Legal fee's for house sale that fell through

[fruity]

We agreed to sell our house and evrything was going fine. The couple were buying it with a friend, they had 90% cash, the friend was getting a 10% mortgage.

5 days before exchange they pulled out and refused to give a reason.

We have now been sent a bill for £550 in repsect to the legal work my solicitor had done.

Does anyone know if I can counter claim this to them as they pulled out and wasted our time.

I am so angry about it.

 

[Blondie]

Unfortunately I don't think there is anything you could claim - until exchange of contracts there is no obligation for the buyer to buy the house and so your legal costs are yours I'm afraid.

 

[ald]

Unfortunately I don't think there is anything you could claim - until exchange of contracts there is no obligation for the buyer to buy the house and so your legal costs are yours I'm afraid.

Yes this is correct, prior to exchange all fees are you own, only if you had exchanged contacts would you be able to claim off them (which is why a lt of buyers wait until the day prior to exchange and then say they want an extra xxx thousand off the sale price!)