Little Help Needed

gems3286

Hi All,

My mum and dad have just sold their house. We had a buyer last yer for the porperty but the buyer backed out just before compeletion.

Thing is now that they have sold the house the conveyancing solicitors are charging them for the work they did when the house fell through.

Not sure if on right ground but wanted to know can they charge them more as it was not their fault the buyer backed out.

Also how long does it take for the conveyancing solicitors to give the monies to my parents?

seabright

Yes, they probably will get charged for the work done on the abortive sale. It probably wasn't your parents fault the sale fell through, but it wasn't the solicitors fault either, so why should they take the hit?

Some solicitors do offer a no-sale, no-fee deal, but they sometimes charge more, because they have to factor in the work on non-completing sale. The bottom line is, the work was done at the clients request, so the client must pay for the work they requested.

On a sale I can usually send the money out to the clients the same day or, at the latest, the next day. It depends on how late in the day completion takes place and what bills/disbursements/mortgages need to be paid from the sale proceeds - the banks impose a deadline for how late in the day money can be sent; ours, for example is 15:45.

gems3286

Thank you for your reply.

I know what you mean that it's not the Solicitors fault i just think it's a bit unfair that my parents should have to pay that's all.

delerium

I don't know if this will be much help but when this happened to me ( in scotland in 2005) I was advised that I could take action against the individuals who backed out of the sale but it does depend on how far completed the sale was. The missives were just about to be signed when they backed out....they said it was for family reasons but I suspect it was because they didn't protect themselves with a subject to survey clause and the survey came back 8k less than they offered.

I didn't pursue it but only because someone with in the estate agent part of the solicitors saw that it had fallen through and asked the person in charge how much I would accept and came through with an offer of that (obviously through a different solicitor but it meant i didn't have to readvertise or anything) I lost around 3k with the drop in offer and additional paperwork but it would have cost me about that to pursue...

LandyAndy

gems3286 wrote: »

Thank you for your reply.

I know what you mean that it's not the Solicitors fault i just think it's a bit unfair that my parents should have to pay that's all.

It's the way it works here. If your parents had pulled out of the abortive sale their buyers would have had to stand any costs they had incurred (solicitors fees, survey fees etc.)

pastmybest

gems3286 wrote: »

Thank you for your reply.

I know what you mean that it's not the Solicitors fault i just think it's a bit unfair that my parents should have to pay that's all.

So the solicitor should not charge for their time spent?

BUT they need to pay their bills and staff wages?

So how do they get the income to do the above?

Do they make everyone else pay more, whose sale does go through, so you don't have to pay?

I should hope not and if I was a client whose sale went throught I would resent subsidising the solicitors abortive cases?

seabright

delerium wrote: »

I don't know if this will be much help but when this happened to me ( in scotland in 2005) I was advised that I could take action against the individuals who backed out of the sale but it does depend on how far completed the sale was.

I don't know about this part of the law in Scotland, but you can't do this in England & Wales - there's no contract, therefore no breach of contract, therefore no damages.