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:
Copy of title, tax certificate, personal property search, condominium documents
Estoppels certificate, insurance certificate, mortgage documents
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
Transfer of land, mortgage, caveats
Mortgage, realtor, vendor, disbursements, legal fees
Vendors undertakings, discharge of caveats, updated certificate of title evidencing discharges of non-permitted encumbrances
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 with client to review and sign documents
A list of services and disbursements NOT included in our standard all-inclusive quote include the following: