Solicitor looking for payment before closing

[Dinky]

We've signed contracts and are expecting to close this week on our new house (yay! ).

Our solicitor has sent us an invoice requesting full payment of his fees before the closing date, and has followed this up with a phone call requesting same. Is this normal? Surely we should expect him to invoice us when the job is done and dusted?

Or is he just looking for a few extra quid before Christmas and chancing his arm...?

 

[DoctorEvil]

Our solicitor has sent us an invoice requesting full payment of his fees before the closing date, and has followed this up with a phone call requesting same. Is this normal? Surely we should expect him to invoice us when the job is done and dusted?

A Solicitor is supposed to be in funds when issuing the cheque I believe although I just closed today and was told I could wait until my house sale goes through to make the payment.

 

[Danmo]

We just moved house - our solr (and I understand that this is the norm) took his fee out of the proceeds of our sale but she had gone through the pro forma invoice with us in detail first

 

[Kiddo]

We had to pay our solicitor a couple of days before we signed

 

[Dinky]

A Solicitor is supposed to be in funds when issuing the cheque

He's had the funds for the house itself (i.e. our mortgage) from our lenders since last Thursday. What he's looking for is settlement of his professional fees before we close.

It seems to me that he has a bit of a cheek looking for payment before he finishes the job. Then again, I'm new to this whole house buying process, so maybe that's how things are done and I'm just not aware of it.

 

[the digger]

I always do.

Trying to get paid after the event is a nightmare. As well as that, we have to be in funds to stamp & register the deeds to perfect the banks security prior to or on completion.

 

[DoctorEvil]

I always do.

Trying to get paid after the event is a nightmare. As well as that, we have to be in funds to stamp & register the deeds to perfect the banks security prior to or on completion.

I could imagine as once everything is completed a lot of people would be very hard to get money out of. At least this way you have something they want!