Solicitors Fees

roofrack

Hi,
I bought a house 2 years ago, and verbally agreed a price of £500 with the solicitor for his work. (The solicitor is based in the North, I bought just over the border in Donegal).

I asked on several occasions for the bill and statement of account but never recieved anything. I sent a letter requesting this last week and I got a reply.
The Fee for his services was a percentage fee of .75%, not the £500 agreed.

The other fees for land registry and searches I thought seemed very high at £500 and £200 respectively.

I got a quote for remortgaging from another solicitor recently and their estimate for land registry and fees were only £150 and £70.

1. Can I ask for reciepts for the land registry and searches?
2. Do I have to pay the .75% or can I somehow pay what we agreed? I have nothing in writing!

Thanks

The_Conductor

While I would encourage you to dispute it with the solicitor- if its not in writing unfortunately you have no proof that the agreement was for the £500 lumpsum.

tHE vAGGABOND

Yea, in future, dont get a solicitor to do a single thing without a quote in writing. I think you have encountered a cowboy. I would report them to law society, and get a complaint on record [in case he is at this all the time], but I dont think you can do more than that tbh if its your word against his.

The_Conductor

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

. I would report them to law society, and get a complaint on record

They're not even in this jurisdiction.....

seamus

The bill should have given you a breakdown of charges.

€700 for land registry sounds about normal - the remortgaging quote is irrelevant as there is less paperwork involved, therefore less money.

While technically a verbal contract is binding, all you can do is plead your case. Speak directly to the solicitor that you agreed the price with.

tHE vAGGABOND

The Northern Ireland body is also called the Law Society

[As is the england and wales body, and the scotish body! I wonder if they are all linked?]

babyguinnessfan

A solicitor is legally bound to issue you a letter when you employ him/her, which is essentially a contract. This letter should be in the form of a draft invoice and should set out (among other things) the main fee agreed e.g. 0.75% of purchase price, estimated Land Registry fees and sundries such as telephone, postage etc.

If you did not receive this from your solicitor first day then you have a clear case with the Law Society, verbal agreement or not.

By the way, I worked for conveyancing solicitors in Cork approx. 3 years ago and this was the situation when I worked there.

babyguinnessfan

This letter is called a 'Section 68' letter - I just googled it there because it was bugging me and saw some articles whereby there were cases where solicitors still recovered fees etc. even though they had not sent this letter, but that it is not good news for any solicitor to be brought up before the Law Society for such a thing.

Good luck!

roofrack

Thanks for the replies
Im going to talk to the solicitor about the price to see what he says.

The Registration and search fees he has quoted are in pounds sterling but he would have paid these in Euro. £525 is roughly E760 using the exchange rate from that time.

Should I be able to get a reciept for the registration fees expecting to see this Figure of E760?
Same for the searches?

Thanks