Shock solicitor bill

[MadeForThis]

Hi

Dad died last year. He owned 25% of a house he inherited from his sister. We had to go through probate to transfer this to my mums name.

I have now received a bill from the solicitor which I think is excessive. Although I am happy to acknowledge that we have never been through probate before.

Dad lived abroad so this was the entirety of his estate in the UK.

Would anyone be able to advise what I should have expected as a bill? Average hours of work involved?

The house is valued at £80k so his share is £20k.

Thanks in advance.

I have spoken to the solicitor. She said that she was surprised herself when she saw the computer calculations for how long the case had taken. She acknowledges that she told me that it wouldn't be a big bill.

She has said that she will speak to the partners and see if they can trim the bill in any way. She was very nice and understanding.

I'm not expecting a massive reduction but I feel much better haven spoken to her.

I'll update when I hear back from her.

SOunds fair I think it is important though to remember that amount of the estate does not translate into how easy it would be

Solicitors are under a regulatory obligation to give transparent and accurate cost information at every stage of a case/matter - it's not good enough for the solicitor to say that "she was surprised herself" how long it had taken. This is basically an admission that she's failed in her obligations to keep you updated on costs.

I am a solicitor, so not legal profession bashing at all - but in my experience, it's not necessarily the size of a bill that upsets people. It's not being kept up to date with costs and then having a nasty surprise at the end that pisses clients off.

You can ask for itemised billing.

Just over gpb 2.5K in fees, 480 odd for the calls is just over three grand. Right? Then you're looking at VAT which gets you to around 3.7K. The VAT is what racks it up, no?

I mean - it doesn't sound too out of the ballpark to me.

Solicitor's fees are £3k vat is £600 and others fixed charges are £500.

17 hours is significantly more than the "few hours" I was originally given. At no point was I updated with costs to date. The solicitor herself in the final meeting said it would be a small bill as it was a simple estate.

She seemed surprised what the bill had amounted to.

I'm not sure what resolution I'm expecting. At this point any reduction in their fee would be good.

The solicitor has agreed to reduce their hourly rate to £125. This knocks £600 off the bill. It's still a lot higher than they had indicated at the start but at least they are willing to be flexible.

I think the solicitor has underestimated the costs because 61 phone calls is a lot. Where you sent an initial letter breaking down costs etc. Also twelve months is a long time adding to costs.

When my dm died, probate was pretty straightforward although there were some issues with difficulties with my brother refusing to cooperate over financial issues. That largely fell to me with our solicitor asking me to talk him round so it did not incur any costs. Our bill was around £1200 including VAT. It was less than the Estate Agent and of course the funeral director's fees.

Hope you get this sorted.

@ElsieMc
The solicitor has clarified that the 61 units were calls and communication so it included any emails sent. Which were also charged @£8 + vat.

I have no explanation for why probate took so long. There was only a share in one property as dad wasn't resident in the uk.

I'm still shocked at the size of the bill but I think I will have to pay the revised amount.

I did my father's estate (100 hours) but even so suddenly we had a very big lawyer's bill from before that and it was hard to challenge so we just paid form the estate (I am a lawyer). I invoice every single month and describe every activity I do that month. this one just said XYZ number of hours over 4 years and no good explanation. We just paid but then they said they had found a £5000 extra charge !!!! Again we just paid it but it was not very fair or reputable in my view and hard to query after so long and with their client dead.

Anyone else involved in this you can always ask solicitors named in the will to allow the family to do the probate instead which is what happened with us. I took it on and they agreed.