Is it worth changing solicitors?

junebug87

After being recommended a solicitor for my conveyancing. I requested a quote and received one promptly.

Having agreed to this price and instructed the solicitors, I then received the paperwork through the post with a different total amount - approx £50 higher.

I queried this with the solicitor handling the case who responded saying that the quote on the letter is the correct price, there was a mistake in the original quote, and just apologised for the confusion.

This has disappointed me a bit, as although it is only a small amount in the grand scheme of things, it's the principle of it that I find irritating. Are solicitors allowed to just change the quote you agreed to?

I've not given them any money so far, so I'm assuming I'm able to change solicitors if I really wanted to. I did have a second choice that were slightly cheaper. I'm just unsure what it would do to the mortgage application and the timelines, and whether it's really worth it for £50...

I've not responded to their email yet as I'm unsure how to respond. I don't want to do anything that will cause me problems later on down the line.

Any thoughts??

MrJB

It wouldn't fill me with much confidence that they have a great attention to detail. A quote is a quote and open to acceptance - was your original quote written?

The issue that may arise is you go back and say you want them to stick to their original quote and as a consequence their nose is out of joint and you end up receiving a worse service. Out of curiosity, who recommended the conveyancer (hopefully not the Estate agent!).

junebug87

Yes, I have it in email form. It's not from the same solicitor, but a trainee colleague of theirs. I'm assuming they'll blame it on trainee error but I'm very tempted to say unless they stick to their quote I'm going elsewhere. I just don't know what impact changing a solicitor would have on my mortgage application. I've already had the surveys done.

eddddy

As you say, in the scheme of things, £50 is very trivial - and not worth changing solicitors over.

But if, for example, you think this has shown them up as an arrogant and unfriendly company, with poor client care - who might be difficult to deal with throughout the process - that may be a reason to change.


However, be prepared for much bigger 'knocks' than this as you move through the property buying process.

dc197

Could it be that the initial quote was the plain vanilla price, and that upon instructing the firm and giving full details the price could be adjusted for your situation?
For example, the price initially gfiven could have included a national average price for local authority searches, and when you gave full details the correct relevant LA search price was used?

alchemist.1

£50.00 is a trivial amount.

It's a volume business and an error on a quote is common.
I'm afraid you will have to lower your expectations somewhat whichever solicitor you end up using due to the nature of the business.

mildredalien

We were in the same situation - the email quote from our solicitor was lower than the quote on the paperwork they sent us by around £60 (including VAT).

We queried it and they immediately sent us new paperwork with the originally quoted price on it. Whether the quote or paperwork was wrong I'm not sure, but they stood by their initial quote which I thought was a reasonable position to take!

I'm not sure what we would have done if they had not gone back to the original quote. To be honest we probably would have used them anyway - they were recommended, are local so convenient for us, and mistakes happen.

SmlSave

The word quote keeps getting used and most solicitors use the word estimate. It's important that you know the difference as to what the solicitor means:

Quote - fixed
Estimate - can change

Mr.Generous

If the recommendation was any kind of trade recommendation ie not from family or friend, the Id look elsewhere. Solicitors who need to get their business from estate agents or lenders pay a fee - immediately passed onto you, and are by and far the worst at doing their job. The good ones have customers knocking on their door through word of mouth and good reputation.

I have cut and pasted this from the one we use for all our buying and selling, about 3 of each a year so not a huge volume but if it cost £200 more it would knock £1200 off our profits.They do a great job btw.

The practice endeavors to give a good professional service at a low price (written quotations are available on request or at the outset of the transaction). An example of our conveyancing fees quotes is the current charges of £500 (inclusive of VAT and disbursements) for acting on the sale of a property up to £200,000, with the exceptions of flats/apartments.

Thrugelmir

junebug87 wrote: »

I queried this with the solicitor handling the case who responded saying that the quote on the letter is the correct price, there was a mistake in the original quote, and just apologised for the confusion.

What's changed? Estimates are made up of a number of elements.

Flat_Eric

When quotes are given its not always possible to account for everything as not all information is given or known so I would expect some variation to the final figure. What's the extra for? Have they said?