Increased solicitors fees at last minute

lisalop

in relation to buying a house my solicitor wrote " i am certain you will appreciate that i have been involved with considerable more correspondance and telephone calls on your behalf than i could have originally expected and my estimate has ben far exceeded. As a result, i propose to increase my firms charges by a further £400 to £500.00 plus VAT"

they are already charging us £600, which is quite expensive but they were recommended to us and thats where we went wrong!

I have asked Her for a breakdown of the costs, but verbally on the phone she said that it was becuase she had been involved more than she anticipated fielding enquiries from estate agent pushing on behalf of the couple from which we are buying.

surely i shouldn't meet those costs? if the estate agent rings my solicitor and me every other day for an update becuase their clients are desperate to move - why is that my cost? is this usual?

she also said that there were pieces of missing information regarding the title deed and she had to sort that out

again - if the people selling the property haven't got this in order, surely the cost should fall on them? I would expect if my title deed had information that needed clarifying, that it would be my solicitor clarifying it and simply passing the info on - not the solicitor of the people who are buying?

any info appreciated

foxwales

Unless you arranged a fixed fee conveyance then really they can charge you; you should have had an agreement of some form stating what they could charge you for and what the associated costs were for say writing a letter etc.

You have done the right thing by asking for a breakdown of costs; unfortunately you did the wrong thing by going for a solicitor that doesn't operate a fixed conveyancing fee.

Doozergirl

She didn't have to speak to the EA if she didn't want to. I'll think you'll find that most solicitor's secretary's are more then capable of telling people that the solicitor isn't available!

I don't understand your maths though. She is increasing the cost by £400 to £500 but she's already charging £600? How does that work?

JimmyTheWig

I don't think this is on.
When we last bought a house, two and a half years ago, we had untold hassle from the vendors' solicitor. Our solicitor did loads of work for us.
They didn't charge any more than was quoted at the beginning.

I guess if it's a time and materials quote rather than a fixed price then they can charge more, but was this made clear at the beginning? And should they not have checked with you before doing the work that would take it over the estimate?
If a garage estimated £100 to fix your car but then realised it would cost £500 they would phone to check you wanted them to do the job. Surely the same should be the case here.

Don't know who you would complain to, though.

(Clarification of the figures, as per Doozergirl, would be useful.)

tomstickland

£1000 isn't too bad for conveyancing, I think that's roughly what I ended up paying when I bought.

Hugbubble

Doozergirl wrote: »

I don't understand your maths though. She is increasing the cost by £400 to £500 but she's already charging £600? How does that work?

I took it to mean that the costs were increasing by a further £400-500.....

Doozergirl

Wow. That's steep.

Can you complain through their official complaints procedure? That's a lot of money for doing the job they are supposed to do. Even if the EA was calling a lot, solicitors often charge about £150 an hour - that's three hours of phonecalls?!

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

Is this a sale and purchase and does that include Land Reg fees etc or is that just the Sols time?

If you are purchasing too, what is the value of the house, as i have a feeling the land reg charges differ by value.... From memory, i think i paid 500 for the sale, and about 650 for the purchase.

Quite a lot, but in the scheme of things they earnt every penny! I was on the phone a couple of times a day in the closing couple of weeks!

I dont think i could easily put a price on a painless house sale and purchase!

KiKi

So they're charging now £1000-1100??!! That's very high for a conveyancer.

Firstly, if she was doing all this additional work, she should have raised this with you earlier than now, and given you some warning.

Secondly, you are absolutely right to ask for a breakdown of how much time was anticipated first off for the £600, and then how much time she has had to spend additionally for the £400.

Lastly, unfortunately because you didn't agree a fixed fee, they can charge you extra.

So my suggestion is that you write back with an alternative proposal, based on the fact that the EA phone calls are not within your control (the fact that she had to do extra work to get the title deeds I think is fair enough).

Seeing as she said her 'proposal' is £400-500, perhaps you should offer £800 in total as a compromise, being clear that you do not think the her way of approaching this has been appropriate.

Sorry this has happened.

KiKi

shockingmoment

We had this. Refuse to pay until you see a breakdown of the costs - how else can the solicitor know what to charge you? They are guessing if they don't have this information.

If you get the breakdown of costs, then ask, as previously suggested, why you were not informed earlier.

Then refuse to pay. Complain to the practice manager. Then threaten with a letter to the Law Soc. These are useless, but the solicitors dont like the hassle.

Be tough and Good luck!

lisalop

yes this is in relation to just buying.

the initial fee quoted was for £600 - i was under the impression that was the fee i was going to pay. i will try and find the original letter.

thanks all for your advice, i think i will fight it - perhaps with your advice!? they can only tellme to bog off!