Estate agent fees

[gwingo]

We recently moved house and on the day of completion i had a phone call from my solicitor to inform me i owe the estate agents £2800, when i questioned it they said that they dont get the final fee from them until completion! This should have been budgeted into the remortgage and after more phone calls it appears the solicitor got the percentage fee wrong and put down the wrong figures. The estate agents now want their money, rightly so but with a tight budget its hard to find nearly £3000! My question is who is liable? I know ultimately its me as we signed a contract but a mistake between the estate agents and the solicitor has now put me in an awkward position. Any help or advice would be great, thanks.

[jaguarsuk]

We recently moved house and on the day of completion i had a phone call from my solicitor to inform me i owe the estate agents £2800, when i questioned it they said that they dont get the final fee from them until completion! This should have been budgeted into the remortgage and after more phone calls it appears the solicitor got the percentage fee wrong and put down the wrong figures. The estate agents now want their money, rightly so but with a tight budget its hard to find nearly £3000! My question is who is liable? I know ultimately its me as we signed a contract but a mistake between the estate agents and the solicitor has now put me in an awkward position. Any help or advice would be great, thanks.

So you are liable for the amount the Solicitor had put down originally and they are liable for the difference between that to what is owed to the Estate Agents assuming you have in writing what they quoted and they did so without stating it might vary.

If the solicitor refuses to pay you'd have to pay the Estate Agent the full amount owed and then claim your loss, which would be the amount as stated in my first para.