Solicitor Fees, Abandoned Purchase - Pay Fees OR Challenge Fees?

user1977

About a third of the fee for a completed transaction seems fair enough really. 

Thrugelmir

Pay Fees

tony1997r said:

Thrugelmir said:

Was the down payment to cover the search fees?  These are disbursements not fees. 

They stated in the initial terms before commencement that the down payment was to cover administration costs.

In their final quote for the abortive purchase, the search fees are listed separately from their professional costs.

The majority of the fees in the invoice quote was relating to professional costs which I can only presume is the administration time that was involved.

Search fees are required to be paid at the outset. Did you pay for these separately?  How much were the search fees? 

tony1997r

Thrugelmir said:

tony1997r said:

Thrugelmir said:

Was the down payment to cover the search fees?  These are disbursements not fees. 

They stated in the initial terms before commencement that the down payment was to cover administration costs.

In their final quote for the abortive purchase, the search fees are listed separately from their professional costs.

The majority of the fees in the invoice quote was relating to professional costs which I can only presume is the administration time that was involved.

Search fees are required to be paid at the outset. Did you pay for these separately?  How much were the search fees? 

Search fees quoted at just under £100 on the final abortive costs invoice.

The only fee that I have paid so far was the £250 initial down payment.

The only fee that I still have to pay is said to be a further £250 to cover the final costs as per the final abortive costs invoice.

The cost of the search fees has been included in the invoice.

aoleks

Pay Fees

You can’t challenge anything. Besides, £500 for the whole shabang (just bedore completion means everything was done except for the most simple step of the process) is extremely cheap. Most solicitors charge pro-rata, so it should’ve been in excess of £1000.

pay your fees and move on.

next time, get home buyer’s insurance, it covers you for such events.

Pow11890

Pay Fees

Pay the fees. 

GDB2222

tony1997r said:

Thrugelmir said:

tony1997r said:

Thrugelmir said:

Was the down payment to cover the search fees?  These are disbursements not fees. 

They stated in the initial terms before commencement that the down payment was to cover administration costs.

In their final quote for the abortive purchase, the search fees are listed separately from their professional costs.

The majority of the fees in the invoice quote was relating to professional costs which I can only presume is the administration time that was involved.

Search fees are required to be paid at the outset. Did you pay for these separately?  How much were the search fees? 

Search fees quoted at just under £100 on the final abortive costs invoice.

The only fee that I have paid so far was the £250 initial down payment.

The only fee that I still have to pay is said to be a further £250 to cover the final costs as per the final abortive costs invoice.

The cost of the search fees has been included in the invoice.

So, to be clear, the bill you have received is roughly 

Search costs £100
Solicitor fees £330
VAT                £70

The £330 probably covers a couple of hours spent on the job. How long do you think it should have taken?

Tiglet2

Pay Fees

Pay the Fees

The solicitor has done a significant amount of legal work on a transaction that was aborted.  Unless you had some insurance policy with the solicitor to cover any abortive fees, then you should pay them for the work they have done.

As an aside, your search fees seem incredibly cheap.  Most search packages comprise the Local Search, Water & Drainage and Environmental (plus usually a Chancel Repair Indemnity Policy), which can be in the region of £250-£300.  Solicitors need this money upfront in order to obtain the searches and once the money has been spent, it is not possible to reclaim it.