to admit that my saying this now is a little akin to the Kerry clairvoyant - who professed an ability to look into the past.......