How to get retention charge back?

LCKOH

We sold our apartment back in Jan 2014. The buyer's solitictor has asked for £1,000 retention in case there's any outstanding service charge. 9months has gone by, we now have the report from the management company, however, my solicitor is trying to charge me a fee for reopening a file for the case. He has also tried to charge it as an hourly charge, basically if he says it takes him 5hours the £1,000 is gone to his pocket. Could anyone advice us on this please?

Argghhh

surely it was your solicitors job originally to prove there was no outstanding service charges to the buyers solicitor therefore no retention required?
Write to the buyers solicitor directly requesting the money back

eddddy

Hi LCKOH

It's not much consolation for you, but my solicitor includes this in his fixed fee - as it's a standard part of a leasehold transaction.

If it wasn't included in your solicitor's initial quote, you could try asking why not. But if it wasn't included, I'm not sure there is much you can do.

But maybe push for a fixed fee quote for this job, rather than an hourly rate.

(Out of interest - were they super-cheap solicitors who added lots of extras to their initial quote? Or perhaps referred by your EA?)

Richard_Webster

When thhe rentetion was made the solicitor shuldf have explained your options and that he would have to make a charge for dealing with it.

There is extra work but charging £1000 is ridiculous.#

Because most service/maintenance charges are only calculated in arrears and you pay an on account figure upfront it isn't until many months later that the actual liability of someone buying or selling a flat can be calculated.

The fair way of dealing with this is to make a retention. Although this provides fairness, when acting foir a buyer I used to explain the issue and say that I would charge extra(£60 + VAT!) for dealing with them months later and would only make a retention if the buyer client insisted.

When acting for a seller I would resist agreeing to them, pointing out that there might be an overpayment (the on account amount being more than the amount actually spent) in whicc case the buyer should compensate the seller, and did the buyer want to provide his solicitor with a an extra sum to be held to cover any such overpayment that could be paid back to the seller months later?

The whole issue should have been explained properly at the time by the solicitor - OP should threaten a complaint if it is not dealt with at a more realistic or no cost.

LCKOH

The paralegal who handled our case left the soon after the completion date. We phoned the company yesterday and explained to the solicitor (also the boss) that we've received the final statement and confirmed there is no outstanding charge.

During one of the telephone conversation we had with her, we were told that we should get the full amount of back if there's no outstanding charge.

Eddddy: does it sounds cheap?
sale and purchase = £1300 +20% VAT
administration fee = £160 + 20% VAT