Advice on conveyancing solicitors

afzaal1988

Hi, does 14 days cooling off period apply to conveyancing solicitor?
I asked them by email and phone to act for me but after reading there terms and conditions and fees that they emailed me on 17/01/2022 i decided to use different firm.
I have not signed any paperwork they sent me, today when i told them i would not like to proceed they have told me they will bill me £95 +vat aborting fee.

My question is does cooling off period for distance contract/selling not apply to solicitors?

Sandtree

afzaal1988 said:

Hi, does 14 days cooling off period apply to conveyancing solicitor?
I asked them by email and phone to act for me but after reading there terms and conditions and fees that they emailed me on 17/01/2022 i decided to use different firm.
I have not signed any paperwork they sent me, today when i told them i would not like to proceed they have told me they will bill me £95 +vat aborting fee.

My question is does cooling off period for distance contract/selling not apply to solicitors?

You have a 14 day cooling off period however if you asked them to start work before the end of the cooling off period they are entitled to charge for the work they have done to date.

afzaal1988

Sandtree said:

afzaal1988 said:

Hi, does 14 days cooling off period apply to conveyancing solicitor?
I asked them by email and phone to act for me but after reading there terms and conditions and fees that they emailed me on 17/01/2022 i decided to use different firm.
I have not signed any paperwork they sent me, today when i told them i would not like to proceed they have told me they will bill me £95 +vat aborting fee.

My question is does cooling off period for distance contract/selling not apply to solicitors?

You have a 14 day cooling off period however if you asked them to start work before the end of the cooling off period they are entitled to charge for the work they have done to date.

I have not asked them to start work before the end off cooling off period.
I have not even signed the paperwork they sent me to start the work.
But post above yours says it doesn't appy to solicitors.

Sandtree

afzaal1988 said:

Sandtree said:

afzaal1988 said:

Hi, does 14 days cooling off period apply to conveyancing solicitor?
I asked them by email and phone to act for me but after reading there terms and conditions and fees that they emailed me on 17/01/2022 i decided to use different firm.
I have not signed any paperwork they sent me, today when i told them i would not like to proceed they have told me they will bill me £95 +vat aborting fee.

My question is does cooling off period for distance contract/selling not apply to solicitors?

You have a 14 day cooling off period however if you asked them to start work before the end of the cooling off period they are entitled to charge for the work they have done to date.

I have not asked them to start work before the end off cooling off period.
I have not even signed the paperwork they sent me to start the work.
But post above yours says it doesn't appy to solicitors.

Not the greatest fan of Which? but if you look at What’s a cooling-off period and how do I use it to cancel an order? - Which? they even use the example of cancelling a solicitor to sell your house as one of their examples of what you can cancel.

Signing paperwork is irrelevant, there are very few exceptions where a contract legally needs to be signed.

The key piece to hang onto is the lack of instruction to proceed however it'd be sensible to re-read your emails etc to make sure nothing asks them to "go ahead" or anything similar that could be considered an instruction to proceed.