Solicitor’s responsibility or ours?

[Deedee248]

About 18 months ago, an elderly relative died leaving a property which is actually a retirement home, and therefore can only be bought by someone over 55 (thereby reducing the market, and forcing us to drop the price by 30K). Ultimately we managed to sell the property, in the meanwhile having to continue paying ground rent, and all sorts of other expenses during the months that the property was up for sale. Finally just after Easter this year, we sold the property and the estate was all wound up, and everything completed. Or so we thought. We have just received an email from our solicitor saying that the buyer has been unable to transfer the account (with the company that runs the retirement properties) because of a 1% transfer fee not paid by the seller on completion. The solicitor claims that despite requesting an account from them prior to completion, receiving this and paying the balance due, this fee was not noted. The solicitor is therefore asking us to arrange to settle this fee some three or four months later.

AIBU to say that as far as we are concerned, this has all been done and dusted, and any money that has been left outstanding is not our responsibility. Surely that’s what we pay the solicitor for, and if the solicitor didn’t notice this at the time, then it’s up to them to sort it out?!

1% was the fee paid on selling my DF's retirement flat. It was made clear to him when he bought it that it would be payable on resale. Presumably your relative was made aware of this too.
Some retirement flats near me have a 2% charge.
Clearly this was overlooked, but is standard practice in the dubious world of retirement communities and will have to be paid. There will be a signed agreement from your relative to that effect that the owners will be able to provide.

Unfortunately it would be your responsibility. As PP said above its not uncommon and your relative will have signed something agreeing to pay said fee.

I'm a solicitor and saw this exact scenario once. A colleague missed it in the lease and it wasn't paid on completion. Not great of course but the seller had signed a lease which did clarify the fee would be payable when she sold so it was still her responsibility to pay it unfortunately.

What's the 30k price reduction got to do with anything?

Can't imagine the solicitor would be happy to pay this after such a short period of time has passed since completion. Its not their cost to incur.

I totally understand that the relative will have signed something to say that 1% would be payable on sale of the property. That wasn’t my question. My question relates to the fact that we handed over the sale of the property to the solicitor, (and pay them handsomely for the privilege)! We trust them to do that, and to sort out all the details of the sale. Therefore we do NOT expect them to come back to us four months down the line saying that there’s some money outstanding. We have already paid the solicitor to sort all this for us. My AIBU refers to whether it’s reasonable for the solicitor to come back to us four months later saying that something wasn’t paid that should’ve been paid. Sorry if I didn’t make this clear.

@Deedee248 I presume this is a McCarthy and Stone building or similar? I also presume that the same Solicitor was Executor of the Estate? If he/she wasn't, who was the Executor?

My take would be that either a) The Solicitor missed it and therefore it is on them or b) McCarthy and Stone failed to notify him or the Executor of the 1% seller's fee? in which case it would be on them?

You may have to pay it though - but I wouldn't accept this at face value. I'd be pushing to see copies of exactly what the correspondence was between the Solicitor and McCarthy Stone or whichever company is responsible

Are you asking the solicitors for a reduction in their fee?

Well it’s a fee payable by the seller, not the sellers solicitor. You are the seller. You are liable for the fee.

What you’re arguing is should the solicitor absorb that cost because you think they missed it. It doesn’t make them responsible.

YABU.

There's two matters at play:

1. Whether there is a fee and who it's payable by; and
2. How the solicitor performed their duties.

Ultimately, in the case of the first point it was the Estate's responsibility to pay the fees and still is now. It is correct that the beneficiaries of the estate can be made to settle any such costs. If IHT was paid, an adjustment can be made and a refund obtained for any excess tax paid.

The second point is where you might have more luck with a complaint, but only if it should have been obvious to the solicitor that a fee was payable. If you have seen correspondence to that solicitor stating that it was due and they'd overlooked it, then it's their fault and it wouldn't be unreasonable for you to ask for compensation for getting it wrong.

At no point, however, does it become the solicitor's responsibility to pay the fee, but you can make a complaint about their work and seek a reduction in their fees, or compensation.

All firms will have a complaints process that you should follow. If you're unsatisfied with the outcome of the complain you can take it further to the SRA.

Thanks for the advice. I will ask for copies of the correspondence and look into what the complaints procedure is @Silvers11 and @TenderDandelions.