UK Landlord Forum / Life

Can anyone advise me, solicitor made off, I accepted, (legal aid rates from them), then they withdrew and came back with another offer with standard legal rate/fees, approx nearly 4k ,more!  Can they do that, is it legal even   Meant to say the tenant 'pay off', stayed the same, only legal fees changed, can that be right or fair??

Try again and use complete sentences ...
It's not clear what has happened but all solicitors have a complaints procudure so ask them for it and use it.

Apologies, I wasn't clear, just really angry   Originally the solicitors for my tenant, sent a letter 'without prejudice' making an offer to me, which was agreeable, so my solicitor sent a letter accepting and so all was agreed, but then, the tenant's solicitor sent another letter, saying the counsel that attended court twice for the tenant (all free and legal aid, as they are on benefits), has now decided they want standard fees, not the legal aid fees they had initially asked for, nothing to do with the tenant, they are happy with their 1k payout, but solicitor has changed their mind about the fees, does that seem ethical, or legal even?

Does anyone know if this is legal, can a solicitor do this??

OK there seems to be a pre-story here but it sounds like you are compensating the tenant for some breach, the tenant's solicitor is now trying to screw you for more money...

Why dont you ask your solicitor if their behaviour is legal or not?
You could ask the law society but their complaints procedure is geared to complaints about your solictor not the counterparty solicitor but worth a try..

Legally until you both sign something then no settlement has been reached although it is pretty scandalous for a solicitor to change their costs once a handshake (exchange between the solicitors) has been reached.

If the settlement was for £1,000 plus costs and you have evidence that the tenant was receiving legal aid then your solicitor could argue that the tenant is now making a profit above the settlement...but really your solicitor should be sorting this out.

Incidentally do not let the words "Without Prejudice" on the letter prevent you from raising merry hell.  The words are there to prevent you from using the offer of settlement against the tenant in court.  However as it seems you have settled the main dispute (£1000) the WP heading does not however prevent you from disputing the legal costs of the tenant and therefore you can use the offer letter as evidence in a new dispute.

Really your solicitor should develop a backbone and address a letter to the other solicitor insisting you will pay the tenants costs which you know (how?) to be legal aid level.  You should pay the tenants actual costs not the ones dreamt up by their solicitor.

To answer your question, ethically this is all wrong but these days ethics are cheap compared to £££s (sad but true).

Kick your solicitor to do a better job.

Best of luck

Thank you so much for your advice, I agree completely, so very wrong ethically, and I have since my posting insisted on arguing the toss about these fees, but unfortunately my original solicitor has gone off long term sick and so another has taken over, really nice, but not their field, just helping out the colleague with my case, (I know just call me lucky ) but they are going to get on it this week and call me back to advise what happens now, I will post as soon as I hear anything.  Again, thank you so much for your help

I received a letter from my solicitor, they have sent the tenant solicitor a letter stating that as the offer was accepted by us, and within the time specified, we await the confirmation of the original offer, with legal aid rates.  I am so hopeful, and will hope they will accept they have tried to push their luck, I will post as soon as I hear anything else, I'm hoping to get some news next week, I'm not sure how long before they have to respond and if they have to 'back down' in this case. 

It seems to be you have been reasonable.

If they want more say no.

They will then have to serve action to take it to court, you have a solid defense, but one that will cost you paying your solicitors another £4k to prove the point!

However given they want proper fees, I doubt there client is now eligible for legal aid, so they will be out of pocket with this action also.

I would imagine its some sort of no win no fee bunch of lying robbing shits trying it on, so just play the game, say no, dont worry, stand your ground, be happy....

Just to keep things up to date, attended court, lost as the original S21 was done all wrong, tenant was awarded x 2 deposit, (could have been worse, could have been x 3), so they had a great weekend on my money, then I have to pay my solicitor fees, and the tenant's legal fees, which she has racked up to a grand total of nearly 8k,    So fingers have really been burnt and new solicitor says this shouldn't have gone this far due to original incorrect S21  So, onwards and upwards, I am going to go again with a section 21, done by a solicitor, just to make sure its correct, hoping to do this next week, then go to the court as tenant definately will not leave, and probably try and come up with another reason to go to solicitors and try and rip me off again!!! 

Does anyone know how I can protect myself from the next tenant (god knows when that will be), not paying rent, are the insurances worth having?

As I said in my earlier post there seems to be a pre-story here.
It seems to me you haven't protected the deposit and the tenant claimed against you.  That isn't ripping you off, that is enforcing their legal rights.  It sucks, I agree, but that is the law.
You then seem, to have exacerbated your plight by incorrectly completing a section 21 notice.  I don't quite follow why your solicitor says why "it shouldn't have gone this far" due to the incorrect s21, the tenant would have been able to claim for failure to protect the deposit in any case....which means you couldn't have served a valid section 21 anyway.

The reason for pointing out the above is that you want to "protect yourself from the next tenant", but I'm afraid you need protecting from yourself...not the tenant.  No insurance is available for a landlord that neither protects the deposit nor completes a s21 notice correctly.

Sorry but that's tough love.

The insurances are there for tenants that fail to pay.  However as with all insurances your paperwork will need to be in TOP order to make a claim and you will need to prove the level of credit checking you did etc.  As paperwork seems to be an issue here I would suggest caution ..it shall not be a panacea to all your future woes.

Best of luck with the re-submittal.

Quote from: Fingersburnt on January 31, 2016, 02:42:48 PMDoes anyone know how I can protect myself from the next tenant (god knows when that will be), not paying rent, are the insurances worth having?

Insurance along these lines is, of course, available to Landlords. Many people will swear by it. I would never use it because I have heard anecdotal stories of the insurance companies using every little loophole that they can to avoid paying-out. While you can claim this is their natural approach to all claims, with this kind of insurance it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Better to have a war-chest built-up for this kind of eventuality, then - when any arrears mount-up - start the formal process for evicting.

Much better to reassure yourself with positive referencing in my opinion... although it is accepted that a person's circumstances can change at any time, then their behaviour and approach to rent can change too.

If you look at the qualifying criteria for rent insurance the tenant(s) usually need an annual income of at least 20 times the monthly rent.
So really the insurers are only prepared to insure those that are highly unlikely to fail anyway.
(Of course they are insuring against circumstances changing)
Many tenants wouldn't qualify for insurance even though they may well be a good bet.

Even if the tenants income does qualify some folks tactically have the insurance for as long as a s21 cannot be enforced and then stop the monthly payments for insurance.