Shocked at solicitor itemised bill

ProStuart · 13 July 2018 at 2:59PM

Hi,

Some of you may have seen previous posts about my late mothers estate.

The solicitors have finally been granted probate so I asked them for an itemised bill for services to date.

Can I ask if the following examples are "normal" and expected?

1 - perusal of a bill from Water Company - 6 minutes - £23
2 - receipt of returned death certificate from Virgin Media - 6 minutes - £23
3 - I passed a letter addressed to my mother from a private buyer interested in buying the property. Solicitor charged £23 for 6 minutes to read the 4 line letter
4 - letter to private buyer advising that grant has not been obtained - £23 for 6 minutes
5 - around 100 "perusals" throughout the invoice

In total £4750 + VAT for services so far (£2250 of that charged for "perusals".

Total estate value is around £265k

Am I crazy to ask why the reading of a gas bill or receipt of returned documentation takes 6 minutes??????

Rubik · 13 July 2018 at 3:06PM

Solicitors work in units of 6 minutes.

If you hadn't agreed a fixed fee in advance, then you will be charged for all the work they do - even for things like reading a letter.

I think you need to be very clear with them as to exactly what work you want them to do - if you are expecting/asking them to do EVERYTHING, then you will have to pay for it.

You could have obtained a fixed fee for around £2,000 - it pays to shop around and use a probate quote comparison calculator.

ProStuart · 13 July 2018 at 3:21PM

When I first met with the solicitors, they said it may cost £3-5k for the handling of the estate. I did push them for a more accurate estimate but they said they couldn't but that their services were charged hourly.

I was never given the option to ask what they should/should not do. They told me that as they were the executors they would be doing everything.

Rubik · 13 July 2018 at 3:37PM

Ah - I didn't realise they were also the executors. In addition for charging for the legal work undertaken by the firm, they will probably also be charging for their own time spent administering the estate.

Are they the only executors?

comeandgo · 13 July 2018 at 3:48PM

Ah yes, I remember my time sheet days when we had to itemise our days in 6min slots. So now you know contact them as little as possible.

Flugelhorn · 13 July 2018 at 3:57PM

Rubik wrote: »

Ah - I didn't realise they were also the executors. In addition for charging for the legal work undertaken by the firm, they will probably also be charging for their own time spent administering the estate.

Are they the only executors?

i think the problem the OP has is that mum put the solicitors as sole executor - probably thought she was doing the right thing at the time, quite a few people get persuaded to do this.

Rubik · 13 July 2018 at 4:00PM

Flugelhorn wrote: »

i think the problem the OP has is that mum put the solicitors as sole executor - probably thought she was doing the right thing at the time, quite a few people get persuaded to do this.

yes, they do - not realising the costs involved when administering the estate.

lincroft1710 · 13 July 2018 at 5:11PM

Estate £265K, solicitor's bill <£5K, so less than 2%.

Rubik · 13 July 2018 at 5:22PM

The bill is for services to date - doesn't sound as though the job is completed yet.

AnotherJoe · 13 July 2018 at 10:55PM

Not much help to you OP but hopefully some people reading this will realise what a mistake it is naming solicitors as executors in a will especially when in many cases the relatives will have to do all the leg work anyway before handing it over to solicitors.

getmore4less · 14 July 2018 at 7:35AM

A lot of the work with estates is very low level admin, a fairly typical sequence

send a letter(inc death cert) asking for the account details/final balance.
Get the death cert back
Get the reply
(repeat if lucky one set of communication does it)
Add to the inventory the assets value.
later send letter to collect the asset(if a cash based one)
put the asset in the client account.

Something as simple as dealing with each utility can rack up £100 or more just doing the basics on an asset that has no significant value.

Shocked at solicitor itemised bill

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