If the solicitor completed a legal document for a company without their authorisation and made it look like it was completed by them and then passed this onto a purchaser then this could be at worse fraud. edit: especially if there were fees and they did not declare them. Can you get a copy from the other party? This would be killer evidence of wrongdoing.
Its a worrying sign that the bad old days of property being sold and solicitors acting as they please seem to be returning.
If a solicitor outlines that fees will be paid from proceeds in writing then this should be more than sufficient and we have never had any issue in this regard.
We do seem to have an issue with solicitors coming to private arrangements with each other as to the split of the current years service fee and then letting us know that they will pay x amount and the new owner will pay the rest. This is despite them having no legal authority to do so and it being in direct contravention of our articles.
Its neither as easy or as clear cut as it should be. As per my other thread we have just become aware that a seller (a bank) paid all the fees to a private company just because they effectively held out their hand and asked for it. Despite the agent being contractually terminated for years and years and no director ever being contacted to confirm. The agent also confirmed that they have had no dealings for 3+ years, yet still took easy money when it was offered, again, tantamount to fraud but its so easy to do and there is so little recourse without hyper expensive legal fees to correct.