Solicitors Fees - HELP PLEASE

LittleDrum

To cut a long story short, we were at point of exchange when our buyers pulled out, but luckily had another offer accepted on our house a few hours later... forward 4 weeks, nothing seems to have progressed. our buyers are doing a BTL..

So we were considering on pulling out as we accepted their offer on the basis that they were proceedable, which they are not.

We asked our solicitor for a final bill, and they're basically charging us the full amount. Plus £180 for the new sale, even though our buyer hasnt even instructed a solicitor yet.

Is this justifiable?? I knew we would have to pay something as we didnt go with a no sale no fee solicitors, but to be billed for the whole costs bar £120???

Seems completely unreasonable.

Can they do this? Can we negotiate at all?

timmyt

exchange is when all the work is really done..not much left as you are only selling.

they also re did the paperwork for your new buyers, that is a chunk of what a selling lawyer does for his fee

compared to your agent, who has wroked harder for a paultry fee?

LittleDrum

We're selling and buying and to be billed £1300 for an aborted sale and purchase seems a little excessive.

Re the new sale, nothing has been done as our new buyer hasn't even got a mortgage in place or instructed a solicitor, even though the estate agent told us he had. If we had known that he hadn't been proceedable we would have either kept marketing our property or pulled out completely.

But as our estate agent lied to us, you're telling me we have to incur the costs of paperwork, even though he had no solicitor to send the paperwork to?!

missile

£1300 does not seem excessive to me. What was the sale price?

LittleDrum

Really? It doesnt?

Sale price was £197500, purchase price was £191000.

What does the sale/purchase price have to do with the solicitors aborted fees?


I have asked for an itemised breakdown of costs for the work done and i'll just from there.

missile

littlejo26 wrote: »

Really? It doesnt? ........... What does the sale/purchase price have to do with the solicitors aborted fees?
.

My SiL sold her property last week and was charged £2,000. Which was a bit less than her quote .......... which was 1% of sale price.

You ought to have asked for a quote.

LittleDrum

I think you have mis read my original post!!
The solicitor wants the full fee even though it is an aborted sale and purchase!

Of course we got a quote, thats how we know they're charging us in full, bar £120, when neither the sale or purchase is taking place.

missile

Like timmyt said, your solicitor has done all the hard work. Why should he not charge?

Not his fault if you decide to pull out, as buyer will not complete promptly.

LittleDrum

missile wrote: »

Like timmyt said, your solicitor has done all the hard work. Why should he not charge?

Not his fault if you decide to pull out, as buyer will not complete promptly.

It's not MY fault our buyer pulled out.

RX-78

I'm assuming the £180 additional fee is discounted fee for the processing of the new sale? I know it may sound harsh but that doesn't sound too unfair given (I assume) you haven't agreed a prior deal - after all, solicitor could have demanded for a full amount second time!

I've agreed with my solicitor, incase of buyer/seller pulling out she wouldn't charge any extra for additional work for subsequent conveyancing provided I stay with her.

Richard_Webster

Most of the work would have been done on the first abortive sale, but I wouldn't charge the full fee if it aborted, maybe 66-80%.

If the estate agents never sent the solicitors details of the new buyer because he had not yet instructed a solicitor I wouldn't have anything on my file about a new purchase, unless Op spent a lot of time on the phone talking to the solicitor baout the new buyer and seeking advice on how to proceed.

In some circumstances £180 might be reasonable, but I do think the solicitor needs to explain what he did for that money.

Normally there would be nothing to do until we received the details form the agent and then it would simply be case of telling my secretary to send the stuff out again, with revised price etc on the draft contract.