The sum total of all the amounts billed by notaires is usually referred to as « legal fees ». But in actual fact, this name encompasses three quite different types of expenses:

• the notaire’s own fee ;
• sundry disbursements paid out to various third parties ;
• and the various taxes and dues paid to the Government.

The notaire’s own fee

Notaires may receive two types of remuneration: emoluments or fees

• Emoluments
• The amount of this remuneration is laid down by law (Decree no. 78-262 dated 8^th March 1978).
  To ensure that all citizens are equal with respect to those essential legal acts in their life that require the involvement of a notaire (property transactions, marriage contracts, inheritance declarations, etc.), the authorities have defined a nationwide tariff imposed on both notaires and clients. In this way, everybody pays the same amount for the same transaction, regardless of their financial circumstances, the difficulty of the case, or the experience of the notaire. These emoluments are either proportional to the amounts involved in the act, or fixed.
• Fees
• For acts and services not covered by this tariff, notaires may bill their fees to their clients, provided they have been informed of this in advance in writing. These fees are set by mutual agreement between the notaire and their clients. This unregulated remuneration normally applies to consultations given by notaires. This applies in particular to commercial leases, company law, business transfers, etc.

Sundry disbursements

Although the client pays these sums to the notaire, they are in fact used to pay the various third parties involved in officializing the transaction (Land Registry, Government services, managing agents, surveyors, etc.).

Taxes and dues

Notaires are responsible for collecting and then paying on to the Government the taxes and dues generated by the transactions carried out through their offices.

Information that must be given to the client

Let’s take the example of a property sale.
Prior to the sale, your notaire sends you a « provisional statement of fees » setting out the amounts for the various expense items (emoluments, disbursements, taxes) that you will have to pay them on completion. On the day the sale is actually completed, you pay the notaire an « interim payment » calculated on the basis of the updated elements of the transaction. Once the sale has been notified to the Mortgage Registration Bureau, the final amount of all the costs involved will be known. At this point, your notaire will send you a bill detailing this, and either repaying you any over-payment, or requesting an additional payment, depending on the situation.