Advice regarding 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

Nargleblast

There is a regular on here called RAS who seems to know all the legal ins and outs of stuff - RAS, are you out there please? Your advice is needed.

GeorgeUK

The debt would only become time barred after 6 years (5 in Scotland).

I would ask them for a breakdown or statement of the account so that you can see where the costs have come from and to make sure that everything they are charging for has been carried out.

If sending any letters to them, make sure you send them by recorded delivery so that you have proof that they have been received.

You may be able to come to some kind of repayment agreement with them if the debt is owed.

sp1987

There is no reason if you owe the £1000 that you should not be paying it back, it is not statute barred until 6 years have elapsed. You should contact them for a statement indicating when the charges accrued so you can see what services they are invoicing for. Do not take time asking for this information as being a solicitors firm they would almost certainly not stall in taking the matter to court. Send all written communication by recorded delivery, keep the receipts including tracking number and a copy of the letters for your records.

If you do owe the money, try to arrange an affordable timescale to pay it back.

geranium72

It is very odd that you have only now received a bill

Solicitors have strict rules about their conduct and professional behaviour including about how they charge and bill and about what costs advice you are given.

The starting point would be to check for correspondence from them about costs intially - what did they tell you?

Then, I would go back to them and ask for a complete breakdown of how they have calculated the amount owing - including a breakdown of all payments on account, and ask them why they are only now billing you. It could be said that after 3 years you had a reasonable expectation that matters were concluded.

If you are still not satisfied then you need to complain to the firm's complaints officer - this should be detailed on the inital letter you got from them

If still not happy then you can go to the SRA - who regulate the profession - website is http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/consumers.page

Hope that helps

PS I am an ex solicitor and now lecture in Legal Practice

clare1angel

Thank you all for your advice!

Can I just say that we are not trying to get out of paying any monies that may be owed our problem is that we can't believe a professional solicitors firm would take 3 years to get in touch with us!

The solicitor we dealt with originally told my husband that he should expect to pay around £600, which he paid.

We have telephoned them again today but could not talk to the solicitor that has taken over the files (we believe the original solicitor has left the firm but don't know when) and no-one has yet phoned us back.
We are going to write to them again and either hand deliver it and ask for a reciept or send by recoreded delivery and ask for a complete breakdown of the costs.

Thanks again for the advice :A

cazzasmazza

Its a long time ago, but have you retained the paperwork they sent you when they were acting? When the matter was finished, they should have sent you a final bill. They should have at the very least sent you a concluding letter, confirming how long your file would be kept in storage etc. etc.

If you haven't got the correspondence, they have to keep your file for 7 years, so all your bills, the computer account ledger showing payments, bills etc. will still be in existence.

I would also say that if you haven't got a response to your hand delivered letter/registered post letter before their threatened 14 day court issue date, that would certainly warrant a formal complaint to their complaints officer.

Best of luck.
c

GeorgeUK

I would suggest recorded delivery so that you have proof that they received the letter should they claim later that they hadn't heard from you.