Sometimes its ridiculous for lawyer to charge more than RM200 for faxing and telephone when the buyer is the one who travels to meet them. And their services, most of the times are below the par but legal fees are too high. Does anyone knows how can we save Legal fees? Any government agencies offer this service?

For legal side, I just have not much comment as there are many item which doesn't make sense and cost a lot and can't be remove or reduce from the legal lawyer side.

No, there is no any government agency offer this service so far. Just like what john said, they charge alot of charges which doesn't make sense. But no choice, i heard that they have a form of charges chart from the council that lawyer need to follow. Not sure about that

@windzneom 

I have heard that there is a minimum fee that a Lawyer needs to charge... no matter how much "discount" they offer, there is a minimum that they must strictly adhere.

The complete opposite is for Doctors, where there is a maximum fee that they can charge.

Which profession is making more money? Do we even have a choice?

You be the judge.

It seems like purchasers have little control over this legal fee. Unless, one have a family member, relatives or perhaps friends who can help with this (family having legal firm familiar with property transactions? Just a guess).

On another note, they are a business entity anyway, doing businesses and not a charity organisation. They will surely charge whatever fee that are legal for them to charge even though it does sounds silly for having expensive fee for photocopy services.

What we can do is to take advantage of whatever remission/rebate/discount that the current government given especially to first house buyer (in terms of stamp duty on MOT & loan agreement). Other than that, seems like we have limited option.

@Shafiq_Rahman 

Unless the legal industry goes full-electronic. Where computers and robots take over as lawyers. Haha

@domng ya exactly! thats what i heard too. But for doctors, i thought is the same as lawyer. haha

@Shafiq_Rahman yes, for example, my future father in law get help from brother who is a lawyer on property transaction, and he didn't charge for legal fees. Or else, if we have no family related, still need to pay lawyer outside.haha

@windzneom 

Or just marry a lawyer spouse. haha

@domng Haha, too bad, my future wife is a Montessori kindergarten teacher. Haha

@windzneom Possible though! insurance/takaful for vehicles now can be subscribed online without using agents. Who knows the same will be with buying houses hehe

@Shafiq_Rahman the posibility might be quite tiny to be honest. haha. Car insurance can be done on internet or branches without go thru agents, but legal fees are confirmed needed lawyer to do. haha

Thank u guys!

@breeze 

E-transaction is the trend now... who knows, in 20 years... there will be no more Lawyers or court Judge? Perhaps even online general election voting?

@domng no more jobs opportunity soon. haha

@windzneom 

No matter how smart machines become, humans will always be above them! haha

@domng as long as human being is hardworking and learn more and be competitive !

@windzneom 

The both of us, watch way too much science-fictions movies. 

Machines will never be smarter than humans during our lifetime. Haha 

Haha. Who knows anything goes wrong like those sci-fi? 

but anyhow machines still invented by human being thou~

There are a lot of little bit little bit charges which sum to cost alot during the transaction whereby you're buying a subsale when you can't avoid any of these when the lawyer said, this must be paid, that must be paid. Signing, chopping and etc..

@JohnL 

Lawyers have a so called "minimum fee" charges... else they will "spoil market"

It is always good to ask for a best deal from the lawyer... which they usually are able to give a certain discount.

Ya, some lawyer will give a bit of discount. Not too far from the minimum charges ofcourse.

@windzneom 

Is this so called "minimum charges" a heavily guarded secret document in the legal industry? haha

I think so, because so far i never see them pasting on wall like dentist does. haha

agreed with breeze that  disbursement charges  are sometimes very ridiculous. But u can always ask for a discount  on disbursement. Then again some lawyers sometimes run the extra miles to hasten up the process like running to govt authorities to find out the status of submission  and even do some research on developers who are already on Insolvency List.  etc  etc..

@wilymn3 

Now i know the reason for charging legal "runner fees"... initially i though the lawyers just sit in the office to do paperwork while there is another person who does the running to govt authorities. Haha

There is also this exorbitant "stationery fees" which i always see in the legal fees breakdown. 

@domng Good to read thru the whole agreement and receipt, then you will alot "weird" charges. haha. Well, honestly, normally still office boy is the one who run to authorities to do stamping and all that.

I'm agent who go authorities to do stamping by myself too.haha. i think i should charge them fees also.

@windzneom 

Add in some "misc" charge to cover your petrol, toll, parking fees. haha

10% rather than 25% like lawyer did on Tenancy agreement. haha

@windzneom 

Speaking about additional charges. We need to be mindful about the 6% GST and 10% service charge on bills. Not all businesses are eligible to collect.  

correct. for example,lawyer side will be 25% +6 %

@windzneom 

25% legal service charge and 6% GST?

ya, tenancy agreement legal fees is 25% from monthly rental. and add on another 6% gst.

@windzneom 

No wonder so many agents and owners... rather use tenancy agreement templates from the internet... haha

yes, exactly. haha

@windzneom 

Have you ever seen cases where the tenancy agreement is signed by both parties... but they choose not to do the stamping?

So far no, but i did encounter one case where They asked if can do so, because tenant rent for airbnb purpose, so owner and tenant intend not to do stamping because to "avoid" taxation. but at last convinced them to do to secure both parties

@windzneom 

The airbnb case that you have mentioned, I presume it is for long term rental. 

I believe airbnb have their own Terms and Conditions to protect the owner and the tenant?

@domng yes,the tenant wish to rent the unit for long term airbnb business, means he rent this unit to rent out as a airbnb unit.

Sounds a bit complicated... rent and then sub-rent as AirBnB business...

The property owner should include a clause to prohibit this, unless the tenant share the AirBnB profit. :^) 

@domng Haha, but the owner allowed. 

ask more discount from lawyer lol

@stoychong 

It does not cost us anything to request for further discount, we can never know how low they can go. 

However, I have heard that lawyers must adhere to a so-called minimum charges for their legal services.  

better compare few lawyer charges,  and keep asking them for discount, then u will know, how much they can go

@stoychong quite hard to compare because not all lawyer will answer specific price, they will always tell you "roughly" ends up plus and minus almost the same. 

@domng exactly! well said

u can ask for Quotation, with all specific charges and compare

@stoychong 

I think if you stay with one lawyer, who you are familiar for all your legal needs. They will be more willing to give more discount for their legal services. 

agree with @domng lawyers are more willingly to give discount to retain your loyalty

check out the stamp duty cost here :) 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=syncteq.propertycalculatormalaysia

@breeze thank you for your great sharing