Solicitor charging admin fee for stamp duty refund. Fair?

Legacy_user

I recently benefited from the stamp duty changes. Not a huge about, about £500 but still a good saving. After a few deductions for ground rent and service charges there's about £300 left and I've asked my solicitor to transfer this back to me. They have then stated there will be a £35 admin fee... and this is regardless of the method of payment.

I don't feel this is particularly fair. I was careful to transfer the exact money to them originally, and was obviously unaware of the stamp duty changes at the time (since they hadn't been announced). It's a pretty big "admin fee", £35 to write a cheque?

WestonDave

Did you ask them to "transfer" it back, in which case a transfer fee from the bank will often apply which is fair enough to pass on.


Beyond that they were also unaware of the stamp duty changes and this refund is requiring extra work from them over and above what they planned when you were given your fixed fee quote. With decent convenyancing solicitors charging around £200 per hour that's a charge for about 10 minutes work which isn't entirely unreasonable. That said the wise solicitor wouldn't be charging it and ending up with a cheesed off client.

System

WestonDave wrote: »

Did you ask them to "transfer" it back, in which case a transfer fee from the bank will often apply which is fair enough to pass on.

I asked if there was any payment method that didn't incur a fee and they said no, it was an admin fee.

It takes about 30 seconds to arrange a bank transfer. Pff.

WestonDave

This is where it becomes a bit complicated - for "rules" reasons a lot of payment fees get charged on as admin fees simply because you can't charge on a £10 fee at £35 and call it a disbursement. However most banks will charge say £15 per transaction on their terminal plus a monthly rental fee for access to the system. There is obviously also some time involved in setting up and checking the payment, plus getting it authorised. (Its not a simple as you doing your online banking for security reasons). So if the bank is charging £15, by the time you've added something on for the fixed costs of having the terminal and a bit of staff time to process it, it easily mounts up.


As I said, given the short term nature of this issue a sensible solicitor with an eye on long term business wouldn't be charging it - I suspect a target driven factory type operation will see this as a chance to get a few extra quid towards their monthly target.

Mrs_Optimist

I work in the accounts dept of a small firm of Solicitors who get a LOT of local conveyancing work through word of mouth. The Banks charge £24 for a same day (TT) transfer of funds, however a 3 days BACS payment is free. We haven't charged any kind of admin fee for refunding Stamp Duty as a result of the new rules, and in fact today specifically we sent via BACS £3900 to a client, free of charge as a refund of the sum deducted for SDLT.


In my view your Solicitor (whom, if it is a factory farm as I suspect, is probably no more than a paralegal) is taking the absolute p~~s in charging an admin fee of any description.

G_M

Mrs_Optimist wrote: »

In my view your Solicitor (whom, if it is a factory farm as I suspect, is probably no more than a paralegal) is taking the absolute p~~s in charging an admin fee of any description.

Indeed.

But of course, as we all know, possession is 9/10ths of the law.

Currently the firm possesses your money....

Armorica

It's a bit of a rip-off unless they are sending it via CHAPS (which is excessive given the value).

You could try arguing that the fees are disproportionate

System

I've just asked them to transfer it, they weren't entertaining the idea of waiving the fee.

It's still an unexpected saving so I'm not too upset about it.

As many of you have guessed, it is a bigger firm, and it's definitely been a lesson learned. The money I saved going with them them has almost definitely been gobbled up with little hidden fees like this, or the additional time it's taken them to do things.

No sale no fee, and fixed fee sounded great at the start, but I definitely think next time I'll stick with a reputable local solicitor even if it costs a bit more.

Richard_Webster

I don't know why solicitors do this kind of thing -

• it leaves a negative impression with the client for the future
• it could well take up more then £35 worth of time explaining to/arguing with the client about it.

Lord_Baltimore

Richard_Webster wrote: »

[*]it could well take up more then £35 worth of time explaining to/arguing with the client about it.

Well, there's your answer OP - make sure you argue the toss so this unfair little dip into your windfall is negated. Then, find a good conveyancer who doesn't charge you every time they have to manage their office systems.

agrinnall

Richard_Webster wrote: »

I don't know why solicitors do this kind of thing -

• it leaves a negative impression with the client for the future
• it could well take up more then £35 worth of time explaining to/arguing with the client about it.

Well, if the OP is confident that the £35 is all they will charge then perhaps they should ensure they do use up enough of the solicitor's time to cover the cost - which at the likely hourly rate should be pretty easy to do. That'll teach them!