Re: Solicitors Fees if sale falls through

M

Moro

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Wonder can anybody let me know situation on this. The sale on my property fell through at the last minute due to building problems. I actually had my completion money for property and legal fees paid when this occured but funds were withdrawn at last minute due to problem in building. However, my legal fees had been paid as well and they weren't withdrawn. Will I be at the loss of the full amount of these fees now that the sale has fell through or should they be refunding me part of the fees at least?
 
They've done the work. Its not their fault. It may not be your fault either but you are the one who has to pay them. You are entitled to be refunded any outlays not incurred. But remember also if this has fallen through, there has very possibly been considerably more work involved than originally quoted. If anything, they are probably entitled to be paid more.

mf
 
1. The outlays element of the legal bill (search fees and registration fees) should be fully refundable, as the outlays are not now being incurred.

2. On the professional fee, there are two factors; On the one hand, the closing, stamping, registration and ancillary work will not now be done - which would be up to maybe 40\50% of the total work. On the other hand, if the transaction was aborted due to building problems, then it is highly likely that the solicitor has had significant extra work already, quite possibly to the extent that the original fee actually represents poor remuneration for the work done.

On balance I rather suspect that there is no refund due, but of course it depends on what you agreed with your solicitor.

If there was no explicit agreement on the point, I would be inclined to the view that the solicitor is entitled to hold on to the money IF there was extra work up to the stage when deal was aborted, but if there was no extra work for solicitor, some refund should be paid.

Oops - posted this without seeing prior post by MF1
 
Same thing happen us last year. Sale fell through at the very last minute. Our solicitor didn't charge us a penny, not one cent. He said he knew we'd be back to him at some stage and that a lot of work on his side wasn't completed because the sale hadn't fully gone through. I’m assuming now this probably isn’t the norm. Although I'd ring and ask him are you entitled to anything back.
 
"I’m assuming now this probably isn’t the norm. "
No it isn't. But it would be common enough; I would say perhaps 40% -60% of solicitors who charge well above the '999 +VAT' type of fee would waive their fee till the next transaction, but of those more than half would probably add something to the second fee by way of recompense. For solicitors competing strongly on price at the '999+VAT' level, I suspect that perhaps 20-35% would waive the fee until the next transaction.

This is just informed speculation, but I would say it is a close enough guess.
 
Thanks for replies. It's one of those flat legal fee deals but comes to around €2K in total but obviously land registery costs will not be involved now. I doubt if I will get money back but if I even got half or less, I would be happy enough but I don't know, anything is better than nothing. €2k is a good bit to lose. The builders are giving me some money for inconvenience but won't cover the loss of legal fees.
 
On the solicitor doing extra work, there was an increase in phone communication and to and froing with letters but I did all the negotiation myself with the builders after. I actually found I was able to negotiate with them better on a direct basis.
 
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