Agreed Solicitor's fees at start - can I contest now ?

Hi,

I agreed fees with a solicitor in connection with some probate work (and on foot of a S68 letter). I thought the fees were a little on the high side, but decided to proceed for family and other reasons and on the basis that I would receive an efficient, professional service.

However, now that we are about 80-90% through the process, I have come to the conclusion that I could have gone through the probate process myself in a much more efficient and timely way, and would only have needed a solicitor to handle the sale of the property involved. While I would not say the solicitor was negligent, the number of unnecessary delays, lack of organisation and extremely poor communication have led me to believe that I have wasted the money I agreed to pay this firm.

I have communicated my dissatisfaction to the firm involved on a number of occasions.

At this stage, what can I do ?

I see no practical alternative to letting them finish out the work, but I am very unhappy at paying them a large amount of money for a very unsatisfactory job.

You can always argue a fee - they won't be happy to budge on it but express your disatisfaction and go in with examples of where they were lacking. That's always good - they don't like it too much! Likelyhood of getting anything off the bill - not very high but it's worth the arguement.

You agreed the fee at the outset. You don't seem to be quibblling that they didn't do the work, rather that they did not have good customer service and were slow.

I don't see why you shouldn't pay them their fee. They did the work you asked them to do. Just don't use them again in the future.

I don't think you can quibble on the size of the fee, but you could try quibbling over the poor service and see if you can get a discount. I wouldn't expect a huge discount though - push them on the value of 'word of mouth' recommendations.

SPF said:

You agreed the fee at the outset. You don't seem to be quibblling that they didn't do the work, rather that they did not have good customer service and were slow.

I don't see why you shouldn't pay them their fee. They did the work you asked them to do. Just don't use them again in the future.

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I do realise I am on slightly shaky ground here. Yes, they did the work, however I could have done it better, and faster myself. Not only would I not use them again, in similar circumstances, I would do it myself.

What I thought I was paying for was a professional, efficient service - this I didn't get.

I suppose I will have to write the cost off to (costly) experience.