The industry standard for billing is to separate out the fees, out-of-pocket costs, and other charges. Many law firms will provide a quotation for their fees. This only covers the fee portion of the work. They will then add extra fees for many items that we consider standard service items such as ordering a document on your behalf. In fact, we have seen quotations from other lawyers where they provide a quote for their fees and then state that those fees can vary depending on complexity and location. We had one client who was provided a quote much lower than the quotation they received from our office. They decided to use the other lawyer. In the end, the bill they received was several hundred dollars higher than the one they would have received from our office. The lawyer explained the mortgage lender had extra documents that must be completed, and hence, further photocopying charges and extra fees were assessed. This will never happen at Galbraith Law on standard residential purchase, sale and mortgage transactions.
Here is a partial list of the disbursements and other charges that are included whenever you receive a standard fee quotation from our office:
Arranging Compliance, photocopying, printing, searches, file administration charges, faxing, postage, file room supplies, word processing fees, online/internet fees, title searches, personal property registry searches, tax searches, copies of documents on title, purchaser’s caveat, transfer registration, mortgage registration, Certified Copy of Title, Discharge of Caveat, Certificate of Title, runner fees, courier charges.
Up to three hours of lawyer time is included in our standard quote. Any time beyond three hours will be billed as an extra service. In our experience, this covers well over 95% of the residential real estate transactions we preform.
Also included in our standard all-inclusive price quote are the following services:
Obtaining:
Copy of title, tax certificate, personal property search, condominium documents
Ordering:
Estoppels certificate, insurance certificate, mortgage documents
Preparing:
Caveats, covenant to restore, transfer of land, mortgage, statement of adjustments, transfer back, tenancy at will, certificate of exempt supply, foreign ownership declaration, direction to pay, statutory declaration regarding real property report
Registering:
Transfer of land, mortgage, caveats
Paying out or Funding:
Mortgage, realtor, vendor, disbursements, legal fees
Acquiring:
Vendors undertakings, discharge of caveats, updated certificate of title evidencing discharges of non-permitted encumbrances
Corresponding:
Letters, faxes and e-mails to mortgage lender, opposing counsel, realtor, client and city; report to client, report to lender, final report to all parties, and all other correspondence
Meeting:
Meeting with client to review and sign documents
The Extras: What is NOT included:
A list of services and disbursements NOT included in our standard all-inclusive quote include the following:
Services:
- Dealing with writs
- Dealing with other debt payments
- Dealing with interim or bridge financing
- Encroachments
- Compliance problems
- Power of attorneys
- Out of town signing
- Sending money directly to your bank by courier
- More than three hours of lawyer time
- Corporate opinion letters
Disbursements:
- Courier fees outside of Edmonton
- Real property report
- Actual cost of title insurance
- interest on late closing
- Condominium Estoppel certificates