Complaining about solicitors fees?

squashy

I am really unhappy with probate services I recieved from a solicitor. This was to handle my husnabnd's deceased grandmother's property and transfer it to my husband's name, as we have been looking after and living in the house for some years.

My main complaint is the cost- he gave us a verbal estimate at our first meeting of "£500, give or take, as it is quite a straightforward matter", plus land registry fees etc. We paid £250 upfront as a part/half payment. However the final bill came to £1858.13!! The solicitors never gave us a written quote, except for a standard letter explaining that work was chargeable on an hourly basis. They also never updated us on fees, so we had no reason to assume it would be a great deal more than £5-600 (we were aware there there were one or two hiccups along the way, and that it did drag out a little, but were shocked to learn that thsi was £1300 worth of work!).

It did feel that most of the work was not in the form of advice as such but middleman work, asking us for documents which were to be sent to the land registry and other such to-ing and fro-ing. So we are angry about how the costs have been worked out as well as the absence of any updates re the fees.

There are other minor complaints, such as the fact that we never recieved any letter to say that the land and property had been successfully re-registered, it was only from checking with the LR ourselves we saw it had. However, 2 weeks after we checked, we got another letter from the solicitors saying the LR required yet more documentation!? They also charged us for LR fees, when at the time they had asked us to send a cheque to them directly, which we had done.

We contacted the law society, asking what we should do. They advised us to write to them, which we did in November, 2 weeks after recieving the bill. This was to set out our complaint and give them chance to resolve matters. They did not reply so we asked them to apply for a remuneration certificate via the law society so the fees could be assessed by them.

This week (ie nearly 3 months after we wrote to them!!) we recieved a letter back from the solicitor that dealt with our case, apologising for the delay as the complaints officer had been very ill. He addressed some of the issues but he denied setting an estimated fee (even though my mother-in law AND husband both comfirm that he did as they were both in the office at the time). He offered to reduce the bill by £500 as a goodwill gesture, plus knock off £50 in respect of the incorrectly billed LR fees (which made no sense as they have billed us £70 for LR fees!). There was no mention of the remuneration certificate that we had asked for.

I really feel we have a strong case for complaint. It has caused my Mother in Law considerable upset, she is clinially depressed and seeing a phsychiatrist at the moment and the worry of all this is exacerbating things, even though we have said we will try and find the money. There was no other capital, eg bank accounts, from which to pay the fees. We had managed to get £600 over time (I used my open university grant!!) but really dont have any more money.

I am unsure whether to pursue this complaint and try and get the bill lowered even more ie by rejecting the goodwill offer and taking the formal route through the law society. Regardless of how they work out the bill, I feel the solicitor and the firm have acted VERY unprofessionally throughout, even now as the solicior himself has dealt with the complaint and not the firm's complaints officer. His incompetence is demonstated by the fact he has not even adjusted the bill by the correct amount for the LR fees.

I would love to hear from anyone who has had experience of applying for Remunaration Certificates or complaining about solicitors, any comments or advice at all gratefully recieved.

ariba10

I try to put as much space between my self and the legal profession as I would with an elephant with diarrhea.

I can but wish you luck.

Bossyboots

Firstly, they are professionally obliged to give you a written estimate of costs. It is astounding that he is now claiming he didn't. That is even worse than going over the estimate and not letting you know that he had.

Secondly, they are obliged to provide a reconciliation certificate when asked.

They are not allowed to bill for disbursements not incurred but everyone is human and errors happen. However, in your case they still seem to want to charge you a payment they are not entitled to. If this error is corrected, most people wouldn't take issue with it but their actions here are disgraceful.

The time scale here is far too long. The firm should have a written complaints procedure that sets out how long each stage will take. It is not acceptable to take this long and someone else should have handled the complaint in the absence of the complaints partner.

You have all these grounds on which to complain and I would urge you to do so. Inform the Law Society again of what has happened and invoke their complaints procedure. Billing for disbursements not actually occurred is a serious issue if not resolved, failing to produce the remuneration certificate is also a serious issue as is failing to give an estimate. They should also have kept you up to date with how the fees were going.

You have a very good case here for getting all the fees remitted.

changkra

I was given a fee of £800 for conveyancing approx 4 years go the final bill came to just over £2000. Try arguing with a solicitor it is virtually impossible and they have got you over a barrel as they will win in court as they can argue the case far better. Trust a solicitor? not anymore

andyrules

I had a problem with a solicitor a few years ago. I contacted the Law Society and they told me exactly what to do. It was resolved very quickly after that.