time for invoicing bills

kazerg

we bought our new house two years ago and settled our bill with the solicitor. we have just received a letter for a bill of £95 the solicitors say they were looking through there old files and found that they had forgotton to invoice us £95 for a tital deeds search. I wondered if anybody knew where we stand should we pay or is it there fault for forgetting it is two years ago this month since we bought the house.

lincroft1710

As they have notified you within 6 years of you incurring the charge, they are within the law to seek payment, PROVIDING you have not already paid. Check their original account, it is not unknown for solicitors to charge twice (this happened to me once, by accident and quickly resolved with an apology).

No harm of course in asking for a discount (or time to pay) as you are "already finding difficulty in paying mortgage".

If you ignore or refuse to pay without good reason they can put a charge on your home, so that when you come to sell they can claim their money from profits of sale.

tbs624

It is likely that you will have to pay it, if it was a cost incurred on your behalf unless their receipts /statement of account included the line "in full and final settlement".

It is sloppy book-keeping by the legal cashier's dept - SARS (solicitors account rules) are very specific on accounting fully to clients. I would write to the Practice Manager or Senior Partner and seek payment by instalment. As Lincroft says though ,do check back over your original bill first.