Undercharged on invoice now being invoiced for more

Shakin_Steve

Our solicitor has quoted £849 for acting as our conveyancer, with a breakdown of costs. There is a load of stuff about 'extras' if things go pear shaped but, if everything went smoothly on your move, why the demand for more?

kinger101

The amount sounds similar to a mortgage fee. My solicitor mistakenly thought the bank were advancing this, but I spotted it and corrected their invoice for them.

If it's this, or any other money they need to forward to the vendor, of course you have to pay it.

BTW, if your solicitor can't complete on time, and the vendor incurs expenses because of this, you'll be the one footing the bill.

davidmcn

I suspect the sum in question isn't a legal fee but the net balance on the completion statement - once you add in purchase/sale costs, redemption amounts, stamp duty, estate agents and other third party invoices etc then there's more scope for bigger arithmetic errors.

marksoton

kinger101 wrote: »

The amount sounds similar to a mortgage fee. My solicitor mistakenly thought the bank were advancing this, but I spotted it and corrected their invoice for them.

I agree, seems a popular figure with a lot of lenders.

The OP probably had the choice to wrap the fee into the mortgage but chose not to.

alchemist.1

Shakin_Steve wrote: »

Our solicitor has quoted £849 for acting as our conveyancer, with a breakdown of costs. There is a load of stuff about 'extras' if things go pear shaped but, if everything went smoothly on your move, why the demand for more?

Totally different scenario.

Hedgehog99

As others have said, did you agree a fixed fee or agree to pay whatever it ended up costing?

If you've been on the phone to them a lot, every minute costs!

Also, like others said, any fees your solicitor has had to pay on your behalf that this £999 could be?

I did once have a fixed fee agreement with a conveyancer & they tried to invoice me for a much larger amount, but I quoted their Ts & Cs back at them & they gave in & let me pay the original amount.

Marvel1

Th OP posted on 02/03/16 and has not replied to say what the extra is etc

cadon

If it was for a necessary disbursement (i.e. a third party cost they had settled on my behalf), I'd pay up straight away. Entirely likely someone invoiced them late.

However, if it was for their own time costs and they'd previously told me I had settled their time costs in full, I'd ask for a breakdown and an explanation before considering whether the bill was in fact valid.

£999 sounds like a disbursement.