Solicitors mistake on Mortgage

rmeach

Hi,

I know there are similar threads on this and i'm fairly sure we are stuck but wanted to put it out there.

We bought a house and the solicitors gave us a breakdown off all costs. We doubled checked it and and asked them to check every figure was correct and confirm again in writing all figures for costs.
This came through and we paid that figure. We again asked if we had now cleared all costs. We had and had it confirmed in writing that all costs are settled. We Exchanged last week and are now two weeks from completion.

Our solicitors today have said they put the wrong mortgage figure on the breakdown of the costs and now we owe "them" and extra £1800 not listed on our breakdown before completion....what total @#!%£

Considering we have it in writing twice the cost amount, asked them to check and exchanged contracts is there anything we can do? We are quite prepared to meet them 50% but do we have any options?

Once we are past this i will be reporting them to the SRA and generally leaving one star reviews everywhere but i assume this is after we are down another 2 grand.....

pramsay13

I'm not sure legally but if there is no room for ambiguity I certainly wouldn't be paying without a fight.

Tufa

You knew how much mortgage did you apply for, how come you didn't spot it? I assume you also knew something is wrong and paying less than what you should, so I wouldn't just try to avoid my responsabilities because they did some error, no matter if they have confirmed anything in writing.
They are cleary not overcharging, they just thought that your mortgage will be higher than it is now.

You won't be able to complete without paying, they won't release the funds so you won't get the keys.

nicmyles

If I understand this correctly, they aren't saying they made a mistake with their fees and are asking for more. Your mortgage amount wouldn't affect that. They're saying they need this money to complete the purchase as you haven't given them enough to pass to the vendor to pay for the house.

Is that right? If so, you have to pay it and it was up to you to check all figures *relating to the cost of the house* were correct.

If that's not correct, and they are asking you for more than they quoted in terms of their fees, I would be strongly arguing that was their problem and they needed to absorb the costs.

davidmcn

If they had mistakenly asked you for £1800 too much, do you think they'd be entitled to pocket it?

bigstevex

Why didn't you spot this yourself? Surely the figures for the cost of the purchase didn't add up? Were you thinking you'd got away with paying £1800?

sheramber

Why did you ask for the figures to be checked so much? Did you spot the missing amount?

Tiglet2

Were the breakdowns you received from your solicitor labelled as "projections" or "draft"? Usually the "Final" Account isn't available until completion. Did you notice that they had put the wrong mortgage figure? You are meant to check the figures and query anything that isn't right. The projected accounts are just that, an estimation of costs, not the final figure. If there are not enough funds on completion, you will not complete until the additional monies are paid. Even after completion there are sometimes errors made with the Land Registry fee and you would be asked for additional funds to cover the Land Registry cost if the fee quoted was less than the actual cost.

steampowered

The redemption figure for the mortgage will change over time because you are accruing interest. The figure on the first statement will change over time if completion is delayed.

Thrugelmir

rmeach wrote: »

We doubled checked it

Did you spot the error and fail to notify them of it?

bertiewhite

Tufa wrote: »

You won't be able to complete without paying, they won't release the funds so you won't get the keys.

I was given a bill after completion, for fees outstanding after the sale with 7 days to pay.