Re: Being vercharged by solicitor?

I agreed a fee with my solicitor for a house purchase. This morning I received the bill to find he has increased his own fee by 40% for 'unforeseen matters'. I have the original quote in writing. At no time has he mentioned additional work or the fact the original quote was for a limited amount of his time. The letter says we cannot complete (on Wed) until we have paid the bill. What should I do now?

Were there unforeseen matters? Did the transaction take time above and beyond the scope of what was envisaged? Or was it just a run of the mill purchase?

"At no time has he mentioned......" is annoying, but may well indicate bad communication skills rather than overcharging. So forget about that issue and concentrate on the real issue - i.e. was there extra work?.

If your solicitor is trying to take advantage of you, say so to him and make clear that you intend to complain.

If, on the other hand, there genuinely was indeed extra work involved you might chide him for not specifically bringing this to your attention weeks\months ago instead of right now; but I would go ahead and pay ( and haggle)

Has the solicitor never heard of the basic principles of contract law - offer and acceptance? His offer (quote) was accepted by the OP and it appears there were no provisions for varying the fee. Unless the solicitor in his quote set out a schedule of work to be done for that fee which had to be exceeded he is not justified in increasing his fee.

The very least he could have done is contact his client when the necessity for additional work became apparent and obtain agreement to a further charge.

Unfortunately the solicitor, as it now stands, holds the upper hand by his refusal to complete the sale without first being paid.(As a matter of interest my solicitor submitted a bill to me after my recent purchase of a property after the sale had been completed.)

MOB said:

If your solicitor is trying to take advantage of you, say so to him and make clear that you intend to complain.

I would go ahead and pay ( and haggle)

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I agree with above and assuming solicitor had given himself no out in his quotation I would complain to the Law Society.