Solicitor accounting error- do I have to pay them back?

TimSaafawl

I recently completed a house purchase. The mortgage advance from my mortgage provider had a fee which was deducted - meaning that there was a shortfall in the overall sum transferred to my solicitors. The sale went through, the solicitors made the full payment together with the deposit money I transferred to them directly (including all their fees), using their own funds to make up the shortfall. My solicitors did not account for the shortfall when billing me for their services and are now asking me for a further £1000 (the mortgage fee). This has come as a very unpleasant surprise, I do not have the £1000 to hand, and trusted that the solicitors would handle the transfers exactly. Do I have to pay them back this shortfall if they made this accounting error?

david1951

I would say so.

I'm sure that they would be happy to come to an arrangement to pay off the amount owed...seems like they did you a favour by paying the fee out of their own pocket.

hazyjo

If they'd underpaid you £1,000, would you be happy to let them keep it?


Were you not aware of this £1,000 fee for the mortgage? Surely you must have the £1,000 as you must have allowed for fees, etc when purchasing the property - unless you have spent it? How recently is 'recently'?


Jx

davidmcn

david1951 wrote: »

I would say so.

I'm sure that they would be happy to come to an arrangement to pay off the amount owed...seems like they did you a favour by paying the fee out of their own pocket.

Yes, I'm sure other firms would have delayed completion until they had been paid the shortfall.

You might have grounds for (mild) complaint about them getting their sums wrong (if it was their fault), but at the end of the day you still owe them the £1000.

marksoton

TimSaafawl wrote: »

I recently completed a house purchase. The mortgage advance from my mortgage provider had a fee which was deducted - meaning that there was a shortfall in the overall sum transferred to my solicitors. The sale went through, the solicitors made the full payment together with the deposit money I transferred to them directly (including all their fees), using their own funds to make up the shortfall. My solicitors did not account for the shortfall when billing me for their services and are now asking me for a further £1000 (the mortgage fee). This has come as a very unpleasant surprise, I do not have the £1000 to hand, and trusted that the solicitors would handle the transfers exactly. Do I have to pay them back this shortfall if they made this accounting error?

Unpleasent surprise? Hardly. You clearly knew the fee was payable.

I'd suggest you need to start looking at credit options to pay them.

Marvel1

If this was the opposite, and you paid too much, would you expect the refund difference back?

[Deleted User]

If you're going to try to avoid paying bills, solicitors ones are probably not the best ones to choose.

bigfreddiel

It's only £1,000, you must have that handy to just pay! Everyone has at least a couple of grand just waiting for a rainy day surely!

Anyway if the bill had been prepared correctly you would have paid it wouldn't you?

Cheers fj

xylophone

The solicitor did you the favour of completing your purchase with the firm's money and now you wish to get out of paying money properly owed by you!

Good grief!

You might be well advised to find the means of meeting your debt rather than finding yourself in the Small Claims Court?

Thrugelmir

TimSaafawl wrote: »

The mortgage advance from my mortgage provider had a fee which was deducted

Obvious why it occurred.

Did you not spot this yourselves on the draft completion statement?

matttye

If you were aware of the fee, which I presume you were because you must have signed the mortgage paperwork, then yes you'll need to pay it.

If for some reason the fee was communicated directly from the mortgage company to the solicitors and you were never told about it then you'd probably be able to dispute it.