Solicitor trying to charge £2000 Leasehold fee.

Echo101

We're getting towards exchange on a leasehold property as first-time buyers. We've always been clear that the property is a Leasehold. It's a chain-free property, and everything else has gone pretty smoothly thanks to the sellers already having all the documents ahead of time.

We were sent the contracts to sign a couple of nights ago and noticed a line in there that says 
'Please also note that as per our menu of additional fees, there will be an additional fee payable of £2000.00 for dealing with the leasehold aspect of your property purchase.'

This came as a shock to us. Looking back on the quote that our broker initially sent to them, it was listed as freehold rather than leasehold. We've checked the quote again and admit that we missed this. However, the memorandum of sale was sent shortly after, so this should have been picked up very early on.

Does this seem fair, compared to other prices I've seen? The cost should be a few hundred pounds? We've asked for clarification on this and I'm getting one sentence unclear responses, or no response at all. 

We were quoted around £1900 initially so this will double the cost of the legal work being done. 

MyRealNameToo

So on the rate card you were sent was it listed as £2k for leasehold? If so why didnt you query it then?

Sounds like they've probably had bad experiences in the past so have set a price to discourage most. Our quote too was originally as a freehold but we spotted that and it was reissued with the additional fee added inline with their rate card of a few hundred extra. 

Echo101

To be totally honest, we missed it as it's in the small print separate from the quote itself. I wouldn't mind if it was a few hundred, I believe the standard rate is between £250-500, potentially more for complex cases but they haven't indicated any complexities, the whole thing has come close to exchange in nearly 8 weeks. 

Am I within my rights to challenge this and request that they review this figure? When I asked my caseworker about it, I mentioned my concern and asked for more information. They simply replied, 'In this case, the fee will be applicable if the property is a leasehold,' and since then, they haven't been accepting my calls. 

EssexHebridean

That does seem extraordinarily steep, but as said, are almost certainly in there as a “go away” fee - they don’t want that sort of work, but if someone is determined to go with them regardless, they will ensure that they are well compensated for dealing with a type of work that they don’t really want to.

For avoidance of doubt - yours as much on as anyone’s - the solicitors will have been aware that the property was leasehold from At the latest the point where the contract pack was required. It’s not usual to take anything in the memo of sale as an indication of the actual legal, position because…well, estate agents! 

Is the property by any chance in some sort of high rise, even if only a medium height one? A charge of that sort of level seems more in line with the work needing done for a property recalling within the remit of the Building a safety Act 2022. If not, then your best bet might be to ask them to reconsider the fee in your specific matter because your attention was not specifically drawn to it earlier - at a time when you had  the option to walk away - and because the fee is not in proportion to the amount of work carried out. Whether you will have any joy though is another question.

m0bov

Change solicitor, don't let them rip you off. You can have the file sent to another solicitor to continue the work. Of course you'd need to pay for any work already done.

mlz1413

Have you had any other quotes from solicitors?

You certainly need to know why it was advertised as Freehold but has now turned out to be Leasehold. Did the owners or agents know this would make a difference?

Ultimately if all solicitors quotes come back the same you will need to decide if you ask sellers for some money off or decide if you want to find the extra to continue buying.

Echo101

Thank you everyone for your responses. 

Update: 

They initially said the fee was set in stone and couldn't change it, I questioned why it is so high compared to similar quotes and asked what complex work it covered. They couldn't answer that. My caseworker, who has been great so far apologised and said there's nothing they could do. I told them it would be cheaper for us to just switch solicitors at this point.

They called back a few minutes later and said they could drop it to £300+VAT as we're so close to completion so happy days!

EssexHebridean

Bingo! Well done for pursuing it! 

Echo101

Thank you  I'm just glad we spotted it at this stage rather than at completion, would have been an absolute nightmare!