Cost of Conveyancing?

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Originally Posted by ian

even with vendor disclosure?
I don't get your last point re trusting the vendor in respect to the land tax clearance certificate. The certificate is issued by State Revenue, not the vendor. I would have thought that privacy issues would mean that only the vendor could ask for a clearance certificate. Is your experience different?

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From the Purchaser Manual, as part of the Law Consumers Society Conveyancing Kit as purchased in 2017:

The enquiries which must be ordered by a purchaser are: Section 603 certificate from the local council for outstanding rates on the land Section 66 from the water authority for outstanding water rates Section 47 from the OSR for outstanding land tax, go to 4.07 for more detail

Section 4.07 is rather wordy so I wont quote it here, but says same thing.

I just looked at the Vendor disclosure section and there is nothing on land tax there. Its too bulky to copy here, however.

Its a valid point about privacy, but when you think about it I can (and in a conveyancing situation, must) do a title search on the vendors property, which reveals information no less private. Therefore, if I have the address on any property I can do a title search and find out owners, finance details, caveats etc.

Of course theres nothing stopping a vendor getting a land tax cert, and handing it to the purchaser, but a prudent purchaser would still do the search anyway. What I meant by mindset. Rely on your own enquiries, and end up with no regrets.

Thank you everyone who responded; it confirmed my first impression and I queried the lawyer.

I would have thought the work is the work, but no, there is a scale based on property value:

Attachment 438768Attachment 438769

Anyway, the solicitor has reduced his fee to $2000 + GST, which makes it comparable I think to what Ian paid (and possibly for the same reason?).

We were planning to get him to update our wills (last done many years ago when the kids were still minors) and do the conveyancing for our downsizing purchase, but will now look elsewhere.

Take home message? Always enquire about professional fees upfront.

Cheers, and thanks again to all who made the effort to respond.

Mark

Not too sure where the scale comes from but in NSW the use of a scale to determine costs has not been in use for well over 10 years and most likely getting up towards 20 years. That maybe an internal practice scale but still seems to be high.

Regards

Router

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Originally Posted by markkr

Thank you everyone who responded; it confirmed my first impression and I queried the lawyer.

I would have thought the work is the work, but no, there is a scale based on property value:

Attachment 438768Attachment 438769

Anyway, the solicitor has reduced his fee to $2000 + GST, which makes it comparable I think to what Ian paid (and possibly for the same reason?).

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as I mentioned, our sale used a solicitor with "CBD style overheads". Even then that scale is above what we paid.

I think your solicitor is having a lend.