Seller pulled out- more solicitors fees?

Mimi123456

It is normal practice. Some firms have a ‘no completion no charge’ policy but even then you pay some kind of a premium to have this insurance against failed transaction.

£180 sounds like a very reasonable sum to me. Looks like you haven’t progressed too far in the transaction.
 

I’m sorry that it didn’t work out, hope a better home will come along soon! 

ccluedo

Perhaps the Op could be reasonably forgiven for thinking (as a FTB) that the vendor should be liable since they were the ones who aborted the sale.......
They are now aware that rightly or wrongly that's not the case.
Agree that £180 seems very reasonable.

TheJP

ccluedo said:

Perhaps the Op could be reasonably forgiven for thinking (as a FTB) that the vendor should be liable since they were the ones who aborted the sale.......
They are now aware that rightly or wrongly that's not the case.
Agree that £180 seems very reasonable.

I disagree, just because you're an FTB shouldn't mean you can be ignorant. When i was buying my first home i looked into the process and understood how it worked. I knew the risks and what my responsibilities were before i offered on a property. 

canaldumidi

TheJP said:

ccluedo said:

Perhaps the Op could be reasonably forgiven for thinking (as a FTB) that the vendor should be liable since they were the ones who aborted the sale.......
They are now aware that rightly or wrongly that's not the case.
Agree that £180 seems very reasonable.

I disagree, just because you're an FTB shouldn't mean you can be ignorant. When i was buying my first home i looked into the process and understood how it worked. I knew the risks and what my responsibilities were before i offered on a property. 

Indeed. You're spending probably several hundred thousand pounds on this deal.

I don't do the lottary and don't really  understand how it works/how many numbers you need (or whatever - I gather there are scratchy cards too?) etc. But every once in a blue moon I buy a card. And don't feel the need to suss out the details of how it works.

But the two transactions are kinda on different scales!

TheJP

canaldumidi said:

TheJP said:

ccluedo said:

Perhaps the Op could be reasonably forgiven for thinking (as a FTB) that the vendor should be liable since they were the ones who aborted the sale.......
They are now aware that rightly or wrongly that's not the case.
Agree that £180 seems very reasonable.

I disagree, just because you're an FTB shouldn't mean you can be ignorant. When i was buying my first home i looked into the process and understood how it worked. I knew the risks and what my responsibilities were before i offered on a property. 

Indeed. You're spending probably several hundred thousand pounds on this deal.

I don't do the lottary and don't really  understand how it works/how many numbers you need (or whatever - I gather there are scratchy cards too?) etc. But every once in a blue moon I buy a card. And don't feel the need to suss out the details of how it works.

But the two transactions are kinda on different scales!

Not a great comparison, you buy a lottery ticket, if you win you win if you don't you don't.

Buying a house is much more complex with contracts for many things and items that you may have responsibility in paying that you can only know from research.

My friend bought his first home a few years ago and just thought as an FTB he wouldn't have to pay SDLT, he had a shock when he had a bill that he hadn't budgeted for.

TripleH

It happened to us twice last year.

We paid less than we would have had we completed.

The failure rate of property purchases in England and Wales is high enough that if they didn't charge, the fees on completed purchases would be a lot higher.

Its an incentive for both parties to be committed to the transaction in the first place but won't stop purchases falling through.

TBagpuss

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 

I'm sorry to hear  your purchase fell through.

As others said, it's absolutely normal for your solicitor/conveyancer to charge - they've done the work and it is not their fault that the seller has pulled out.

£180 sounds very low. Unless you had a contract which was expressly on a non-completion/no fee basis (which would typically mean that you pay a higher cost )  then of course you would be charged - you can read your original terms of business but I suspect they could have charged more. I know my solicitors terms say they can charge the lower out of the fixed fee and the actual value of the work at their standard hourly rate, for instance.

And although it's your sellers who have pulled out, until you exchange contracts either you nor they are legally bound so they don't owe you anything.

It's horrible when it happened. Last time I moved house  the seller on the house I was buying  pulled out  fairly late in the process, and then the buyer of my house went on a massive spending spree and got their mortgage offer got withdrawn when their lender did a credit check, so I fo understand how difficult and frustrating it is.

london21

It is so annoying when this happens.

It seems you have gone far in the transaction process hence why solicitors requesting fees.

I had a similar situation but was early stages the seller pulled out and only lost my search fees.

Hopefully you get something better soon.

Because of such cases, I now only add the mortgage fee to the mortgage and can pay off earlier once mortgage has gone through/completed.

The law in England does not really protect the buyer when the seller pulls out before exchange.

TheJP

london21 said:

It is so annoying when this happens.

It seems you have gone far in the transaction process hence why solicitors requesting fees.

I had a similar situation but was early stages the seller pulled out and only lost my search fees.

Hopefully you get something better soon.

Because of such cases, I now only add the mortgage fee to the mortgage and can pay off earlier once mortgage has gone through/completed.

The law in England does not really protect the buyer when the seller pulls out before exchange.

Agree its an unfortunate thing to go through and id welcome a more protected process.

The law in England does not protect the seller either if the buyer pulls out, no one is protected.

user1977

TheJP said:

london21 said:

It is so annoying when this happens.

It seems you have gone far in the transaction process hence why solicitors requesting fees.

I had a similar situation but was early stages the seller pulled out and only lost my search fees.

Hopefully you get something better soon.

Because of such cases, I now only add the mortgage fee to the mortgage and can pay off earlier once mortgage has gone through/completed.

The law in England does not really protect the buyer when the seller pulls out before exchange.

The law in England does not protect the seller either if the buyer pulls out, no one is protected.

It's nothing really to do with "the law", it's just what is and isn't usual practice about the stage the parties are contractually committed and what the contracts say.