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Is this reply suspicious? Timesheet request from solicitor executors. England
Hi everyone I am concerned about excessive billing by solicitor executors for 2 estates. I am a beneficiary.
For context the total fees for 2 estates worth just under 1 million is about £32,800 this seems high which is why I am concerned. One estate was merged into the other there potentially reducing the overall workload. Simple estate 1 property.
One estate was transferred to the other so that would reduce the amount of work required.
They were asked for detailed time sheets and their reply is below. Is there anything suspicious about it or any red flags?
Should I be concerned that they don't list each item individually?
Their reply:-
[The firm] are the Executors, specifically our Directors, [Director A] and [Director B], who confirmed our fees. A time estimate of up to 25 hours was agreed at the onset of each matter. You will note from our invoices that the actual time spent on [Estate 1]’s Estate was 21.4 hours and 23.1 hours on [Estate 2]’s. These therefore are both within the agreed estimate.
We do also keep a time log in order to calculate our invoices accurately, as this is standard practice when charging for time spent. However, ours is done manually detailing our time spent with a written breakdown rather than on a case management system which pulls through a pre-generated invoice, thus listing each item individually.
Both types of invoices are cost transparent in accordance with the SRA rules but are just different styles.
As most firms, [the firm] has a minimum charge of 1 hour, after which we divide each hour into 10 units of 6 minutes. We charge one unit for each routine short letter or telephone call unless the time involved is longer than 6 minutes, in which case we charge the number of units used.
For context the total fees for 2 estates worth just under 1 million is about £32,800 this seems high which is why I am concerned. One estate was merged into the other there potentially reducing the overall workload. Simple estate 1 property.
One estate was transferred to the other so that would reduce the amount of work required.
They were asked for detailed time sheets and their reply is below. Is there anything suspicious about it or any red flags?
Should I be concerned that they don't list each item individually?
Their reply:-
[The firm] are the Executors, specifically our Directors, [Director A] and [Director B], who confirmed our fees. A time estimate of up to 25 hours was agreed at the onset of each matter. You will note from our invoices that the actual time spent on [Estate 1]’s Estate was 21.4 hours and 23.1 hours on [Estate 2]’s. These therefore are both within the agreed estimate.
We do also keep a time log in order to calculate our invoices accurately, as this is standard practice when charging for time spent. However, ours is done manually detailing our time spent with a written breakdown rather than on a case management system which pulls through a pre-generated invoice, thus listing each item individually.
Both types of invoices are cost transparent in accordance with the SRA rules but are just different styles.
As most firms, [the firm] has a minimum charge of 1 hour, after which we divide each hour into 10 units of 6 minutes. We charge one unit for each routine short letter or telephone call unless the time involved is longer than 6 minutes, in which case we charge the number of units used.