Completion costs..??

Hi,

Just hoping for some advice please. I completed on La Isla last August 09 and I am just in the process of finalising the final bits with my solicitor. I had previously paid the standard 40% up front in stages and the remaining balance that I paid in August was as follows:

Amount due to Developer - 117,100.80 € (equates to 60% of purchase price plus VAT) - so I know this is correct.

Stamp Duties - 1,824.00 € (based on a purchase price of 182,400 plus VAT) - so again I know this is correct.

Notary Fees, approx. - 1,000.00 € - Does this sound about right?

Land Registry Fees, approx. - 800.00 € - Same here does this sound about right?

50% of Our Fees - 1,050.92 - Day light robbery considering the use they have been but thats another story.

Sundries - 696.00 € - Other than travel costs from Marbella to Murcia and the usual calls / admin very little else.

TOTAL - 122,471.72 €

My question is, does the above breakdown seem ok or would you expect a refund? I have received approximately 350 Euros today but no corresponding statement received so not sure if this is right / too little or what?

I look forward to hearing from someone to put my mind at rest.

Thanks,

Mark

Mark,

We made the following payments ;-

Following completion we received 2 cheques back, one for €300 an the other for €500, as the above had been over esimated.

Phil

Thanks for the update Phil.

How much did you get refunded out of the notary and registry costs out of the 1700 Euros in total? Or was the over estimate against the legal costs?

Hi Mark,

The €300 was from the notary and the €500 from the solicitors, can't remember the exact breakdown, I'll see if I can find the original paperwork.  The better half has put them "Somewhere safe" so could be anywhere.

Phil

When we deal with the inscription process of a property the costs have to be estimated:

- Notary's fees: they depen basically on the price of the property and number of pages. Notary's fees are stablished by the Illustrious Colleges of Notaries, however they can change from one Notary from another. Can I assume that the property was completed at the Notary's office in Torre Pacheco? Being this the case this Notary is quite expensive because on their Title Deeds they include a description of each building of your phase and the rules of the community of owners. But for example others notaries like the one in Los Alcázares do not include that information. So for a similar completion fees can be from 450€ to 800€.

- Stamp Duty - Transfer tax: usually 1% or 7% respectively of the purchae price. Please bear in mind that this tax has to be paid according to the highest amount of these: price of the property or Market Price stablished by the Tax Authorities (precio medio de mercado). Since last year for example in Murcia Region we are detecting that prices stablished by tax authorites are higher than the purchase prices.

- Land Registry's fees: depend basically on the price of the property and number of owners, but usually 450€ - 500€.

The only value that can be calculated before completion day is the Stamp Duty/Transfer Tax because before completion it can be checked by the tax advisors with the Regional Tax Office. But Notary's and Registry's fees can only be stimated because the definitive invoice for Notary's fees is issued a few days after completion takes place and Land Registry's will be known once the property is inscribed (1 - 2 months after completion day).

Hi

We completed November09 and at the time were shocked by the high cost of the fees -they were far higher than we were originally quoted.

On a purchase price of 119500 and mortgage of 67100 we were charged

Purchase :                                                                       Mortgage

Notary                    700                                                        600        

stamp duty          1281                                                       1221

Land registry        375                                                         300

Operation fees    335                                                           280

IVA                            53                                                           44

Total                   2745                                                            2446

We also paid cancellation fees which we were told would be refunded in 2 months but we are still chasing -

they are Notary 400, land registry 300, operation fees 335 and IVA 53.

At the time we querid all these fees with Banco Halifax but were assured they were correct.

We would really appreciate any advice  about whether these fees were correct.

Thanks

Hi neilp,

All costs look pretty much in line, the only one I have a question mark over is the property stamp duty at 1281€ - on a purchase price of 119,500€ this should be 1% at 1195€.   Halifax's gestoria draws up the completion costs and these are estimated, in many cases over estimated to ensure all costs are covered for completion.   The fee to cancel the developers mortgage is defiantely refunded, once the new deed is registered, it is possible that the timeframe could be longer than 2 months, depending on the registry.

Hope that helps,