Seller pulled out- more solicitors fees?

macman

It doesn't happen often in Scotland because the legal system is completely different, and purchasers are considered to have contracted at the point of their offer being accepted, not upon exchange of contracts as in England and Wales.
Your conveyancer has done a lot of the work already, so why would you object to paying them? Any work that they have done on your sale, as opposed to your purchase, will still be able to be used in the future.

robatwork

TBG01 said:

robatwork said:

Just another argument against our ridiculous house-buying system that nobody in power has the political will to overhaul.

As old fashioned as the design of new build estates. 

Or it's another case of someone not reading what they're signing.

I'm not saying it was in the OP's retainer, but I've lost count the amount of times we've sent a client an aborted bill which is followed by the client jumping up and down asking why they're being charged, when there's a section in our retainer that clearly points out that we can and will charge for the time spent, so only sign and return the retainer if you agree to the fees, terms etc.

Fully agree a conveyancer needs to be paid for the work they do. I just think our system is antiquated bordering on the ridiculous given the amount of work and expenses that can be ploughed into a purchase that just gets lost - well not lost but unnecessary enrichment. 

Why don't we have a system where, once fully agreed on a price, a "contract to secure sale" is made from both parties with a consideration, and if either pull out they lose that security payment?

canaldumidi

To answer your question, yes it's perfectly usual.

And it will almost certainly (99% certain) be in the paperwork /Terms of Business / contract you signed with the solicitor's firm.

In a minority of cases a 'no sale no fee' is agreed (often covered by a slightly higher fee for completion to cover the risk).

£180 sounds remarkably cheap - that's about an hour's work for a solicitor and as you'd virtually Exchanged they must have put in more time than that......

K_S

Ksenby30 said:

Hello,

The seller of a property we where going to buy has pulled out when we where ready for exchange of contracts. We are absolutely devastated to say the least, but it's no longer on the market and they won't sell it.

We knew at this stage we would loose the money we have paid for the searches and ID checks etc, but our solicitor rang us today and said they where charging us another £180 on top of that. Is this normal? They said it is for 'other work done' but when I asked she just said it was so they have 'something' for the amount of work they done.

Has anyone else ever experienced this? At this point we just feel so deflated and devastated, but now the added stress of loosing nearly £500 pound (including mortgage application money, searches and addedd fees) is sickening. 

Also does anyone know why the law in England states even though we haven't pulled put we will have to pay. And why this is not the case in Scotland? 

Thanks in advance 

@ksenby30 I don't see a lot of this as a lot of clients nowadays use no-completion no-fee solicitors (the specifics of what this includes/excludes will differ across solicitors) and some even offer a second-search promise so you don't have to pay for searches the second time if your original purchase falls through due to no fault of your own.

But yes, if the above doesn't apply then the solicitor can charge a fee for the work already done on the case, irrespective of whether it completes or not.

You mention 'mortgage application money'. If that's a lender product/arrangement fee, that might be refundable (or usable when you find a new property and apply to modify the offer) depending on the lender. For future reference, as a broker, I was trained to advise my clients to add any product fee it to the loan so that there's no risk of losing it. The MSE guide here explains how it works - https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/mortgage-fees-stamp-duty/  If it's a valuation-fee or an 'assessment fee' then it's likely to be non-refundable.

I hope it all works out in the end and you find a different property you like, good luck!

p00hsticks

macman said:

Any work that they have done on your sale, as opposed to your purchase, will still be able to be used in the future.

OP is a FTB so no sale involved.....

lookstraightahead

You asked your solicitor to carry out work and they have. 

LouLou589

Yes that happened to us.. to be fair it was the one thing I didn't begrudge about our seller pulling the plug the day before exchange. 

Our solicitor has spent time dealing with our case and she deserved payment for that. 

andyf1980

I do feel for you OP. It’s bad enough to lose somewhere you want but also to be out of pocket. Hopefully at some point they will reform this ridiculous legal system but I’m not holding my breath! 

user1977

Ksenby30 said:

Also does anyone know why the law in England states even though we haven't pulled put we will have to pay. And why this is not the case in Scotland? 

It is the same in Scotland, it's just (for various reasons) less likely to happen. It's not the case (as stated above) that "purchasers are considered to have contracted at the point of their offer being accepted" - there's still a pre-contract period of negotiation, but that is generally shorter than would be the case in England, which reduces the risk of things falling through.

No waiting for the parties to instruct solicitors (because everybody is already lawyered-up), no waiting for surveys or seller's questionnaires (because that's all already in the Home Report), no waiting for draft contracts (because the offer is effectively a draft contract), no waiting for local searches (because we're not daft enough to still use the councils for those), less of a practice of trying to knit together unwieldy chains of transactions, etc...

user1977

robatwork said:

TBG01 said:

robatwork said:

Just another argument against our ridiculous house-buying system that nobody in power has the political will to overhaul.

As old fashioned as the design of new build estates. 

Or it's another case of someone not reading what they're signing.

I'm not saying it was in the OP's retainer, but I've lost count the amount of times we've sent a client an aborted bill which is followed by the client jumping up and down asking why they're being charged, when there's a section in our retainer that clearly points out that we can and will charge for the time spent, so only sign and return the retainer if you agree to the fees, terms etc.

Why don't we have a system where, once fully agreed on a price, a "contract to secure sale" is made from both parties with a consideration, and if either pull out they lose that security payment?

What are the terms of the contract going to be? Both parties will probably want to sort out other things before contractually committing themselves - buyers will want a survey they're happy with, and a mortgage offer. Sellers might want to know they've got somewhere to move to, or, say, that they're not going to be obliged to produce consents for every past alteration to the property. What's the completion date going to be? The Scottish system streamlines some of this but there can still be a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing, and sometimes we still end up with simultaneous "exchange" and completion.