I have learnt a painful lesson from dealing with a property conveyancing lawyer and decided to write a post to educate other potential property buyers.
I had engaged a lawyer via the property agent and this is a mistake. The lawyer quoted an initial fee of 2.5k via teleconversation without stating the full costs that were only communicated later on. The additional costs mentioned by the lawyer at a later stage were the stamp fee on mortgage and CPF processing fees aka CPF lawyer fees. On paper, one would have thought that these are reasonable fees as one is payable to IRAS and the other payable to CPF's assigned lawyer.
I was lucky to obtain additional quotes from other lawyers after speaking to bank and friend who bought same property. These quotes are inclusive of the stamp fee on mortgage, CPF processing fees and GST. Both quotes range from 2k to 2.2k. Without even considering the "excluded costs" from the initial quote of my lawyer, it's already obvious that I was overcharged. As I went through the ordeal of arguing with my original lawyer, I googled search to understand more about the CPF processing fees. I came to realise that my lawyer's fees weren't competitive and that was probably partly because she was not on the CPF and bank panel of law firms. Both CPF and banks have their own panel law firms. If you choose the same law firm to represent yourself, CPF and bank, the fees will tend to be lower since there's no need to pay any middleman fees. The problem with my initial lawyer is that she charge me a fee for her services and also pass on the costs of engaging other law firms since she cannot act for CPF and the bank.
My initial lawyer argued that her fees weren't high as all other fees were not earned by her.
However, as a consumer, I don't feel that it's fair for me to pay for all the pass on costs of engaging additional lawyers to act when the lawyer cannot act for CPF and the bank. To me, my initial lawyer didn't have competitive advantage in providing such property conveyancing services. There are so many law firms in Singapore that sat on both the bank as well as CPF panels.
A lesson learnt.. Ask for a quotation in black and white and ask specific questions on what are included in the quoted fees. It will be good to look for a law firm that sits on the panel of many banks and CPF. It will also be good to obtain at least 2 or 3 quotations before deciding. The quality of the lawyer is also important so it may be good to get friends' referral. NEVER trust your agent. You never know if they have other motives or receive any kickbacks for referring you their contacts.
Even though I was half way through the procedures, I decided to change lawyer as I didn't want to deal with a law firm who wasn't transparent and upfront. The 2 other quotes I have obtained both stated clearly what were included on their own initiative and one even stated the banks that they can represent. I had to pay some fees to the existing lawyer for the work done to date though but I feel better that way as I cannot trust that there won't be any more issues that pop out along the way.
