Solicitor demanding random fees after exchange

richy4

I exchanged contracts several weeks ago, the property is a new build, due for completion in about 6 months.

A couple of days ago I received a random demand for £500 for 'interim fees following exchange'.

When I initially instructed the solicitor, I did so after looking at their schedule of fees. No where did it mention anything about any fees following exchange!

Furthermore, I am receiving an 'incentive allowance' from the developer towards legal fees. This is not actually of any benefit to me until completion, so with these random demands the incentive becomes basically nothing!!

This does not appear to be common practice and I have sent an email already, awaiting reply.

At present I am not intending to pay at all until completion! They have said all the fees will be added to my account, but then what is the point in providing clients with a schedule of fees when they send random demands for cash as and when they see fit. It's not fair and as a matter of principle I'm not paying a penny further till completion

davidmcn

richy4 wrote: »

At present I am not intending to pay at all until completion!

When did your terms of engagement say you were due to pay fees? There's nothing inherently wrong about part payments being due as a transaction progresses (especially if this is actually to reimburse the solicitors for costs they've paid out to third parties) but it depends what was agreed.

Freecall

richy4 wrote: »

It's not fair and as a matter of principle I'm not paying a penny further till completion

It looks as if you have already decided how you are going to handle things but some general observations...

What does your contract with your solicitor say about interim payments?

I would have thought that expecting your solicitor to wait 6 months for payment after the work has been done to be rather a long time.

If you have exchanged then your solicitor will have done most of the work for your purchase. An interim payment would seem to be reasonable and appropriate.

Unfortunately however I do not have sight of your contract for their services so it is rather difficult to comment in more detail.

silvercar

Sounds like they are not asking for extra money, but having done the bulk of the work, would like to be paid now for it rather than wait for completion some time in the future when completion occurs. So they want to be in control of their income stream rather than be at the will of builders.

Marvel1

Ask them, they will know not us.

ReadingTim

richy4 wrote: »

A couple of days ago I received a random demand for £500 for 'interim fees following exchange'.

I'm sure that if you ask they'll happily detail both what the fees are for, and the part in your contract or their standard T&Cs where you've already agreed to pay them now. This is probably due to the length of time between exchange and completion, and won't be a separate item, just an interim payment for work already undertaken. Read the whole contract and terms of business, especially the parts on invoicing, rather than just the list of prices, but generally, I think the word you're looking for is 'unexpected', not 'random'.

richy4 wrote: »

It's not fair and as a matter of principle I'm not paying a penny further till completion.

Tempting as it is to throw your toys out of the pram, you'll probably find that:

a) you've previously agreed that it is fair

b) you may not be able to complete until you've paid them for the work up to exchange, with those solicitors at least....