Are these solicitor's fees excessive ?

Are these solicitor's fees excessive ?

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Your comments please on whether the fees charged by a solicitor to administer an estate are excessive.

An executor has asked me to comment on the fees charged by a solicitor to handle the estate of a deceased but this is not my area.

In round numbers the fee charged was 1.5% of the gross estate (£5,250) PLUS professional time (£3,000) rounded down to £7,500 PLUS costs (£50) PLUS VAT.

To me this seems to be double counting, either charge a percentage of the gross estate or charge by the hour, but charging both?

Replies (5)

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By mrme89
10th May 2013 17:35

.

On the passing of my dads friend we were quoted £6000 plus costs plus 5% of the estate.

 

We did it ourselves in the end.

 

I don't know what the going rate is though.

 

I must say it is a lot of work, but nothing is too complicated.

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By bduncan
10th May 2013 17:37

Reasonable

These are reasonable for a taxable estate - 3% is a fair price and this is less than that - banks etc charge 4% plus

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By carnmores
10th May 2013 18:41

why is it reasonable to charge on the estate value

presumably you will say risk , surprised they havent charged a success fee as well. in fairness and very few lawyers deserve such we dont know how much work was involved. i recently saw a fee note from a lawyer that added a percentage of their fee for PPI as a separate item on the fee note, all bills should state the charge out rate by law IMO 

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By LyneT
10th May 2013 20:09

Solicitors generally charge a percentage of the fee for "the responsibility" particularly if they are named as executor.

When the solicitor accepts the instruction, they are required, by the law society, to give you a charge out rate in their client care letter.

If you are not happy you can request a renumeration certificate which should show a detailed breakdown of the time spent.  Usually it is in 1/10th of an hour.  They are not allowed to charge for the breakdown.

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By johngroganjga
10th May 2013 20:34

What were the agreed charging terms in the client care letter?

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