Advice regardin Solicitors!!!

clare1angel

Hi all,

I hope I'm posting this in the right place and hope someone can offer some advice!!!

In 2005 my OH needed the service of a solicitor and they carried out work for him for about a year.
Throughout that time he made periodical payments so that he wouldn't end up with a big final bill.

The last letter we had from them was over 3 years ago and then in May this year we got a letter saying we owed nearly £1000???
I can't believe it has taken them over 3 years to get in touch???

The same firm also dealt with our house purchase so knew our new address and we also have the same telephone number.

From making payments each time we went to the solicitor and from what our solicitor said we assumed that our payments had covered the bill so was very shocked to get this letter.

We have hand delivered a letter to them and phoned them twice but have never been called back and on Saturday we got another letter from them saying they want the payment within 14 days - can they do this after all this time?

Also they made no reference to the letter or calls we made to them.

Thank you in advance if anyone can offer any advice on what we should do??? :A

pendulum

I would think this would be better off in the debts section, because it seems to relate more to a debt / disputed bill than consumer rights. In the debts section they know all about the time limits for collecting debts, and the proper ways to dispute debts etc.

pinkshoes

Send a recorded delivery letter to the solicitor stating that you have no debt with them, therefore do not acknowledge the sum of money in question.

Say that your account from <date 3 years ago> was settled in full (enclose copies of any receipts proving payment>.

Say that if they dispute that the account was not settled in full, then they need to send you a precise breakdown of the £1000, including dates and nature of work done.

Laz123

It would be a good idea to contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/solicitors.page and see what they advise. It isn't good practice to demand money out of the blue and is very unprofessional.

jessbob

Laz123 wrote: »

It would be a good idea to contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/solicitors.page and see what they advise. It isn't good practice to demand money out of the blue and is very unprofessional.

This is very good advice. contract SRA for straight away.

This is really bad practice of the Solicitors, but unfortunately I have known a few firms do the same when they think that their yearly accounts need topping up !

Make sure you have all your receipts etc from the monies you have paid them up front. Did they actually send you a final VAT invoice showing the fees and the amount paid by you?