Solicitor looking for additional payment 13 months after completion!

AnotherJoe

Pay it and leave a review stating that the solicitor made a small mistake on the bill yet insisted on chasing you for it more than a year after completion. 

You are due it, but a good solicitor would have waived such a small sum in the interests of good customer relationships. 

A few years down the line, when you next move, how likely would you be to use these chumps again? Maybe you'd have been very likely before this, most likely not at all now.  

teachfast

AnotherJoe said:

Pay it and leave a review stating that the solicitor made a small mistake on the bill yet insisted on chasing you for it more than a year after completion. 

You are due it, but a good solicitor would have waived such a small sum in the interests of good customer relationships. 

A few years down the line, when you next move, how likely would you be to use these chumps again? Maybe you'd have been very likely before this, most likely not at all now.  

Exactly this. Online reviews are about the only thing that will make them up their game/interest/professionalism nationally.

martindow

I agree that the solicitor would be better to have written off such a small sum.  In their place, I would have written explaining my mistake and sending the client a revised final account showing this.  If anyone asks the client for recommendations for a solicitor this would be long remembered.

Someone offering a professional service should be invoicing correctly.   I do wonder if we show a different attitude to solicitors than we would in other lines of business.  If a garage came back after several months to say that they had charged £50 for a part rather than £80 that it should have been, would comments be quite so unanimous in saying the customer should pay the £30?

Skiddaw1

GDB2222 said:

Skiddaw1 said:

It's a bit rich though. Something similar happened to us some years back when we bought our first home together. We were less than impressed especially as the conveyencing service we'd received hadn't been brilliant on many levels despite being pricey. We (politely) pointed this out and refused to pay and they backed down. It wasn't a great deal of money but as with the OP, it was the principle.

There's no principle involved here. Not on your part. You decided not to pay part of your bill, and they couldn't be bothered to sue you. If you had poor service you should have raised that at the time and asked for a reduction in your bill. 

We did (in fact, we had a succession of run-ins with them during the process) but without success (if I recall, they didn't even acknowledge our complaint), which was why we baulked and refused to pay when they (much) later billed us again. Not a happy experience all around. It was long before the days of social media or we'd have left a less than complimentary review. The two conveyencers we used for the following two house moves were both smashing (and we made sure they knew how satisfied we were with the service we recieved). We'd have happily paid up if either had overlooked something. I think it all depends on the circumstances really.

xylophone

Our solicitor has the cheek to be asking for an additional payment, which I might add was their error! They have requested £48 for a Charges Search. We feel it’s a cheek to be asking for money 13 months down the line after completing our house purchase. Can anyone advise? It’s more the principle than the cost itself. Thanks 

They did the work?

Then pay them.

You could accompany the cheque with a letter stating that you find it disappointing that they were not prepared to waive payment in view of the facts that they had made an error, were late in requesting payment and in any event had given less than satisfactory service in the matter of the house purchase.

You might add that you will not be availing yourself of their services in any future transaction.

teachfast

xylophone said:

Our solicitor has the cheek to be asking for an additional payment, which I might add was their error! They have requested £48 for a Charges Search. We feel it’s a cheek to be asking for money 13 months down the line after completing our house purchase. Can anyone advise? It’s more the principle than the cost itself. Thanks 

They did the work?

Then pay them.

You could accompany the cheque with a letter stating that you find it disappointing that they were not prepared to waive payment in view of the facts that they had made an error, were late in requesting payment and in any event had given less than satisfactory service in the matter of the house purchase.

You might add that you will not be availing yourself of their services in any future transaction.

Then do a public review because all they'll do with this letter is file it in the circular filing cabinet (with a chuckle if they are one of the rare ones with a sense of humour/irony).

martindow

xylophone said:

They did the work?

Then pay them.

You could accompany the cheque with a letter stating that you find it disappointing that they were not prepared to waive payment in view of the facts that they had made an error, were late in requesting payment and in any event had given less than satisfactory service in the matter of the house purchase.

You might add that you will not be availing yourself of their services in any future transaction.

I think I would send a letter expressing your disappointment as you suggest but no cheque.  Give them the opportunity to reconsider and see if they will waive the payment.  If they don't it will have to be paid and then feel free to tell your friends of a solicitors that you do not recommend that they use.

diggingdude

Whilst annoying it is a debt you owed. You should pay but if want to argue it go ahead and see if you win. Ideally solicitors would also be able to review their clients as many are a nightmare I'm sure. 
My solicitor tracked me 13 months later to repay about £12 they owed me. I said keep it but they didn't. Would I use them and recommend them.....yes