Abortive bill cost

missy12345

OK, so I will keep this one nice and short and hopefully someone out there can help me.

Recently I was in the process of buying a house. I got mortgage approval and did a valuation which were all fine. We did an independent report and decided we need to negotiate, before this though, our solicitor was in the process of doing searches etc. I asked for an update and he said it would take a week. I didn't receive any news from my solicitor and I have decided to pull out because we can't go ahead with the purchase as it will be costing us more money in the long run.

Anyways, my solicitor has sent me a abortive bill. It's around £500.00. What I want to know is this normal. I mean he hasn't been updating me on what's come back with the searches etc. I would have wanted to know, especially the building regulation work.

Is there anything I can do, so he can reduce this bill, or is this standard practice, oh, he didn't mention this at the time we signed up. Also, we haven't signed exchange contracts, and i know for sure that's when charges are incurred.

If this is the case, I will want to make sure i am updated all the way, before my solicitor is so call 'doing all the work' but hasn't shown me any of it.

Thank you for reading, any responses much appreciated.

grifferz

Ask for a breakdown of the bill and then consult your contract with the solicitor. It normally says you will be liable for costs incurred, i.e. searches etc they have already done.

mrsmchapman

When we had abortive a few years back, yes we also had a bill, ours had done searches and also received the draft contract and we had signed all contract paperwork. With yourselves in order for the searches he would have received the draft contract to look through and ask questions to the other solicitor on, also they would have paid out for searches, whether these are back yet I assume they pay in advance for them.

missy12345

Thanks peeps for the quick reply.

What I want to know is £500.00 realistic or is this too much money.

x

G_M

He has been doing work on your behalf. That means his time, and also quite possibly he has paid others (eg the local authority for searches).

Unless you negotiated and agreed a 'no sale no fee' contract with him, why should he not be paid for his professional services?

mrsmchapman

It sounds about right to me, solicitors don't come cheap by the hour !

missy12345

Thanks for your reply.

The reason I ask is, I paid an initial up front fee of £300.00, and he was asking for information, which I did not supply. and when I asked about searches etc he was saying he is waiting. And now that I want the paperwork for the searches, he said he will provide it to me to tomorrow, why not today, so now i need to pay an additional £500.00, which he never spoke about.

grifferz

missy12345 wrote: »

Thanks peeps for the quick reply.

What I want to know is £500.00 realistic or is this too much money.

x

I'm sorry but it doesn't matter so much whether you deem it realistic or not, it's what the contract says. :sad:

I mean sure if it was £5,000 you might have some grounds to say this is an unfair charge even if it was noted. But if the sum you would call "realistic" was £100 or £250 then I don't think them clearly saying they will charge you £500 in the contract is going to leave you with any grounds to dispute it.

So the question is, in the contract and schedule of charges that you signed, does it say there will be an abortive charge? If not, ask them to detail what it is the charge is for, and then they may come back with a list of searches and other actions that they have done that came to £500.

Generally unless your contract has a "no completion no fee" clause then once they've started there is going to be a charge, I mean local searches in my area are £245 alone. So absent such a "no fee" clause, you would expect to pay something.

missy12345

Thank you all for replies, much appreciated. I noticed at the side 'newbie Alert' lol

chappers

All depends how much work he has done on your behalf, ask for a breakdown.