Am I being unreasonable

Well? - candid views please.

I acted for a client recently who instructed me to sell a leasehold flat in central London. It was a fairly good price, as far as I knew. It had a tenant in it, the sale was to be with vacant possession. Another solicitor was managing the possession proceedings but cocked them up and the judge struck out the possession claim. So muggins reissued the claim, properly, and surprise I got a possession order. I couldn't use the accelerated proceedings process because the other bloke had cocked up the notice period on the section 21 notice. It also turned out during the process that the other solicitor had not put the deposit into a protection scheme, so I did that too.

Then there was a huge tussle over service charges and whether the landlord had carried out works and whether the claims were statute barred anyway.

Then there was another huge tussle over alterations - seller had done structural work some years ago without the landlord's consent under the lease.

Oh and then the buyer asked me to get an extension of the lease, so I had to deal with that too.

And then the tenant left the place in a mess so I was dealing with a dispute under the deposit scheme arbitration rules.

Just as I was about to exchange, seller pulled out because they decided the price was too low.

I kept telling them that the original quote was no longer valid and I kept them informed on cost throughout.

I sent a bill for £2500. They are now whining, and saying that if the sale had gone ahead well of course they would have paid. Hang on, they pulled the rug, not me.

OK for me to do all this work, OK to email me and call me at all hours, the selling agent was a PIA too and kept insisting that I do XYZ in no time at all, it really was a difficult job. But when I send a bill I'm suddenly no longer their best friend.

Why do I do this...

[anna]

No your not.

You did the work, you bill them, you get paid.

.

Originally Posted by Ed

Why do I do this...

Because on the rare occasion it all does come together and you sign off on a case thinking you really have done a great job.

[Bri w]

I dare say you have a price for doing x. If you have been instructed, asked, to do y & z then thats at extra cost and subsequently a charge.

They're chancing their arm and they know it.

Bill 'em, with a detailed invoice if needs be.

[Gazza77]

Look on the bright side Ed, at least you are in the right profession if you need to issue proceedings for non-payment.

[maviczap]

Originally Posted by anna

No your not.

You did the work, you bill them, you get paid.

+1 No one works for free

[ophic]

The last solicitors I used decided to up their hourly rate in the middle of my case. It was already breaking me financially so I got rid of them and ended up representing myself. The other party had free legal representation due to low income so it was no longer a matter of law but of cost, which of course I lost.

The solicitors firm lost a client and further income over it, which is pretty bad business sense imho. Of course I still paid them what I owed - which was already more than their original quote, for only half the case.

Ed - I don't believe you'd ever do anything like this, so by all means bill them for your time. I'm just illustrating how some firms give all law firms a bad name.

Originally Posted by maviczap

+1 No one works for free

+2

Not unreasonable in the slightest.
I'm currently on the other side of the coin.
I paid a lawyer in advance to get some docomentation checked by a specalist (who had to be paid in advance), which the lawyer then decided wasn't required. I've asked for a refund of the monies as the work was not done but the lawyer is claiming that he has incurred other unidentified costs which have used that money.
This is after 2 years of me always calling him to chase case, him never returning calls, and me going to all the places and getting documentation required, which he also charged for. Starting to think ombudsman...