Need help-Overcharged conveyancing fee

[MM Lovers]

Dear all,

I am currently having this problem and would like to seek your opinion and share your experience in dealing with this situation:

The story goes:

I sold one of my property and bought another one concurrently. I engaged the same lawyer to act for both cases. The legal fee was verbally agreed to be around $1,000 plus for both cases. The selling part was completed successfully and the legal fee was only $1,300 plus. As we are buying an under construction property, the process is longer as it is under progressive payment. Midway through the process, the lawyer retired and the case was passed to her colleague. The progressive payment has reached the stage where the bank loan kicks in and the lawyer has sent us their bill. Their legal fee and disbursements added to be $6,000 plus. Our property price is $1.06 million. I am stunned by the amount. I have tried calling them to reduce the fee and they only reduce $500. I have tried calling the retired lawyer but she did not answer my phone or sms.

Are we being overcharged? We feel that we have being overcharged. The past lawyers that I have engaged did not charge more than $2,000. What can we do to seek redress of this problem? Any members faced such a situation before? please help. Thanks.

[teddybear]

Property under construction should get higher legal fees, but not as much as $6000+.
More like $2000+.
You may want to consult Law Society regarding over-charging (much more than the norm of $2500 that most lawyers charges)?

Dear all,

I am currently having this problem and would like to seek your opinion and share your experience in dealing with this situation:

The story goes:

I sold one of my property and bought another one concurrently. I engaged the same lawyer to act for both cases. The legal fee was verbally agreed to be around $1,000 plus for both cases. The selling part was completed successfully and the legal fee was only $1,300 plus. As we are buying an under construction property, the process is longer as it is under progressive payment. Midway through the process, the lawyer retired and the case was passed to her colleague. The progressive payment has reached the stage where the bank loan kicks in and the lawyer has sent us their bill. Their legal fee and disbursements added to be $6,000 plus. Our property price is $1.06 million. I am stunned by the amount. I have tried calling them to reduce the fee and they only reduce $500. I have tried calling the retired lawyer but she did not answer my phone or sms.

Are we being overcharged? We feel that we have being overcharged. The past lawyers that I have engaged did not charge more than $2,000. What can we do to seek redress of this problem? Any members faced such a situation before? please help. Thanks.

[MortgageGuru]

Property under construction should get higher legal fees, but not as much as $6000+.
More like $2000+.
You may want to consult Law Society regarding over-charging (much more than the norm of $2500 that most lawyers charges)?

$6000+ is inclusive of First Disbursement.

even if the whole loan is already disbursed, owner paying not more than $2500 based on 30 years loan of $800k on the installment.

they're charging owner above $3500 at least.

[iwantgizmos]

$6000+ is inclusive of First Disbursement.

even if the whole loan is already disbursed, owner paying not more than $2500 based on 30 years loan of $800k on the installment.

they're charging owner above $3500 at least.

Sounds like another Sim Lim Square case.

[DC33_2008]

Conveyancing lawyers should be giving competitive rates given that the property market is quiter and banks are no longer giving legal subsidy.

Sounds like another Sim Lim Square case.

[MM Lovers]

Property under construction should get higher legal fees, but not as much as $6000+.
More like $2000+.
You may want to consult Law Society regarding over-charging (much more than the norm of $2500 that most lawyers charges)?

Have sent an email to the lawyer to request for further reduction since 16 Nov and still no reply from them. I have contacted law society and awaiting for them to call back. Will not pay them until they reduce to a rate that is of market rate.

[Singleton]

Have sent an email to the lawyer to request for further reduction since 16 Nov and still no reply from them. I have contacted law society and awaiting for them to call back. Will not pay them until they reduce to a rate that is of market rate.

Don't understand how this could happen in the first place.

The estimated legal fees are always provided in writing prior to service and usually in a quoted lump sum

If this is not the case but rather dependent on amount of work, the contract should specify as such, especially in complex scenarios.

[MM Lovers]

Don't understand how this could happen in the first place.

The estimated legal fees are always provided in writing prior to service and usually in a quoted lump sum

If this is not the case but rather dependent on amount of work, the contract should specify as such, especially in complex scenarios.

If the lawyer who acted in the beginning did not retired, it is a straight forward case. We trusted her that she will inform the take over lawyer (her colleague) to charge a reasonable amount. Unfortunately this did not happen. We thought that lawyer should be honorable people. Sad.

[DC33_2008]

Younger lawyer has more bills to pay compared to retiring lawyers. Times have changed.

If the lawyer who acted in the beginning did not retired, it is a straight forward case. We trusted her that she will inform the take over lawyer (her colleague) to charge a reasonable amount. Unfortunately this did not happen. We thought that lawyer should be honorable people. Sad.

[MM Lovers]

Younger lawyer has more bills to pay compared to retiring lawyers. Times have changed.

Maybe she thinks I am a carrot head.

[MortgageGuru]

Maybe she thinks I am a carrot head.

I've seen before $4k charges before too.

It actually depends on case by case basis,maybe your case is abit more complicated and require more work.

[teddybear]

I had the experience of being billed $6k+ too for a SIMPLE subsale transaction, and this is from an experienced mature lawyer from a small private law firm, just because the lawyer is the spouse of somebody I know. I had instead become a carrot-head for not clearly negotiating the fee upfront thinking that they would not "chop" us but they did! Ok I take it as a lesson learnt and move on.......... I never use this same lawyer again, and subsequent ones all charge $2000-2500 nett.

So lesson learnt: If you engage people you know, better be clear and set it black-and-white about "price" first!

I've seen before $4k charges before too.

It actually depends on case by case basis,maybe your case is abit more complicated and require more work.