Can a solicitor do this??

TheGreenMan

Hi all, a quick question please....the solicitor I used to try to lease a shop was TERRIBLE and he has done something I don't really agree with - my question is, is he really allowed to...?

Situation: I tried to lease a shop and in doing so sent my solicitor £1500 to be used as a guarantee to the Landlord's solicitor that we would pay that towards his fees - we could not proceed unless we agreed and my solr could not guarantee the money unless we sent him the money. To cut a long story short, the landlord later pulled out and my solr informed me by way of letter, with his bill enclosed, and a cheque for the balance of the £1500 less his fees.....

I find that totally unprofessional...my view is, shouldn't he by rights (as the money was intended for a different purpose) send me back my full amount and a bill for his services so that can be paid by me separately??

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,
Pete

hippyadam

Short answer, yes he can & it is quite common for solicitors to take their charges in this way...

They are a slippery bunch!!

Horace

It is quite common for them to do that, they need to be paid and don't like waiting for money so they will take it from the escrow account where your money is lodged. In future, you need to sit down with the solicitor and ensure you agree on how his/her fees are to be paid.

TheGreenMan

Thanks guys, not the answer I was hoping for but at least that settles that!
Cheers,
Pete

TM1976

I'm not sure why you'd be upset by this unless you weren't going to pay the fees anyway.

From the solicitor's point of view why waste time and money giving you the cash then chasing for payment afterwards.

Debt_Free_Chick

Highly likely that any adviser's terms & conditions would include a clause allowing them to take their fee from any money they hold on behalf of the client.

borders_dude

Hasnt he done you a favour by saving you the hassle of having to write another cheque and all that?

Or were you going to try and avoid paying him his fees?

lb364

Must be just me and OP but I think that's sneaky too.

They could have at least contacted OP to let them know before only sending back some of their money, doesn't seem very decent, slippery indeed...

Pennywise

Surely you read their terms of business which the Law Society requires them to send out to clients at the start of the engagement. These terms will almost certainly allow them to take their fees out of funds they hold on your behalf - that is standard procedure I'm afraid. If you wish to dispute their fees then you can follow their dispute procedure and can ask the Law Society to review their fees if you can't reach agreement directly with the solicitors firm.

TM1976

lb364 wrote: »

Must be just me and OP but I think that's sneaky too.

They could have at least contacted OP to let them know before only sending back some of their money, doesn't seem very decent, slippery indeed...

The OP got 100% of their money back which was the deposit less the money they owed the solicitor.

Any other way of doing this transaction would have been needlessly complex.

If the OP has a complaint about the fee itself fair enough but I can't see why the solicitor wouldn't expect to be paid for the work they had done.