Solicitors charging additional £200

Pyro.

Nearly towards the end of buying our first property. We are using the Army Help To Buy scheme which my solicitors already notified me that they were unsure of the process but would still do this.

We received our letter today stating that "There has been some considerable correspondence and telephone calls with the Ministry Of Defence and also with the lender and this is ongoing. I therefore propose charging additional £200 plus VAT for the work in connection with this loan. The actual time recording is far in excess of this i trust in the circumstances that you will find this acceptable"

To be quite honest I'm shocked. £200 because they had to make more calls to the MoD due to not having the correct knowledge / experience.

Have i no option at all? Do you think i should swallow it and carry on?

marksoton

Post on the mortgage sub forum. They are better qualified to comment.

TBagpuss

check your original terms of business. It's not uncommon to have provisions that a set fee may increase if significant additional work is needed.
It would be reasonable to clarify what the calls and correspondence are about. Assuming that they are dealing with the loan, not trying to learn the process, it is likely to be reasonable.

davidmcn

It is more work for them, no matter how familiar they might be with the process, so not unreasonable to charge something more. Possibly not £200 worth, but hard to say without knowing what's been involved.

pinkshoes

davidmcn wrote: »

It is more work for them, no matter how familiar they might be with the process, so not unreasonable to charge something more. Possibly not £200 worth, but hard to say without knowing what's been involved.

So why not charge it in their quote at the beginning if they knew it was going to be more work?

OP, did your solicitors notify at the beginning that there might be extra charges due to them not being familiar with the scheme?

G_M

Seems perfectly reasonable. Extra unanticipated work = extra time = extra £.

They warned you they were "unsure of the process but would still do this." and I'm willing to bet that if you look at their Terms of Service / contract, you'll find some clause saying they can charge extra if unexpected work arises.

£200? Solicitors typically charge from £80 - £200 per hour, so that's really not a lot.

And they appear to be not charging you the full amount for their time:
"The actual time recording is far in excess of this "

cr1mson

IMHO it depends if it is really extra unanticipated work or whether they reasonably should have expected that level of work and quoted accordingly in the first place. I would argue that it is more likely to be that as they weren't aware of process involved they didn't price accordingly. I would argue against paying on that basis pointing out that now they are more familiar with process it can be a selling point for any future clients who use the same scheme. Obviously if it is an army area this will hold more weight.

Ultimately I would pay it if refuse to budge but don't ask don't get. I wouldn't go in confrontational with it more along the lines as I am confused by this type approach.

Kitten868

Based on the purpose of the scheme I don't think its fair to charge you. I was not charged. It's not difficult. It's just an extra source of deposit to come in. Write a letter back.

martindow

Presumably you are in the army - can you talk to someone involved in the administration of this scheme to find out how it works and the extent of the extra work for your solicitor?

With more knowledge of the process you can determine how much is necessary extra work and how much is the solicitor not knowing what they are doing. If you think it should involve little extra work, I would also ask to see the correspondence between your solicitor and the army.

hazyjo

I would probably take advice but reluctantly pay it. I would also make them aware I am not impressed and actually a bit embarrassed for them at asking when I'd already agreed their fee (saying that would make it far less likely for them to do the same to you in say a month's time). Perhaps ahead of something extra, but not after. They should have contacted you to say 'look, this is taking much longer than anticipated and is likely to result in a large number of calls/letters, etc so would it be okay with you to up our fee by £200.' I'd still be peed off, but it seems fairer.


Jx

TBagpuss

Kitten868 wrote: »

Based on the purpose of the scheme I don't think its fair to charge you. I was not charged. It's not difficult. It's just an extra source of deposit to come in. Write a letter back.

It's perfectly fair. The purpose of the scheme is irrelevant.

If instead of dealing with a buyer, a seller and amortgage lender the solicitors have to deal with a buyer, a seller, a mortgage lender and the MoD there is more work involved. Why would you epxect them to work for free?

They will have additional work to ensure that the mortgage lender is happy as well as dealing directly with the MoD. It's simialr to a situation where you are using Help To Buy, or where a property is leasold. It involves more work, so it costs more.

The solicitor explained to OP that they had not dealt with the scheme before so it is not reasonable to expect them to have known how much additional work would be required, and they have made clearthat they areonly seeking a token payment, not the full cost of doingthe extra work.

it doesn't sound as though the extra costs are down to the solicitor not being familiar with the schme, they are to do with the extra work neded becuae you have a complicated purchase.