Conveyancing - Charges for queries email, telephone etc.

masseyattack

Hi,

I'm in the process of buying a house and reading through my conveyancer's terms of business is quite difficult. There is a non-fixed fee I've been given, which includes all disbursements.

As a hopefully simple question, generally (from people's experience) would I be charged every time I send (and receive) an email to query anything about the process/documents etc.? Or is this part of their legal fee which is itemised. Thanks .

Kaius2009

Something worth checking for sure with the conveyancer directly.


Mine is all included, but I had it in writing before I went ahead!


I email nearly daily, so I dread to think the final bill if she charged for every correspondence!!

davidmcn

Whatever you're looking at should tell you the answer - I'm not sure what a "non-fixed fee, including all disbursements" means. The norm for conveyancing transactions is a fixed legal fee plus disbursements - the legal fee covers time on phone calls, correspondence etc. Usually caveated in same way to say that they can charge extra if complications arise.

elverson

Get it as a fixed fee if you can.

masseyattack

Hi, thanks for responses.

I was trying to keep it succinct sorry if I've confused the issue.

I've got a total cost and disbursement fee of around £800. This is made up of individually itemised amounts such as: Legal costs, land charges, land registry fee etc.

Then completely separate to this set of stapled papers, there is a terms of business which states: 'In addition to measured periods of time for drafting, travel and meetings we apply a minimum of 6 mins to each letter/email/call made, and 3 mins for each letter/email/call received.'

I'm not sure if this relates to client to solicitor calls and emails, or whether that's a general clause for more complex legal cases than conveyancing.

davidmcn

masseyattack wrote: »

there is a terms of business which states: 'In addition to measured periods of time for drafting, travel and meetings we apply a minimum of 6 mins to each letter/email/call made, and 3 mins for each letter/email/call received.'

That would only apply where they're charging an hourly rate. Don't the terms also say "...unless we've quoted you a fixed fee"? (which presumably is the "legal costs" you mention)

masseyattack

Thanks again for response davidmcn.

My reading of the this was also that the legal fee (which is £400) would cover such enquiries, and that I won't be charged an hourly rate. But the terms are very unclear unfortunately.

There is no mention in the terms of an 'unless we've quoted you a fixed fee' clause, indeed in the document relating to my property purchase it states 'this estimate is not intended to be fixed.' There is a list of work that will be undertaken as part of the fee which includes 'correspondence, telephone calls and emails on your behalf' - but again it's not clear if this includes emails to/from me to the solicitor.

There is also a list of work which the fee quote does not cover, but these are unlikely circumstances.

eddddy

masseyattack wrote: »

My reading of the this was also that the legal fee (which is £400) would cover such enquiries, and that I won't be charged an hourly rate. But the terms are very unclear unfortunately.

There is no mention in the terms of an 'unless we've quoted you a fixed fee' clause, indeed in the document relating to my property purchase it states 'this estimate is not intended to be fixed.' There is a list of work that will be undertaken as part of the fee which includes 'correspondence, telephone calls and emails on your behalf' - but again it's not clear if this includes emails to/from me to the solicitor.

I suspect it includes a 'reasonable' number of emails and phone calls between you and the solicitor (unless you have a slightly 'dodgy' solicitor).

You could specify that the solicitor should not do any work which will incur additional fees not mentioned in the estimate without your prior authorisation (but if it's something that 'must' be done, you'll have no choice but to authorise it).

Many solicitors would warn you about additional fees in advance anyway.

anto164

Phone them and ask? We don't know who you're using or the terms.

9 times out of 10, it's a fixed conveyancing fee that covers all of the particulars that are required. Otherwise you're possibly paying for a lot of things that you cannot control!

Bossworld

When we signed up, I was sent a 'charges menu' of things such as an email, measured at around £8 for 3 minutes of the solicitor's time.

I got our completion statement through the other day and the sale side has come back the same price as quoted - the purchase side is £80 more. I can put £40 of that down to the radon search; I suspect the other £40 could be five emails but there's no breakdown provided.

The statement shows some splits (e.g. conveyancing fee, then 'searches') but I can't be bothered to fight it at this late stage - I suspect they didn't charge me extra but I'll never know for sure.

I did appreciate the irony that I might have to incur a charge by calling to ask!

Our solicitor did email back to say email correspondence was fine, then proceeded to send things like buyer enquiries via letter anyway.

Richard_Webster

Some firms will give you a fee for their legal work and in small print it will say that it assumes that no more than X hours of work are undertaken. The T & Cs then cover what they will charge you per hour for extra work.