Solicitor fees

helsbells17

Hello
My partner's father passed away in 1990 and as far as my partner was aware the estate was settled within a few years of that time. However a few weeks ago he was contacted by the solicitors who have taken on the firm that originally delt with the estate, stating that there are outstanding moneys due to be paid to my partner. The solicitor is wanting to charge a fee of £2000 for dealing with this matter. Our question is, surely my partner is not liable for this fee as he had paid the original solicitors to deal with the estate in full. The money rightly belongs to him so for the solicitors to want to take a slice for themselves seems out of order to us.
Any advice would be very much appreciated. Please ask for clarification if I haven't explained anything very well!
Thanks

Linton

I am probably being paranoid but...

Are you 100% sure the letter is genuine? Have they said they want paying in advance? Have they said how much money is involved?

helsbells17

It's definitely genuine, no doubt about that, but it seems very out of order to us - they took the firm on, and therefore their cases. We didn't ask them to do anything!

Yorkshireman99

helsbells17 wrote: »

It's definitely genuine, no doubt about that, but it seems very out of order to us - they took the firm on, and therefore their cases. We didn't ask them to do anything!

It is ridiculouis! The fees are payable by the estate not the beneficiaries. More information required as to exactly what the fee is supposed to be for..

nom_de_plume

Have you asked them the question as to why they want to charge a fee?

Is the sum of money involved of sufficient quantity to justify the fee?

nom_de_plume

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

It is ridiculouis! The fees are payable by the estate not the beneficiaries. More information required as to exactly what the fee is supposed to be for..

Although as you correctly state the estate pays the fees, if the son is the sole beneficiary, he will invariably pay the bill in the long run.

helsbells17

The fees have been taken off the total figure that they're planning to pay to my partner. The fees are £2000 plus vat, the remaining figure to be paid over to us is about £15000, so it's a fairly high proportion!

BorisThomson

helsbells17 wrote: »

The fees have been taken off the total figure that they're planning to pay to my partner. The fees are £2000 plus vat, the remaining figure to be paid over to us is about £15000, so it's a fairly high proportion!

And when you asked for a breakdown of the fee the solicitor said ...

Yorkshireman99

helsbells17 wrote: »

The fees have been taken off the total figure that they're planning to pay to my partner. The fees are £2000 plus vat, the remaining figure to be paid over to us is about £15000, so it's a fairly high proportion!

That is an outrageous amount. He needs to ask them to itemise exacly what justifies it. He can ask for the fees to be "taxed" which means they are examined independently to see that they are fair.

susancs

is what you are saying is that the estate was settled in full and solicitors paid some 25 years ago, but an additional £15,000 has been found to be due to your partner of which the new firm want to have £2000 to deal with the paperwork dealing with this additional matter?

My understanding is that your partner did not pay for work done on this additional financial matter as it was not found at the time the estate was originally dealt with by the previous firm. Can your partner deal with this matter himself or shop around for a cheaper quote than £2,000 proposed by the current firm offering to deal with this matter?

Manxman_in_exile

Just out of curiosity - how would something like this come to light 27 years after the testator's death?


Especially when it's a different firm of solicitors from the original executors?


I'm surprised they've still got the files