solicitor looking for unpaid fees 6 years after house sale

K

karenkarenk

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hi,we bought a house over 6 yrs ago from my mother( was my grandparents housre). we have rented it since and pick up post every now and then---never anything really there for us.anyhow our solicitor who did that sale for us has just comntacted us through my parents saying they have unpaid solicitors fees we need to pay. they say they tried contact us at an apartment we lived in (in another town) at they time of the sale. we never received a bill from them nor had we any knowledge of owing them futrther money. is it legal for them to do this at this point? our bill is still in irish punts?? please advise if you haver any knowledge of something like this, thank you
 
If it is over 6 years since the solicitor last contacted you, the matter is statute barred and you cannot be sued to recover it.
 
hi thanks for that, they say they did try contact throufgh an old phone no. from our apartment and that they billed us through the post to the house we bought through them. we absolutely didnt receive any contact. but cant really prove that, im dunno ? does the bill still stand so?
 
It don't matter if they tried to contact you via carrier pigeon, message in a bottle etc. So long as you did not acknowledge the bill in the last 6 years the matter is statute barred. It would be up to the solicitor to prove that you acknowledged the bill.
 
Can I ask - did you pay for the work? Did you expect to pay? Did you pay anything? Do you think you should pay anything ?

And better just check your dates as to when the sale closed - if the actual 6 years is not quite up, and if you do owe them money, look forward to a Civil Summons and a day out in Court.

mf
 
Like MF1, I'm a bit puzzled by the tone of your post. It's as if the solicitor is out of order in asking for money that is legitimately due.

As you have now found out that it "slipped your mind" for 6 years about owing this money, the bill should be paid immediately, with an apology for not settling it before now.
 
It is not legitimately due if the matter is statute barred.

That's quite a big "if".

I would take the view that if the OP has received a service, they should pay for it, regardless of whether or not it is statute barred. What goes around comes around.
 
Even if you did acknowledge it, it is probably still statute barred - per Section 11 Statute of Limitations. Solicitor has 6 years from date of cause of action to issue proceedings. If you have only received a demand within that period it is not sufficient.
 
Meant to add: If Solicitor did a good/satisfactory job for you might consider whether you feel you have a moral obligation to pay especially as the real cost of the bill has significantly declined over that period (due to inflation).
 
What I find interesting, is that this is not the first question on AAM in the last month or so, of someone suddenly getting a letter from their solicitor looking for money, going back years. Are these solicitors sitting around with nothing to do, so have started to trawl through their accounts insuring everything balances, or more lightly are they being audited, due to a number of recent high profile cases and this has thrown out these discrepancies in their accounts.
 
What I find interesting, is that this is not the first question on AAM in the last month or so, of someone suddenly getting a letter from their solicitor looking for money, going back years. Are these solicitors sitting around with nothing to do, so have started to trawl through their accounts insuring everything balances, or more lightly are they being audited, due to a number of recent high profile cases and this has thrown out these discrepancies in their accounts.


the previous post was about stamp duty paid by a solicitor , and not at the 6 years yet... so sightly different cases...
 
Bond said "It is not legitimately due if the matter is statute barred."

This is complete BS. Obviously the solicitor carried out work and has not been paid. If the claim is statute barred it just means that the solicitor is prohibited from seeking payment of the claim through the courts. It has nothing to do with the legitimacy of the claim.

Why on earth the op would think the bill just went away is beyong me.

And j hegarty I've been following up on unpaid bills recently ..because work is much quieter due to downturn in property and now I have time to do it!!

Kate.
 
How would you propose collecting a statute barred debt if the debtor will not play ball?
 
Can I ask - did you pay for the work? Did you expect to pay? Did you pay anything? Do you think you should pay anything ?

And better just check your dates as to when the sale closed - if the actual 6 years is not quite up, and if you do owe them money, look forward to a Civil Summons and a day out in Court.

mf


The op talks about further money ,so we can presume that some money was paid...

And he says that is was over 6 years ago , so there is no chance of the solicitor having a successful day in court
 
" we never received a bill from them nor had we any knowledge of owing them futrther money."

I would question off hand statements made by first time posters. Very often when you tease it out, the final story is very different to the first account. It may very well be that the final deal was not done until less than 6 years ago.

It is not clear to me if OP paid anything at all for the transaction.

I also do not encourage people to walk away from their own debt. I completely accept that 6 years is a long time but I do wonder why OP did not query not having received a bill.

mf
 
That's quite a big "if".

I would take the view that if the OP has received a service, they should pay for it, regardless of whether or not it is statute barred. What goes around comes around.

Maybe so, but last comment is Karma influenced and down to moral codes - If it was me and it was statute barred I wouldn't pay, But might pay in the next life:D
 
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