Solicitor refuses to return our deeds

missile

Right or wrong, the blood suckers will get their money and don't waste your time complaining to the Law Society.

terryw

lincroft1710 wrote: »

They can also put a charge on your house if you fail to pay

After they have obtained a court order.

the poster formerly known as
terryw

chickmug

missile wrote: »

Right or wrong, the blood suckers will get their money and don't waste your time complaining to the Law Society.

Your comment is misguided because in my lifetime in property I have known a number of people who complain about their solicitor to their professional bodies and on the whole they (the lay people) have a sucessful outcome.

terryw

chickmug wrote: »

Your comment is misguided because in my lifetime in property I have known a number of people who complain about their solicitor to their professional bodies and on the whole they (the lay people) have a sucessful outcome.

Sorry, Chickmug, this is just your opinion and does not bear out with my experiences.

The Law Society is merely a trade union for legal people only interested in obtaining money for the legal boys. My opinion borne out by my experience.

To summarize the story. I have always done my own conveyancing. Some solicitors hate this for obvious reasons. Last house I sold, buyer's solicitor wrote and told buyer that I was acting criminally doing this. Abject rubbish, but I complained to the Law Society as being a man of impeccable character I object strongly to being called a criminal. Law Society refused to do anything as imposing a sanction could affect solicitors means of making money! They are a useless organisation only out to assist the legal bods.

FWIIW, senior partner then instructed said solicitor to deal with me, and I had great delight in keeping buyer up to date and pointing out all the faults and delays of his solicitor. Also I dropped strong hints about morality of said solicitor. End result
was that sale went through, buyer thinks solicitor is rubbish and has told all his friends and relatives his opinion of them, none of who will ever deal with that firm. A satisfactory outcome for me but no thanks at all to the professional body.

the poster formerly known as
terryw

Premier_2

leosayer39 wrote: »

To answer your first question, I would refer you to my first post in this thread in which I clearly stated that the solicitor was instructed on a no sale no fee basis.

Our sale did not take place, through no fault of our own, and therefore there should be no fee.

To answer your other comments I would advise that we have today written to our solicitors to ask them for a detailed breakdown of our account.

Just so that you are all in the picture our bill is just short of a grand!!

As for my approach not doing me any favours; well......I do think that saying that they are going to hold onto our deeds, and use them a lever to ensure that the bill is paid is indeed quite disgraceful.

I am aware that I have to pay for disbursements and I have no objection to that at all.

I have started a seperate thread regarding the value of house deeds.

Leo

Well, if you and your solicitor agree on this, then your account will be for the grand total of £0.00 on which you can return and declare as settled in full.

However, I think your solictor may have a different approach to you on this. Let's hope you have this no sale, no fee in writing so that you can remind the solictor that this is what he originally agreed to when he submits you your account.

Ian_Griffiths_Halifax

Was there a Home Information Pack (HIP) for the house you were buying, as some of the searches etc will have been paid for by the seller. There are very little Disbursments for a sale.

dubsey

When we sold our last house and bought this one, it was no sale no fee but that did not include any searches etc or anything that was requested that had to be paid for by them. An example was a road plan from the local council that the buyer's solicitor wanted and that had to be paid for, so obviously we had to bear the cost of that.

What we wouldn't have paid for if the sale hadn't gone through was the solicitors time only. I can't remember how much all our searches and things came to, but I do remember it was quite a lot. This may be what you are being charged for.

silvercar

If the no-sale, no-fee is on the basis that the property is still for sale it is reasonable for th solicitor to keep the deeds ready for the next sale. If they are not charging you, they should be able to re-use any paper work they have to date. I would also suggest that the no-sale, no-fee means that you have to keep with the same solicitors for the next buyer.

chickmug

terryw wrote: »

Sorry, Chickmug, this is just your opinion and does not bear out with my experiences.

The Law Society is merely a trade union for legal people only interested in obtaining money for the legal boys. My opinion borne out by my experience.

To summarize the story. I have always done my own conveyancing. Some solicitors hate this for obvious reasons. Last house I sold, buyer's solicitor wrote and told buyer that I was acting criminally doing this. Abject rubbish, but I complained to the Law Society as being a man of impeccable character I object strongly to being called a criminal. Law Society refused to do anything as imposing a sanction could affect solicitors means of making money! They are a useless organisation only out to assist the legal bods.

FWIIW, senior partner then instructed said solicitor to deal with me, and I had great delight in keeping buyer up to date and pointing out all the faults and delays of his solicitor. Also I dropped strong hints about morality of said solicitor. End result
was that sale went through, buyer thinks solicitor is rubbish and has told all his friends and relatives his opinion of them, none of who will ever deal with that firm. A satisfactory outcome for me but no thanks at all to the professional body.

the poster formerly known as
terryw

I accept your point but is it based on limited experience unless I am missing a point. I base my comments as the the senior partner in an agents having dealt with 1000's of sales.

terryw

silvercar wrote: »

If the no-sale, no-fee is on the basis that the property is still for sale it is reasonable for th solicitor to keep the deeds ready for the next sale. If they are not charging you, they should be able to re-use any paper work they have to date. I would also suggest that the no-sale, no-fee means that you have to keep with the same solicitors for the next buyer.

Well said. I have little time for the conveyancing monopoly solicitors but the OP merely has to stay with this solicitor when the house is sold, as you say.

the poster formerly known as
terryw