Can solicitors put extra charges on me?

arachne

Hi - I'm going to give my solicitor a ring on Monday to ask about this but would really appreciate any feedback if anyone knows anything about this beforehand!

I got quotes from my solicitor for convenyancing for sale of a leasehold flat and purchase of a new property. The purchase quote included all sorts of external costs like stamp duty, searches, telegraphic transfer fees and so on but the sale quote just had a quote for conveyancing (including a supplement for leasehold) so I assumed that was all I had to pay.

I'm now in the middle of the conveyancing on selling my flat and I've had a letter from my solicitor asking for £120 to pay for a questionnaire they sent my flat's management company to fill out which the management company has charged them for.

I would have thought they should have known this kind of charge was likely so shouldn't it have been incorporated in their original quote (particularly considering they added on a leasehold premium), considering their purchase conveyancing quote covered these kinds of external costs? My main question is - do I have to pay this £120 fee in addition to the final invoiced amount or can I argue this should be encompassed in their original quoted costs?

Secondly - should I have to pay this at all? Isn't it the buyer who should cover these costs as it's not me who needs the information?

Any information would be gratefully received! Thanks in advance.

clutton_2

solicitors never know until they aproach management companies how much they will charge them for giving up information. Each management company sets it own rules and pricing structure.

you can ask the buyer to pay.. but i doubt they will agree...

this is one of the drawbacks to owing a leasehold property

G_M

This type of charge is called a disbursement. It is not a charge by the solicitor, but by a 3rd party (in this case the management company). Your quote from the solicitor at the start showed their own charges, plus typical disbursements which they anticipated. If further disbursements arise, these are beyond the control of your solicitor, who simply passes them on.

The charge in question is one which often, but not always, arises with leasehold properties. Some leaseholds do not have a management company. Some management companies make no charge for these questionaires. The charge made by management companies that do charge can vary enourmously. For these reasons they were not included in your original quote.

So.
No, the solicitor should not have included it, though they could have said such a charge may be payable.
Yes, you have to pay it.
The buyer has asked you (via your solicitor) for the information. You need to provide the information. If you do not know the answers and need to ask the mnagement company, then yes, you need to pay the charge.
However you may find you already have some or even all the information. If your management company is efficient, they should have sent you audited annual accounts at some point. This maybe the information required. The questionaire may also ask about planned future capital works (ie a new roof next year which will cost leaseholders extra money for example). Again, you may have been informed of such plans by the management company.

If this is so, you could answer the questionaire yourself.

zzzLazyDaisy

arachne wrote: »

I'm now in the middle of the conveyancing on selling my flat and I've had a letter from my solicitor asking for £120 to pay for a questionnaire they sent my flat's management company to fill out which the management company has charged them for. .

No, the management company has charged YOU for completing the form, the solicitor is just informing you of the charge and asking for payment.

Or you could just refuse to pay and lose the sale because the leaseholder will refuse to assign the lease to your buyer.

littledisey

Whilst I would have thought your solicitor ought to have known a management information pack fee was likely, they would be unlikely to know the cost

Managing Agents who prepare the info packs know that the seller absolutely will have to provide this pack, so they charge exhorbitant fees - and get away with it.

You as the seller can't answer the questionnaire yourself as although you might have some of the info (service charge accounts, receipts etc) the question as to whether there will be any major works planned, or increase in costs has to be answered by the managing agent

In my experience the cost of these info packs range from £100 plus vat right up to £325 (yes, £325.00) plus VAT. For what is effectively a word processing and photocopying exercise !

Its unfortunately a downside of selling leasehold property I am afraid

Although I should say, my firms practice is to always tell our clients that we have to obtain the pack and get authority to spend the money before we do it !

arachne

Thanks everyone for the answers - sounds like I just have to suck it up! I probably could have answered the questions myself but I haven't even seen the questionnaire - I think they wanted the answers directly from the management company as I suppose they're a neutral 3rd party. Lucky for me I've been a very active member of the residents' committee so they charged a discounted rate as I've done so much work in the block for free over the last few years.

Particularly irritating as I didn't receive a form like this when I bought the flat (although we didn't employ managing agents back then) so I never got the benefit myself.

I just wish the solicitors had mentioned when they quoted that there was likely to be this extra charge, even if they didn't know how much it would be. Having sold at a loss to move on with my life, I now find I'm that little bit further out of pocket again - I haven't really worked out what the solicitors do for their fee apart from send me and the managing company forms to fill in and then forward them to the buyer - hardly need a law degree to write a forwarding address!!!:rotfl:

Thanks again

clutton_2

they read the documents... when i bought a flat .. my sol had to get a Deed of Variation written into the Lease as it actually said that i would have been responsible for paying for all the insurance premium myself for the whole block....... - money well spent on my part.

zzzLazyDaisy

clutton wrote: »

they read the documents... .

When I bought my house my solicitor discovered that there was a mistake in the lease which should have granted me access to my house over my neighbour's land - which meant that I had no legal right of access at all. The seller had to obtain affidavits from the neighbours so my solicitor could have the title deeds amended at the land registry.

Money well spent in my view (I'm a lawyer and could do my own conveyancing if I wanted, but I choose not to... it really is too much aggravation and hassle)

G_M

arachne wrote: »

Particularly irritating as I didn't receive a form like this when I bought the flat (although we didn't employ managing agents back then) so I never got the benefit myself.

Thanks again

I think this answers your own question. When you bought, your vendor did not get charged for this as a) there was 'no management company back then' and b) your solicitors did not send this enquiry form apparantly.

Your solicitors this time round could not know till later in the conveyancing process that this charge was going to arise, or how much it would be.

neverdespairgirl

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

(I'm a lawyer and could do my own conveyancing if I wanted, but I choose not to... it really is too much aggravation and hassle)

Ditto, couldn't agree more.

timmyt

arachne wrote: »

Hi - I'm going to give my solicitor a ring on Monday to ask about this but would really appreciate any feedback if anyone knows anything about this beforehand!

I got quotes from my solicitor for convenyancing for sale of a leasehold flat and purchase of a new property. The purchase quote included all sorts of external costs like stamp duty, searches, telegraphic transfer fees and so on but the sale quote just had a quote for conveyancing (including a supplement for leasehold) so I assumed that was all I had to pay.

I'm now in the middle of the conveyancing on selling my flat and I've had a letter from my solicitor asking for £120 to pay for a questionnaire they sent my flat's management company to fill out which the management company has charged them for.

I would have thought they should have known this kind of charge was likely so shouldn't it have been incorporated in their original quote (particularly considering they added on a leasehold premium), considering their purchase conveyancing quote covered these kinds of external costs? My main question is - do I have to pay this £120 fee in addition to the final invoiced amount or can I argue this should be encompassed in their original quoted costs?

Secondly - should I have to pay this at all? Isn't it the buyer who should cover these costs as it's not me who needs the information?

Any information would be gratefully received! Thanks in advance.

the lawyer won't know what your Landlord will charge you until they write to them - some landlords don't charge.

nothing to do with your lawyer - who I assume is doing a cracking job for you.

the buyer will expect you to provide a management pack to them, at your cost.

get it paid and quick, if you want your sale to go through asap.