Ripped off!!!

dunstonh

You cannot compare this to a Surgeon as its not life threatening,

For a solicitor, it takes just as long to get qualified and like doctors, it takes a long time to establish and move up through their profession. The roles are very different but you shouldnt knock the ability in their own fields.

if things are kept simple then people understand exactly where they stand instead of filling it with too much techinical babble, after all thats how loopholes are created.

A solicitor has liability for the advice they give so if loopholes were to be created then the solicitor can be taken to task. However, the solicitor will also know the rules and laws that allow certain things to be said and the most efficient way to do them.

A surgeon will say its not the cutting that costs the money. Its knowing where to cut. A solicitor, in this case, is not the writing of the Will but also knowing what to write.

I work in IT and I could blind people with science but I prefer to explain things in simple terminology that way it avoids confusion.

Really? I doubt most people will find computer languages very user friendly. Explaining it to a person is one thing but doing it is a different matter.

We have no record of the solicitor giving a so called "estimate" just the bill which says she has received one.

Ask the solicitor for a copy of it then. They will keep a copy on their files.

You obviously thought what you paid for with you plumber was value for money which is all fine and well, but in my opinion what my aunt got was far from that.

Doesnt matter. If you employ someone to do a job then you should expect them to be paid for it. You expect to be paid for doing a job I expect? A solicitor is highly unlikely to do it for £30. Even a lower qualified Will Writer is unlikely to do it for that amount and they can only do the simple Wills.

Its just funny that the more sites I look at which give figures on will writing (solicitors included) this seems excessive. And the fact you can get one done by donating to charity speaks volumes.

Simple Wills are easy. However, many of these simple Wills are inefficient and cause as many problems as they are meant to solve. In all these cases no advice is given and usually no liability exists. There is no such thing as a standard Will that is one size fits all. Everyone is different.

The problem is that your Aunt didnt employ a low qualified Will Writer do to the job and didnt chose to do a DIY Will. She chose a fully qualified solicitor do it. She has probably been hit with their minimum charge or £125 an hour (4 hours including travel time, appointment, writing and presentation is quite reasonable for a Will).

Your Aunt went for overkill by the sounds of it. That is unless the Will is not quite as straight forward as you suggest (and perhaps you calling it flowery language suggests it isnt).

Yes, she could have got a simple Will, very cheaply but she didnt. However, the solicitor is not ripping her off. Its about par for a solicitor. You can get cheaper than Solicitors, such as Will Writers and DIY kits but you dont get the same level of knowledge, advice and consumer protection. That is what you are paying for. Expensive - yes. Ripped off - No.

Ian_W

I recently got mirror wills rewritten for myself and my wife by a local solicitor for £120+vat, so on that basis £500 does sound expensive. However, I recently got my wife's car serviced for £50 but mine will cost around £300 - so mine must be a rip-off on your reasoning. No - my car needs a more comprehensive service and I'm using a main dealer.

Businesses don't have to provide what you consider to be "value for money" - they can decide how much to charge to provide a service, often it's how much they can get away with. If you work for a company they will decide how much your "charge out" rate is, if you work for yourself - you will. The customer will then decide whether to employ you - your aunt apparently did decide to employ this solicitor.

filling it with too much techinical babble, after all thats how loopholes are created.

Or closed! :rolleyes:

I work in IT and I could blind people with science but I prefer to explain things in simple terminology that way it avoids confusion.

Explaining something simply is one thing, producing a legal document that ensures your aunts wishes are met on her death is quite different. I bet if you wrote a computer programme to do a simple task for a client that wouldn't be a simple read to non-computer literate folk.;)

My understanding (and, no, I'm not a solicitor) is that they should have given or sent your aunt a client care letter which outlines their terms of business, costs etc and even nominates someone to handle complaints if they arise at the outset of her dealings with them. If they didn't, find out from the firm who the nominated partner is and complain that this wasn't done.

On that basis you may have grounds to contest the charges - that they weren't disclosed up front. But comparing them with an internet service is futile. If I got you out to repair my computer and you charged me £100 (which you'd told me you would in advance) - would you be a rip-off merchant if I later found some online service that supposedly offered a similar repair for less?

RobertoMoir

rugbyleaguer wrote: »

I work in IT and I could blind people with science but I prefer to explain things in simple terminology that way it avoids confusion.

Good. Then you'll understand the difference between explaining to a business owner why their business wants email and setting up Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes in a high-availability clustered configuration with a *nix box handling spam filtering as a SMTP forwarder because you analysed their email requirements and it turns out that is what they needed.

See my point?

rugbyleaguer wrote: »

We have no record of the solicitor giving a so called "estimate" just the bill which says she has received one.

Its just funny that the more sites I look at which give figures on will writing (solicitors included) this seems excessive. And the fact you can get one done by donating to charity speaks volumes.

If your aunt hasn't received the estimate that may be a reason to challenge the bill. You should find the firm has a formal complaints procedure that you could use, IIRC all solicitors are required to have a complaints procedure.

As for the amount being excessive, I suspect that's impossible to guess without having an expert review it, which you won't get on the interwebs. It may turn out that the will cost £500 because it was extremely complex to draft for some reason and took several hours work. It may also turn out that the solicitor is just damn expensive and charges over the odds. You'll not resolve that conundrum here, not because we don't care or don't want to help but because it's impossible to pass judgement based on the information given and the abilities of the forum.

zenmaster

I once wrote a program for a will writing company which assembled a will from a database of clauses in response to form input. They paid a fortune to have these clauses written by a solicitor as they had to cover a lot of bases.

I was told that the reason they are written the way they are, using standard phrases and no punctuation, is because these constructs have been tried and tested in court over a long period of time.

As I recall I was paid a similar amount to the cost of your Aunt's will :mad:

I can't advise on the charge for the will (though it sounds like a lot) but I would urge you to read it and try and understand it. It becomes easier once you have done it a few times. In particular ensure that the solicitors have not written themselves into any office as this will surely cost you a lot more when the will is executed.

bristol_pilot

My solicitor did my will for £50. £500 seems excessive for a simple will, but could be appropriate if the will was complex or there was also other documentation such as power of attorney, a trust fund or a 'living will'.

She didn't make the solicitor the executor, did she? Never, ever do that - the lions share of the estate is likely to go to the solicitor for work which certainly does not need any special qualifications.

bendix

If the OP or his aunt didn't see fit to ask the solicitor how much it would cost, they can hardly complain.

Do you conduct other parts of your life in the same way. If you go to buy a house, do you find the cost of that house a boring detail and decide . . . 'nahhhhh, I won't ask. I'll just wait for the invoice."?