Solicitor fees

atlasmm

Hi,

We’ve had an offer accepted on a property and are now going for a mortgage at 95 LTV. 

We’ve instructed the solicitor who are linked with the estate agent as they were similar price to others we quoted. 

However, I am now concerned that a down valuation could result in this falling through as if the maximum we can borrow is 95% of the valuation, we cannot afford to make up the shortfall. 

My concern is that even though I’ve now emailed the solicitors not to commence any work until the mortgage valuation comes back, because they’ve already been instructed and they do not offer a ‘no sale no fee’ guarantee (they said they charge an abortive fee for the amount of work completed to date), they will attempt to charge me a large fee if this does happen. 

Are they allowed to charge what they want at that stage, even though I emailed a day after instructing them not to commence any work until the mortgage valuation takes place?

TIA. 

Brie

You are likely to be charged something for them starting to set up a file and then read an email from you.  No idea how much.

When we last purchased 5 years back we had our first offer fall through after a few weeks.  Granted the solicitors had done a fair bit of work by then and I think the bill was around £700 for whatever it was that they did.  Later when we reached completion there was, I think, about another £2k to pay.  AND because there were complications on selling a leasehold flat we had to pay the freeholder's solicitor £600 to sign a document that we had filled out just to ensure the sale went through.  (hated doing that but we were 10 months into the process at that point and wanted to get it over with)

Gavin83

atlasmm said:

We’ve instructed the solicitor who are linked with the estate agent as they were similar price to others we quoted. 

If the sale does fall through for whatever reason I’d strongly recommend finding another solicitor. It’s generally a bad idea using a solicitor linked to the estate agent.

propertyrental

Somewhere in the soliitors terms of business, which you were sent and agreed to, will be their hourly rate.

If the purchase is aborted, or falls through for any reason, rather than charge you the fixed fee for the job which they quoted, they will charge you for the time they have actually spent on the purchase up tothat point, at their hourly rate.

Given how early i the process this is, it is unlikly to be much time spent.

macman

They can'r charge you 'what they want'. They can charge you for the hours spent on it at their already advised hourly rate, plus the usual 'various disbursements'.
If you consider the bill excessive, then you can complain and ultimately ask for it to be taxed.

Jonboy_1984

 I asked our solicitors upfront about this scenario and they confirmed that if it fell through before exchange their fees would be for work completed to date, and would be no more than 50% of the amount originally quoted (plus any disbursements paid out for searches).

It was literally a one or two line email to ask the question.