frais de notaire for marriage contract change

[Tourangelle]

We've decided to change our marriage contract and I have rung a couple of notaires and they have given me different figures as to the cost. They don't vary wildly, but they are not the same. Now surely they should be, as notaires' fees are supposed to be fixed by the governement, but how can I find out? I looked at notaires.fr, but there is nothing on there. I have also looked through previous postings, and it seems to vary from quite a lot through to the notaire having just thrown in the marriage contract with the fees for a house purchase. We are not planning to buy right now, (or any time in the immediate future)so that is not going to happen. I know that we will have to pay for an avocat as well, which is going to be at least 1000 euros, but how can find out how much a notaire should charge??

[Teamedup]

Have you tried the Chambres des Notaires in Lyons.

I thought that notaires could charge what they wanted really for this sort of thing.

[Tourangelle]

I phoned them, but they said that they didn't have that sort of information, I must admitt I was rather surprised. They were very nice about it though!

[Mpprh]

Hi notaires are strange animals ?

They are half civil servants (tax collectors) , half conveyancing solicitors, half estate agents (not all) and half general legal advisors (often free).

Certain charges are prescribed by law : e.g. property purchase, drawing up leases, etc. But much of the other stuff varies by notaire and area.

My local notaire says that they give free legal advice and only start charging when they have to produce a contract.

Peter