Solicitors Bill 6 months after final bill

postprobatequery

We employed a solicitor to help with getting probate on my Father's will (big mistake - he took about 2 hours to do what it would probably have taken me a day to do and charged £1500 - the difficult bit was collating all the information not filling in the form!).  Probate was granted in February of this year and I paid the solicitors bill then.  The estate has now all been wound up - and funds dispersed.  I've now had a bill for a little under £300 - but have no money with which to settle it.  What should I do?  Any advice greatly appreciated

Mark_d

What is this extra bill for?  Normally if you have to pay something buy don't have the money, you take a loan.

Marcon

postprobatequery said:

We employed a solicitor to help with getting probate on my Father's will (big mistake - he took about 2 hours to do what it would probably have taken me a day to do and charged £1500 - the difficult bit was collating all the information not filling in the form!).  Probate was granted in February of this year and I paid the solicitors bill then.  The estate has now all been wound up - and funds dispersed.  I've now had a bill for a little under £300 - but have no money with which to settle it.  What should I do?  Any advice greatly appreciated

Establish what the bill is for if it doesn't already say. If you don't think you should have to pay it, you need to go back and tell them why. If the payment is due, then you need to arrange payment - possibly by asking other beneficiaries to chip in with their 'share' - but if you were the executor, it's ultimately your responsibility if they won't play ball.

Mr.Generous

I recall hearing that solicitors have to produce bills in a timely fashion for this very reason, they shouldn't have delays once the work is done. Worth having a dig around the rules on billing.

Keep_pedalling

If a mistake was made on the bill, then they have 6 years to pursue you for it. What about the other beneficiaries / executors?

frayedknot

Sending the bill is usually the only thing solicitors do quickly.

tls123

Ask them for a breakdown of the work extra bill they carried out when you engaged them did they quote a fixed price for the work? 

postprobatequery

thanks for your feedback everyone - I wrote back to them pointing out that this was 6 months after probate had been granted and that all the money had been dispersed - and quoted the line about there being guidelines about bills being issued promptly for this very reason - and they waived the charge!