Solicitor bill double what I expected! can I challenge this?

[Checkedmat]

Herewith a rather dull tale! But are we being taken for a ride? What can I do?
We have been trying to buy a house which unfortunately has fallen through (due to the chain collapsing). Our solicitors have just sent us a bill for the abortive work which totals £1595. They originally quoted a fixed fee of £695 plus searches and stamp duty (which I stupidly didn't get in writing), and we paid a £99 'consultation fee' when we first met them, which they had said would be taken off the bill. We paid them £750 when we instructed them (again, not sure why I didn't challenge this but we were in a rush because they had told the vendors' solicitors that we hadn't instructed them when they hadn't told us they needed more funds to proceed & everyone was pressuring us). They then proceeded to do nothing despite our chasing until the other solicitors complained that they hadn't even acknowledged receipt of the draft contract, & then we got our mortgage offer, and then said they would start searches. They have just sent us a final bill which is £1000 'costs, all care and attention throughout ', and £295 local authority search, £150 environmental search and £150 water and drainage search. That's all it says. Nothing else was done as then we stopped matters when it fell through. The £750 is taken off but not the £99.
I know I've been hopelessly naive but not sure how to proceed from here. Are these reasonable charges? Does anyone have any advice please? Thank you.
(They also want another £750 to start on the house we have now found, no way!)

You say you haven't got the quote in writing? So presumably there is no terms of conduct/business letter signed by you and a copy returned to the firm?

No we don't have that. In fact I had got worried they were con artists and would take our deposit money so had checked them out on SRA and they seemed legit.
The search fees seem high to me too (and we have no actual evidence they were done!)

You have good advice from a solicitor there! You almost certainly should have received your client care letter detailing costs etc

Ask to see evidence that the searches were carried out and also go elsewhere.

I used an online solicitor. You get a quote via Google from a few companies. It only takes a few minutes.

Sorry I actually don't know the answering but I'm bumping this for you.

I think if you post in AIBU more people will know

Next time can you use a solicitor that only charges if the sale goes through.

No, don't use a solicitor that only charges if the same goes through as they will be rubbish and low quality. No decent solicitor is going to do free work!!

Op - Can you contact the solicitors as a new customer and see if you can get the original deal in writing to help support your case.

Contact the legal ombudsman for further advice. They shouldn't have undertaken any work without a signed terms of business letter on file.

The search fees are out of their hands but of you get a quote from another firm for the same property you should be able to double check the disbursement costs.

Good advice above. They should have put in writing what they would charge or the basis for charge. 695 plus expenses was probably to end of the sale - the initial quote but the worked stopped half way - did it fall through right at the end or very early on?
Assuming it was almost complete they have charged 1000 rather than 695 less 99 - so 400 extra. If they did loads of extra work and told you it would cost more 400 for that may not be unreasonable but it sounds like they did not confirm any costs issues by email at all.
Search fees seem okay to me but ask to see receipts.

Search fees are about right but ask for those receipts. You are indeed liable for those.

Normal basis is no complete no fee, except for these non recoverable costs and work that can't be carried to your next purchase. You will have to buy using them again.

SRA are toothless but start by asking for the quote and raise a formal complaint.

If you don't have a client care letter it will be harder for them to enforce the invoice. In fact what is their basis for charging? Start by saying in writing you dispute the invoice and you want details of how they have arrived at the cost. Aborted transactions will incur a fee but you would expect it to be a fraction of your total costs and this should be detailed in the client care letter. Ask for a copy of their complaints procedure. No point going to SRA until you have followed internal procedure first and given the firm the chance to deal with it. Good luck!