Solicitors made a mistake and now want us to pay extra?

Bob_the_Saver

I'm no great friend of the legal profession but you owe it, pay it.

PS. The definition of a Shame

A bus full of lawyers driving over a cliff,
with an empty seat!

Pinkypants

I made a sale the other day and under charged by £50, my fault forgot to change the price on the product on computer system.

Customer has paid in full and has a receipt, as far as I see it, I made the mistake. The customer has completed the transaction by paying.

In my book deal done, customer agreed to my price when I quoted it from computer, they paid that amount. That's it contract of sale has been made.

Not sure if it differs with services instead of physical product. But can't see why it should.

Have we not all got something cheaper then it should have been at one time of our lives???

DVardysShadow

Pinkypants wrote: »

I made a sale the other day and under charged by £50, my fault forgot to change the price on the product on computer system.

Nice thought. But for the situation in this thread, it is completely misleading and rather unhelpful.

A solicitor acts as your agent. So his fee for the work he does for you is fairly analogous to selling something in a shop - and if the solicitor underquoted for this work, it would be his loss. But when it comes to the fees which he spends on your behalf - when he is acting as agent - they are fees for which you are legally responsible and the only grounds for challenging them are whether the particular service in question was actually required.

Angelicdevil

Should have been detailed in the initial quote for the work they would be undertaking on your behalf.

I was a first time buyer and made sure I knew my expected costs. Land registry is standard.

Sounds like you've come to a decision though to just shut up and pay up, which is the right thing to do.

Pinkypants

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Nice thought. But for the situation in this thread, it is completely misleading and rather unhelpful.

A solicitor acts as your agent. So his fee for the work he does for you is fairly analogous to selling something in a shop - and if the solicitor underquoted for this work, it would be his loss. But when it comes to the fees which he spends on your behalf - when he is acting as agent - they are fees for which you are legally responsible and the only grounds for challenging them are whether the particular service in question was actually required.

Oh, sorry. I thought they have been given a bill which they agreed and made the contract of sale for services provided by PAYING that bill.

I made a mistake, solicitor made a mistake. I see it same way as OP. Once the money is handed over transaction completed.

vax2002

they have been given a Statement of account, that is not a legal bill.
It is an open ended request for interim payments.
Solicitors are not daft, they may be crook, but not daft.
You should request a posted final bill, that uses the words
FINAL BILL.
No statement of account.
The other side is until they send a BILL for the other amount they can not sue for it.
The Bills and exchange act is a forgotten gem in the mud when dealing with anyone claiming you owe money.
County Courts work on basic pillars of justice:
You Can not claim for which you have not asked ( sent a legal Bill)
You can not claim for which you have refused.
You can not claim where no loss or harm has resulted.

So until they send a legal bill, you dont have to pay anything, and a statement of account is not a bill is a open running total that never closes.

prowla

It is not uncommong for there to be mistakes in invoices (indeed invoices usually contain the term "E&OE", which means "Errors & Omissions Excepted" to cover that). When we last moved house the soliciters couldn't do the simple maths and I ended up doing it for them!

Alybea

Our solicitors did almost the same thing. Charged us for less than £100k but it was just over. We went halves with them over the difference.

Sambucus_Nigra

How does this amount differ from the initial quote?

silvercar

You need to find out if they have done the Land Registry registration. If they haven't then you need to pay to get this done. If you don't then the mortgage lender will end up paying for it to be done and adding on their charges and adding the lot to your mortgage.

If they have done it then you still need to pay IMO, but you have more time.