Its not acceptable. The stamp duty is payable by the client but the Solicitor should be dealing with it. If the client is hit for penalties and interest then it is entirely arguable that the solicitor should pay any such penalties. Mind you since the client patently knows that the stamp duty had not been paid, he has an obligation to deal with the problem now and its not good enough to say I'm going to sit back and wait for solicitor.
I would kick up a mighty stink and I would actually now report to the Law Society. I have recently taken over some files from a solicitor who got himself into a right pickle but he had files going back 4 years where deeds had not been stamped and CCOVICH is right, the deed cannot be registered without being stamped. While that might not seem too bad, if and when he wants to sell in a hurry, he has a nice little problem that will foul everything up.
I don't know if this was a low cost deal but I suspect/find that low cost work does often result in low level service. The above case seems to revolve around a solicitor who let himself be swamped with high volume/low fee work -that was his decision - can't argue with that but the work can be painfully tedious and its hard to get motivated for peanuts. I know, I know, if solicitors will do it, whats the hard pressed consumer to do?
mf