Solicitors fee for buying a small bit of land

I suspect the latter, Liam. In my experience, stories like what we've heard here are routinely debunked when I read correspondence files. Today's generation of solicitors didn't come down in the last shower and are generally as capable as, and in practice more capable than, the rest of us in furnishing their clients with templated communications to avoid later hassle.

This is a copy paste of an email from my solicitor to carry out a sale for me (2016):


Further to your telephone call to the office I confirm that are standard professional fee for registered property is €1500 plus vat @ 23%. If the property is unregistered there is a lot more work involved and our standard fee is €1700 plus VAT @ 23%.



In light of the fact that X was a long standing client of the office we would be prepared to do the conveyance for a professional fee of €1300 plus vat @ 23% for registered and €1400 plus VAT for unregistered.


In addition to the above you will have the following some of what are estimates.


Registered Land _ Folio and File Plan €40.00

If unregistered Compliant Map €150.00 plus the Folio and File Plan fee of €40.00 – bearing in mind that an Engineer will have to complete the map and he could charge more than €150.00

Commissioner for Oaths for swearing documents €42.50 (estimate)

You may also have to get a letter from Local Authority re roads and services and the Council charge approximately €70.00 for this.


Should there be additional outlay due to third parties you will be informed of this immediately we become aware of same.

In addition to that I got the fee letter plus 6 pages of terms and conditions.

If I may please just add my 2 cents....

This person went to their Solicitor asking for a simple job to be done and also inquired as to the costs involved.

Some distance down the road and they feel like they've been ambushed with a litany of additional costs and the overall figures are well over what was anticipated.

So either the person has comprehension difficulties or else the Solicitor is an extremely poor communicator.

- A cynic might well form an opinion that this Solicitor gets more work by leading prospective clients down an 'economy path' and then hitting them with large bills later.....

Assuming the OP is not the issue here then I wouldn't go near this Solicitor in a fit anyhow.

MangoJoe said:

Assuming the OP is not the issue here then I wouldn't go near this Solicitor in a fit anyhow.

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Always two sides to any such story, with the truth often being somewhere in the middle ground. There may well have been poor communications & comprehension involving both parties here. The fixed costs involved are well understood by a lot of people, anyone who has ever purchased property in the past should understand these.

Even if you haven't purchased in the past it should become apparent very quickly when shopping around for a solicitor.

To fill anyone in who was interested, our solicitor brought down their fee significantly and we went through their invoice and agreed that some of the charges were not required / were over what was required. They have apologised and, although we won't go with them again, they have been helpful in resolving this.

Obviously, we did not ask our solicitor to quote for what our neighbours solicitor was charging, as someone suggested, apologies if I wasn't clear about that.

As some of the comments here state, we were not careful enough when we were hiring for a solicitor — we should have required written estimates, and shopped around more. It's an expensive lesson, but we won't repeat our mistakes! Thanks for anyone who gave helpful advice.

How large was the piece of land if you dont mind me asking, and was it in Dublin ?
Found your post above helpful glad u were sorted as regards the review of solicitors costs .
Debating asking a neighbour about some waste ground behind my back garden wall ...not sure what costs would be , have an idea of solicitor now at least !

Bronte said:

Further to your telephone call to the office I confirm that are standard professional fee for registered property is

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Your solicitor should have got their secretary to proof read the document before sending it out. Heaven forbid the legal details would have the same errors

Palerider said:

'' they add on €75 for office overhead...''

New one on me, talk about a junk charge, anybody else ever hear of this ?, I'd be very sore if my solicitor tried that on me...

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Yes. A letter, and we’re not talking about one of those official ones with seals, costs €4-€5.
For example, “please find enclose the receipt blahblahblah will cost you €4-€5 with a country solicitor.
Less, if anything, with a city solicitor. IME.