solicitors bill: where do i stand?

[loudog]

to cut a long story short...

 

bought a house recently. asked solicitors how much we needed to pay them before completion, they gave us the bill, we paid it in full. house completed and then we recieved a letter saying we owed them a further £600. after making lots of phone calls and sending emails to various people it turns out our solicitor 'forgot' to add on their fees to ouor bill.

 

do we have to pay this £600 or is that a really stupid question. have checked all the small print i can find.

[PKea]

HI LD

 

Waht did their bill actually list?

 

YOu state you asked them what you needed to pay BEFORE completion.

There are ways of interpreting this statement,

ie 1) fees due before completion (indicating that there will be fees after)

OR

2) you ASKED before completion.

 

I think you need to check what the bill stated, do it say that it was the final bill etc?

 

Hope this Helps

 

PKea

[GuidoT]

If the solicitors omitted to add their fees to all the other costs, then you should pay them. I take it the £600 is all their fee and not an additional payment they are seeking for further work.

 

You should not seek to avoid paying them, because they made an error in including their fee.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

I had this the other way around.

They overcharged me a sum and then refunded it without my even knowing about the overcharge.

So it works both ways. It's only a mistake and was probably made by a 17 year old office worker.

[loudog]

in response to PKea, we asked what the amount due from us was in total, including deposit, stamp duty, fees, charges, everything.

 

i've posted this more out of frustration to be honest, we really don't have £600 spare at the moment. we were never given a specific amount to the exact £ or penny that we would be charged, so the we simply assumed the amount they asked for was all that we owed, and we assumed it was in full and final settlement, not sure if our receipt actually says that on it though!

 

thanks for everyones help by the way, it is greatly appreciated!

[loudog]

sorry, just re-read those posts...

 

the bill/invoice listed all the searches, stamp duty, deposit, all that stuff. the 'intermediary's fee' was listed as £0 on the original they gave us when we paid. the more recent one they have sent us has it a £600 odd instead. these are the fees they charge for their servoces, not for any extra work done.

[GuidoT]

You should pay it, if you cannot afford it at present, phone the solicitors and let them know how you would like to pay.

 

They should be understanding given that they seem to have made a mistake.