What to do with notary fees? Get free advice!

Questioner

Is a notary required to provide a quote for a mortgage deed? Is he negligent if he does not do so and ultimately I want to get rid of the concept mortgage because the costs are so unexpectedly high? Below is a more detailed explanation: --- I bought a house freehold and borrowed the money from my mother. For the delivery of the house we were assigned to a notary for the deed of sale. During an initial meeting the notary also offered to draw up a mortgage deed for the private loan between me and my mother, without mentioning the costs involved. Assuming that I did not have to pay notary fees, we had the notary draw up a draft mortgage deed. I did not request a quote for this as I did not consider that there would be additional costs. Now that I want to transfer the purchase price to complete the delivery of the house, the notary wants more than 1,000 euros for drawing up the mortgage deed. This was an unpleasant surprise for me, so I indicated that I wanted to cancel the mortgage deed (still in draft phase). However, the notary states that in that case I still have to pay 600 euros for costs already incurred. I believe that the notary should have explicitly pointed out to us the costs involved in a mortgage deed, and that it is the notary's task to clearly inform the client of this. However, the notary did not do this and only now do we realize how much it costs. The fact that cancelling this already costs so much is in my opinion not justified, as the notary should have warned us of this from his position. In short, my question is: is it the notary's fault that he did not clearly indicate to us what costs a mortgage deed would entail? If it was indeed his job to first (proactively) provide a quote and he failed to do so, is it then lawful to charge us for the costs of cancelling the draft mortgage deed? If it is not his legal duty to inform us of the costs first or the truth lies somewhere in between, how can we reasonably get out of the mortgage deed (because paying 600 euros for this is far from reasonable in my opinion)? If necessary, I am prepared to pay compensation for the time it has taken, but not up to the amount of 600 euros; how can we resolve this in a reasonable manner? Thank you in advance for your answer.

Lawyer

Ir/Madam, A notary is not obliged to provide you with a cost estimate in advance. Now that a draft has been drawn up (with your consent), the notary will also be able to charge costs for the time invested in this file. However, that does not alter the fact that the costs must be reasonable. In fact, you now have a number of options. 1 You can file a complaint with the Chairman of the Ring of Notaries. This can only be about the amount of the costs. 2 You file a complaint with the Chamber of Supervision (at the court). Then it concerns the way in which the notary treated you in your situation. But it can also be about the amount of the costs. 3 You go to the subdistrict court and take the position that you did not give the notary any instructions to do any work. (That is therefore in conflict with point 1, because only the amount of the invoice is at issue there and not whether an invoice may be issued). 4 You can submit your case to the Royal Notarial Professional Organisation (KNB). They will then attempt to mediate. The choice is yours. I would like to point out two points to you. Perhaps you can request a quote from this notary for just a mortgage. If those documents are lower than what he or she wants to charge you now, then you are in a stronger position. In addition, I advise you to at least conclude a loan agreement with your mother stating that you are borrowing the money to purchase your own home. Otherwise, you run the risk that the tax authorities will refuse the mortgage interest deduction.