Solicitor asking for more money more than a year after house move

[Atethehalloweenchocs]

I bought a house and moved September of last year. During the process the solicitor told me that the house had never been registered with the land registry. Today I got a packet with the deeds in, which I had totally forgotten about. The covering letter also says that they charged me £95 but should have charged me £190 to register the house. I get mistakes happen, but this is a long time after the purchase to be finding this out. And to be honest, I dont have a spare £95 at this time of year. I am guessing I will have to pay but is there a time frame?

It sounds like the charged the electronic fee which is half the non electronic fee.

Easy mistake to happen. I imagine the lawyer was cringing when they sent you the letter.

It's not their fee. It's a disbursement they have incurred in your behalf.

They're probably closing their file now it's registered and noticed it's as unbilled disbursement.

I had a bill from a conveyancer several years after we moved house for some random unexplained costs. We ignored it and never heard anything more. We were in the process of moving again at the time!

This happened to me some years ago. They had forgotten to bill me for a survey. It was a year or two later. I said sorry, but I considered my fees entirely paid as per their last bill of x date. They did not pursue it.

Actually, it happened again in relation to very extended separation legal stuff - I actually asked for the final bill twice, when I had decided just to give up, and got no response until two years later, at which point I told them they had to be joking. I had paid the vast, vast majority of the tens of thousands (it went to court) and they were after about £250. Given that this very protracted legal saga did not result in a divorce, I thought they were having a laugh. Which I said. Did not hear another word.

Charlatans, the lot of them.

I had the opposite, six months after our move we had an unexpected letter from the solicitors saying they had made a mistake with the final bill and enclosing a cheque for £1,000! Which was nice.

It sounds like the charged the electronic fee which is half the non electronic fee.
Easy mistake to happen. I imagine the lawyer was cringing when they sent you the letter.
It's not their fee. It's a disbursement they have incurred in your behalf.
They're probably closing their file now it's registered and noticed it's as unbilled disbursement.

They said they charged me for a transfer, rather than registering it for the first time, so it is twice as much. It has come with the deeds, so not sure if the hold up was from the Land Registry or the Sols- they were very very slow in getting things done during the purchase and caused all kinds of problems due to it.

But the solicitor knew it was having to be registered for the first time, as she actually told me that would have to be done.

The delay is due to the Land Registry taking a year or more to register transactions.

Yes I was just about to say that. It is often not within the solicitors power to speed things up. I'm afraid the Land Registry is like every other government body is at the moment, cash starved after 12 years of Tory government, and unable to fulfil it's function in any meaningful way.

I wouldn't ignore the request but I would offer them a payment plan, and stick to it.

Offer something you know you can afford, say £1 monthly. The key is to set up a standing order to prove that you intend to pay and are doing so.

They won't take any further legal action. Just remember to stop it when the correct number of months have gone by.

Good luck.