Solicitors Fees

pbutler100

Hi All

We were planning on buying a house through the MychoiceHomeBuy scheme via Thames Valley

We had instructed a solicitor to do the work (paid no money to them)

This was cut short due to Thames Valley's rules and regulations, thus we had to cancel the move (very upset about this)

We have just had a bill for £230 from the solicitor for work carried out against the sale....

The email from the solicitor said
"I can confirm that a lot of work had been undertaken on your behalf. We had received the draft papers from the otherside and Elaine had spent a long time going through these and raising additional enquiries on the paperwork. In addition, Elaine had also reported to you on the contract and drainage search and also had further correspondence with the solicitors on the paper work and enquiries they had provided. "

Do we have to pay this ?

Thanks

Thrugelmir

pbutler100 wrote: »

Hi All

We were planning on buying a house through the MychoiceHomeBuy scheme via Thames Valley

We had instructed a solicitor to do the work (paid no money to them)

This was cut short due to Thames Valley's rules and regulations, thus we had to cancel the move (very upset about this)

We have just had a bill for £230 from the solicitor for work carried out against the sale....

The email from the solicitor said
"I can confirm that a lot of work had been undertaken on your behalf. We had received the draft papers from the otherside and Elaine had spent a long time going through these and raising additional enquiries on the paperwork. In addition, Elaine had also reported to you on the contract and drainage search and also had further correspondence with the solicitors on the paper work and enquiries they had provided. "

Do we have to pay this ?

Thanks

In a word - Yes.

johnson293

I'd agree - unless your agreement specifically said 'no purchase, no fee' or such like, then you have instructed the solicitor to carry out work. They started that work, and even though the purchase has fallen through, they still need paying for that time/work done.

_Andy_

Would you work for nothing?

Crystallady

Did you have a formal letter from the solicitors setting out their terms and conditions under which they would act for you? If so it should cover this.
If not I think you'll have to pay it.

lee12_2

We had a similar problem 10 yr ago ,when one sale fell through and we had to start again we got a invoice after the final sale changing for both we argued that they had only done one lot of work and got a refund. Might be worth asking them to hold over the work they have already done until you do move or if you do pay it ask them to agree not to charge you for the same work next time but to carry this over saving time and money , never hearts to ask ,but as they have done the work they will billed you.