extortionate solicitors fees?

scottay2hottay

dzug1 wrote: »

Leaving aside the incompetency aspect - the fees do not seem out of this world for a solicitor who is dealing with an estate in a vacuum - he'll have incurred costs locating you for example, will have spent time clearing the house, etc - much of which wouldn't have been of much concern had a family been in attendance

They would equate to about a week's work.

I don't disagree with your sentiments though

Thanks for taking the time to reply. As far as I am aware, the only thing that they did to find me was to use 192.com, and even that was refunded.
As for the charge for the house removal, that was taken from money raised from the auction of my dads belongings ( an auction that shouldn't have happened). The funeral was already taken out of the estate a few months after my father died and is not included as their charges.

scottay2hottay

scottay2hottay

scottay2hottay

scottay2hottay

scottay2hottay

getmore4less

I think you need to know why it took this amount of time telephone and letters.

How many accounts were involved?
(that will be where there was money, utilities, HMRC, DWP etc.)

scottay2hottay

getmore4less wrote: »

Post a full breakdown including hte funeral as that seems very high.

I managed to get the most important ones on here, the funeral was £3722.40

getmore4less

scottay2hottay wrote: »

I managed to get the most important ones on here, the funeral was £3722.40

I think that is high for what should be a basic funeral if solicitors are instructing it.

It's a lot more that the two I have done and they included cars and a wake.

loubel

In honesty, £5K of fees for solicitor executors is about what I'd expect for a small estate. Because they've provided an itemised account of time spent, their hourly rate is pretty reasonable and their total fee matches their original estimate, I suspect you will struggle to argue their fees.

They have added a value charge on top of that though which might be arguable. Although they are accepted as a legitimate charge by solicitor executors they must still be reasonable taking into account their hourly rate and overall fee. As a % the value element is quite high (approx 3.5% by my calculation). Was it disclosed in their original letter discussing fees?