By Peter Borszcz / Uncategorized /

People think lawyers are expensive, so legal fees always seem to cause concern.

With residential conveyancing at our firm you can be guaranteed of the following:

  1. A custom quote for legal fees for the title transfer for your deal provided to you by email upon receipt of conveyance instructions (usually weeks in advance of closing) – this means no surprises.
  2. Up-front No Mark Up Pricing on all disbursement (third party) costs, you know exactly what you are paying.

Why don’t we quote an “ALL-IN” price? Frankly we feel it misleads home buyers and sellers…. In most cases the only fees that are included are the LTO registration amounts at firms quoting “ALL IN”…. These fees NEVER include strata form fees, title insurance, property transfer tax, insurance binder fees… legally speaking these amounts too are “disbursements” but these are always extra charges at every firm.

A real estate deal is a huge tax grab by all levels of government, taxpayers are smart and deserve to know how much they are paying.

Here are some recent examples of what to expect for a purchase + mortgage:

ClientPihl Legal FeesDisbursements“ALL-IN”
1$835.00$365.00$1,284.00
2$850.00$365.00$1,300.05
3$970.00$275.00$1,332.15
4$735.00$317.00$1,125.64
5$935.00$402.00$1,430.59
6$1,035.00$365.00$1,498.00
7$835.00$365.00$1,284.00
8$935.00$385.00$1,412.40
9$985.00$374.00$1,454.13
10$985.00$369.00$1,448.78

(pricing from March 2014, subject to change without notice)

Why does one client pay more than another? It depends on many different factors all of which relate directly to the work involved in getting the deal done. For example a person buying on native land or a foreclosure will pay more than a person buying a non-distressed property on fee simple lands.

Importantly: we NEVER charge based on the value of the home… the value of the home has nothing to do with the legal complexity of the file.

I hope this answers some common questions, but if you have questions about legal fees, please feel free to call Kelowna Real Estate Lawyer Peter Borszcz.