Solicitor increased fee after starting work

B

BlackE

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Hi

I recently started working on reserving a property and engaged a solicitor a week ago. They received contracts for the property today and sent me a new quote with a €400 increase in legal fees.
How is that ethical and how do you deal with it?
 
What did the original quote say?

The work involved in processing the purchase can be simple or complex. Until your solicitor has access to the contract and other documents, it can be difficult to estimate the work involved
 
Hi

I originally reserved a different property (call it B) (i was in the process of bidding on one in K when that came along).

So I sought a few quotes and they were the lowest so went with them..

3 days later I found a new built around the same place (K) I was bidding on so decided to reserve one there instead. I informed them immediately that i had a preference for K instead of B. This was last Friday.

They received the contracts for the K property today and said "we have increased our prices this week so let us know if you wish to proceed and the quote was for the last property."

What are my options here?
 
Last edited:
Your options are to accept their offer or go elsewhere.

I frankly wouldn't be shopping around for any service solely on the basis of price.
 
BlackE said:
"we have increased our prices this week so let us know if you wish to proceed and the quote was for the last property."
Click to expand...

It's a bit of an odd explanation.

But they have started work but seem happy to stop work and not charge a fee?

If they did work for the first property, they would probably be entitled to charge for it.

Or they may feel that you are a bit of a messer and that they will have their work cut out.
 
So, you got a quote for one property. Then changed your mind, and got a different quote for a different property.

I really don’t see the issue here.

Folks are entitled to raise their prices. Whether or not you use their services is up to you.
 
Hi all

Thanks for the different opinions.

I got a quote for the initial property (B) on 28th February and confirmed to engage their service on 3rd
I found the 2nd property on 3rd March and notified them of it.
The contracts were sent on 6th March for the first property.
The contracts for the 2nd property were sent today (14th March).

They said they increased the fees this week and were working on my previous case and started work on the new one today.

Thank you for the links.
@Brendan Burgess : the point about messing.. lol.. but this is a big deal to mess with.

Thank you so much.
 
BlackE said:
I got a quote for the initial property (B) on 28th February and confirmed to engage their service on 3rd
I found the 2nd property on 3rd March and notified them of it.
Click to expand...
Seems to me that you got a quote for one service but then looked for a different one so the fact that there's a difference in price doesn't seem surprising to me. I don't really know what "reserving" a property means here but the work involved may be different and priced differently for different properties. Similarly for conveyancing on different properties.
 
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