Solicitors Charging Additional £200

Pyro.

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

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?

minimike2

"I therefore propose". Sound like legal jargon for "I ballsed up and think I should have quoted you this to start with, but realise I probably in law can't make you pay this unless you agree to it".

It's your call on if you push back on it.

A quote is given and accepted in good faith. It's their fault for not doing their research into the requirements first I guess. Depends how much bother it might cause I guess. In the grand scheme of buying a house £200 isn't much, but then there is the principle of the matter too...

Also from another perspective, if you quoted something to someone then realised you made a mistake, how would you feel if you didn't get paid. Although I realise it can seem different with what a solicitor charges by the hour...

It's your call.

stator

If you want the purchase to go through it's probably best to pay it. You can negotiate if you wish.
You are entitled to ask for a breakdown of the costs but they are entitled to charge you for providing it.

getmore4less

Did your original quote have any waffle that it could be more.

I would also look at it in context of the original quote, if this was competitive for a normal sale or did it have some I don't know the process so have already added a bit more contingency.

Remember the rates solicitors charge is part for knowledge base they can do stuff quickly because they know what they are doing and spend time researching and keeping up with case law etc which everyone has to pay for through the chargeable hours.

Part of the extra work could be considered them improving their ability to deal with these cases(although probably not a lot of work) unless they get recommended through the Service help to buy scheme.

Enterprise_1701C

I would get back to them with your last line

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

Although risking losing the house because of £200 seems a little excessive to me.

That said, I have absolutely no experience in this.

amnblog

If their terms say they will charge for any unexpected work they are covered.


They have the upper hand because all the funds come through them.

rtho782

My solicitors tried this too, though without any logic or reason (just wanted an additional £200, without anything saying what had caused additional work).

I am a civvy now but I work at an Army site. There are lots of squaddies around here and I do wonder if we are using the same solicitors

I challenged them on it as they originally gave me a quote not an estimate, and they backed down.