Solicitor's bill for failed sales

Do you have a detailed breakdown?
You could try challenging it if you can show she was obstructive, slow, inefficient or unreasonable in any way.
I “challenged” some phone calls (£50 a throw) which I had had to make because the solicitor had got DH’s name wrong on the Probate application (a simple mis-spelling, but I was worried it would hold things up) and pointed out that if she had not made the mistake , the calls would have been unnecessary.
I felt petty, but it is a business transaction.
It is sickening, but she is also billing you for her time whether or not the sake went through.
Try challenging an itemised bill though. Good luck.

Thank you for this.

I am loathe to challenge it in any way because I need her onside to deal with the future transactions.

I knew that she would have to charge for her time, but I did not realise that it would be the whole amount. I need to establish with her that I will be charged less for the second round, as presumably some of the work will be the same as before and already done.

LuckygirlMy son is in a similar position to you he put an offer in on a house which was accepted he then had a survey done last week and it came back that this property is timber framed, now my son will not go anywhere near a timber frame building, he is a bricky himself, the estate agents when asked said that the house was of traditional build. Consequently he has wasted four months pursuing this house. As soon as we found out it was timber framed we rang and cancelled the sale I am now going to challenge the estate agents for actually lying about the construction of the building. The one good thing is I have recently rung the solicitor and they will not charge us anything for what they’ve done already, they didn’t even charge for the searches yet,they said to get the survey done first and then if that was satisfactory they would go ahead with the searches so I feel you are very unfortunate with your solicitors and you have my sympathy......

Luckygirl sorry you have been charged for failed sales. I wasn't charged by my solicitor when my 2 buyers pulled out on me only paid when the sale went through. And everything was itemised both for the sale of my house and the purchase of my bungalow. I was charged no more than I was quoted when I first asked her to handle the sale and purchase. You must be unlucky with your solicitor. Hope everything else goes smoothly for you from now on.

When we moved a couple of years ago we were charged almost full whack for the first purchase that fell through and then a substantially reduced amount for the other two purchases that fell through ? and the house that we eventually bought. It wasn’t cheap but I think it was fair.

As you say, a lot of the work has been done so it should take less time.

Shimae the same thing happened to us. We only found out it was timber framed because we had a full survey. Otherwise we would have believed the agent. We didn’t need a mortgage so it wouldn’t have shown up with aBS survey. The house was brick clad.

Shinamae. Sorry.

I will be pursuing the estate agent for the £600 it cost my son for a survey which would not of been necessary if they have been honest in the first place and said it was timber framed ?

According to the Homes & Property website it should be stated clearly whether they will or will not charge in the letter with terms and agreements when you instructed them.

Our solicitor did not charge when our house sale fell through on the condition we continued to use him when the next buyer came along. Of course we did.

When we bought our first flat the attic had been converted and our solicitor assured us all the paperwork was complete .When we sold it less than two years later the buyer discovered there was no paperwork .It cost us a fortune in fees and bridging loans not only for ourselves but we had to pay the buyers.Our solicitors answer when we complained was "so sue me" Being young and stupid we didn't as we thought we could never win against him .i would now though and we made sure anyone we knew didn't use him and that was a lot of people .
Take it to the ombudsman dont just pay up .

Ask for an itemised bill and bear in mind that some of the work done on the first lost sale will be reusable for the second sale. Things like forms filled in with details of your house, searches etc. Ask her to itemise these so that you can check they are not on the next bill.

I suppose it also depends how far along the sale process had gone. If your buyers backed outcar the ladt moment then most of the solicitors work had been done. I agree with others re an itemised bill so at a future point the searches and info on your property will not need redoing. Check how long searches etc. are valid for though..there may be a time limit.