Solicitors Fees

DandyDon_2

Hi, apologies if this is in the wrong place.

I bought a house in September through my solicitor here in Scotland, I received a final bill for fees etc from them just prior to completion and I subsequently paid the said amount in order that the purchase was completed in time. All went without a hitch, and my family and I were the proud owners of a new house. Then much to my surprise on the 3rd of October I received a letter from my solicitors stating that the figure they had totalled on the letter in September had been added up wrong, i.e the last three figures had been annotated as 259 however they should have read 529. They fully accepted tht this was an error on their part but want the £270 :eek: . I phoned and asked why if it was their acknowledged error, they replied that i had received goods and were duty bound to pay for them. I contacted CAB at two seperate locations who , tho had slightly conflicting guidance on where the costs lay, both said wait it out and see if they come back, therefore, that is what i have done. However, last week I received another letter requesting the money.

My question is does the cost of this error lay at my door or the solicitors, as they have admitted it is their error. It is stressfull enough when buying a house without your budget getting upset by solicitors who cant add up, I would ve thought that as I paid this in all good faith, they would just have to suck it up and say ah well best check our letters before we send them out.


Can anyone advise?

dunstonh

My question is does the cost of this error lay at my door or the solicitors, as they have admitted it is their error.

you are still liable. An admin error does not take your liability away. Especially as an indication of costs and billing would have been given to you at the start and possibly the period as well.

If the indication of costs incurred is wrong as well then you may have a stronger case as you could argue that you proceeded with them on the basis of those charges. However, balance of probability is that the initial figures given to you were the correct amount and it was just the final invoice that was wrong.

Assuming that the initial figures were quoted correctly, it shouldnt really effect your budget as the higher figure would have been what you budgeted for.

Phil_rich

They are correct, I have seen somewhere that the law/sale of goods act states you cannot benefit from a mistake by others. Therefore you are still liable to pay the full price, just because they made a typing error it should not cost them £270.

silvercar

I agree with others that you are liable, but it is reasonable for you to be able to accept an invoice from your solicitors. I think it would be reasonable to say that you moved into your home and spent money you thought you had. Therefore it is unreasonable to expect you to have the money instantly available. I would be inclined to offer to pay them back in instalments eg £90 a month over the next three months.

DandyDon_2

Thanks for the advice, tho not what I was hoping to hear. Yes I received an invoice which if i had totalled up the figures it would've read 529, just the bottom figure was wrong, tho the figure is not the same as first quoted tho they did say this would be a provisional estimate on the future costs. It just augers that these "professionals" have acted so unprofessionally and becuase I trusted them I am now in the boat of having to find £270, I wouldve expected to at least split the cost with them, shoulder the blame so to speak

I had thought about the payment over x months but if I am liable then I would rather sever all ties with the incompetent firm asap.

clutton_2

everyone makes the occasional mistake.

MrChris1986

I worked for a firm of solicitors and perhaps can give an insight/some advice ...

The thing you have to bear in mind is that the conveyencers spend their day reading through title deeds and restrictive covenants etc ... actually turning over the files and doing the "work" to progress each case ... they have very little to do with the actual billing ... which is left to the administrators ...

To say they are incompetent and unprofessional is somewhat harsh when quibbling over less than £300 - which is probably less than two hours of work ...

If I were you, I would ask for a reduction in their professional charges of 25% and say it is in their best interest as it will put the matter to bed ... bearing in mind the hourly rate of the person chasing you might be £200? - every 6 minutes (i.e. a tenth of an hour) spent chasing you costs the firm £20 which they could be putting to use on a different file which will be more profitable to them ...

They will probably offer you a 10-15% drop ... and surely that's better than nothing at all ...

kelloggs36

If it is just the total figure that was added up wrong, then I don't think you have a leg to stand on! It is easy to spot that mistake if you checked the figures at the time. However, if they had billed you totally incorrectly, then I would say you had an argument as it would be unreasonable for you to know what the costs would be in advance (for sure).