Laurence had to hire a notary to take care of her estate following the death of her father. But when she receives her invoice, Laurence is surprised to see prices that she considers far too high for an estate “the most basic that one can have”. How to explain these costs with mysterious titles? We explain to you.
Laurence recently lost her father. In full mourning, she must also take care of a whole bunch of administrative documents relating to her estate. This one is “very simple“, according to her : “I am an only child and there is not much, a house, booklets and two insurances (…) an estate that fits on an A4 sheet“, she explains to us in her message sent via the orange Alert us button. But when Laurence receives her invoice from the notary, she is amazed, “I fall out of my chair” she says. For her two appointments, she has to pay nearly 1,000 euros in miscellaneous expenses, in addition to the classic fees.
On this invoice appear on the one hand the fees of the notary, but also “miscellaneous meeting and correspondence expenses“, of the “miscellaneous application fees“, or a “vacation“, but what do these terms refer to?”I absolutely don’t understand“laments Laurence.
For her, her file is not particularly complicated: “To my knowledge, there was no particular research to be done. It was for me, the most basic succession one might have“She remembers going on two half-hour dates,”it doesn’t mean that much“. As for matches,”they should be part of the fees“, she finds.
Despite Laurence’s requests for explanations, it was difficult for her to get answers to her questions. “I send an e-mail asking to explain to me what this represents, I am telephoned saying that the notary has asked to answer by telephone and not by e-mail and that is how it is…” she clarifies.
This 49-year-old independent therefore pays, with bitterness, these costs, the content of which she does not understand, “for me the fees of notaries represent a certain work (…), here, I am not given any explanation, I do not see very well what must have been asked on the left or on the right“His bill being rather substantial, Laurence has the feeling of having been had.
How to explain these costs?
However, these costs have a reason to exist, notary Sébastien Dupuis explained to us. On the one hand, there is the cost of fees, “the amount of the notary for the work he has done, the drafting of the declaration of inheritance, the certificate of inheritance, …“. It is a remuneration for these obligatory acts which must be processed by the notary when a person dies.
On the other hand, there are the additional costs: “We have various meeting and correspondence expenses. It is necessary to see if the file gave rise to many administrative procedures carried out by the study. How many banks should be contacted? Were there specific life insurance contracts that required formalities?” clarifies the notary.
What regarding “holidays”, which are also included in Laurence’s bill? This is, according to the notaire.be website, “remuneration for certain research carried out by the notary and his collaborators and which are not included in the fees“.
In fact, the work of the notary is particularly important in this type of situation. According to Sébastien Dupuis, “the notary is somewhat the central administrative point. There are almost no more exchanges between banks, insurance companies, all other administrations and heirs“. More than that, he adds that the notary can be seen as “the guarantor of legal certainty. To guarantee this, there is a whole series of steps that must be taken, these steps have a cost“.
Is Laurence’s bill too expensive? It’s hard to say for Sébastien Dupuis without having the file in front of him, but he says he can’t see it “scams“. The costs depend on the specificity of the file and the administrative procedures that are carried out, “it’s really like a tailor-made dress” he said. To understand the costs, nothing better than to ask your notary for explanations as to the difficulty of the file, “the notary will do this by explaining the number of letters exchanged or meetings“. According to Sébastien Dupuis, it is also possible to find out from the notary in advance how he intends to price the file.
Laurence says, however, that he encountered difficulties in getting answers to his questions. In these cases, there are also some solutions:The notariat has set up an absolutely brilliant tool, which is called the ‘ombudsman of the notariat’ which will question the notary, ask him for all the supporting documents, and we will have a little more explanation“explains Sébastien Dupuis.
A reform that should change the situation
Notary fees might however become more affordable in the future thanks to a major reform of the notary profession, concocted by the Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne. He claimed that the price observatory has made comparisons with other countries, and that it “there was room to reduce notary fees“. This reform aims to modernize the tariffs, because they have “hardly been changed since 1950“according to the minister,”they do not take into account the modernization and digitization of the notariat“.
Among the changes, there should be more fixed prices on certain acts: “People were a little surprised because the rates were not always fixed, it depended from one notary to another” explains the Minister. The reform also aims to make invoices more understandable: “It has to be done in a transparent way.” confirms Vincent Van Quickenborne, explaining that notaries will be obliged to “make a clear distinction between expenses for third parties and administrative costs so that we can see what we are talking regarding on the invoice“.
