Solicitors Error with completion Statement

stokeingy · 24 October 2018 at 4:31PM

I hope someone can help with this.

3 months ago we had an offer accepted for the house that we currently live in. We employed a local solicitor to carry out the conveyance on recommendation of our broker.

They took two months to get to the stage where we were ready to complete and we followed all advice given to the letter as we are first time buyers. They sent over a completion statement which I queried as it did not include the £500 cash back from the mortgage company and also it showed that we owed search fees and a couple of other things that we had paid during the previous 3 months. I went back to the solicitors with what I thought to be the correct figure that we needed to transfer to them to cover fees and the deposit etc.

A day or two later they came back with another completion certificate and an apology for the error on the first but this figure was still less than what I calculated. As we had already queries this and we are no experts in how this works we duly took this revised statement to our bank and arranged the transfer of the fees owed and the deposit as per the statement.

Today I have received a mail from the solicitors saying that they had made a mistake on the completion statement and that we owed them £995. Now we have been living in the property for a month now and had no reason to doubt that the mortgage and the solicitors were dealt with and we have, as you do, bought new furniture and appliances for the house and do not have the £995 they are asking for spare.

Where do we stand with this as it is not our fault we paid less than we should, we paid exactly what they asked for after I queried the first statement. I would assume that we are laible for the payment still but can they demand that I pay £995 right now to settle this? If I have paid what they asked for do I have to pay this at all? I don't really know our rights etc on this one and hope someone on here can help. After all you dont go into Tesco buy a loaf at what they ask for only to be chased a week later as they sold it at the wrong price.