Question about registering house deeds (Solicitor charging €700)

unaffected

Hi,

I don't know much about the sale of property, or the laws in Ireland but I wanted to ask here because this situation doesn't seem right.

Last year my mother decided to downsize her home so she could end her mortgage. It has taken almost a year to even get through to settling the sale, but all that went through a few months ago.

Long story short, my mothers original solicitor had an agreement with her (As she handled the selling of her original property) and gave her a rough estimate of all the costs associated with the sale, they agreed. Over the course of the year, unfortunately the original solicitor had passed away. This led to months of delays but eventually her active cases were handed over to another solicitor she had never met. Everything eventually went through and the she now owns the house as well as settling all the legal fees which she was told up front about. As far as she knew she had settled a final bill when it came to everything associated with the house. She had even spoke to the new solicitor around this time and he told her he'd get back when he received the deeds. Nothing was mentioned about a cost here, so she had assumed this work was covered in her fees.

Today she was shocked to get a letter from this new solicitor saying they "Have sent the deed of assignment" to be registered which has been paid for. However they then add that once they have received the deeds back it is compulsory to register in the land registry in order to obtain a folio (new title). They then say they want to charge her over €600 for this along with €70 for the submission fees, bringing it to almost €700, which she was not expecting and had never been told about, so she actually cannot afford it at the moment.

Does this seem right that she needs to pay so much just to register the deeds? Especially when she was under the impression she had already paid for it?
Obviously the €70 fees she will have to pay, but is she able to register it herself? Everything I can find online says it normally costs between €40-80 to register deeds.

Any advice is appreciated, Thanks!

nuac

Mod
Sorry cannot get legal advice on this forum.
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