I needed to cancel my home sale as a consequence of sickness – how a lot cash will I’ve to pay the conveyancer?

I had to cancel my house sale and purchase due to a sudden severe illness only three business days after instructing a conveyancer.

After the initial instruction, I was told it would be three business days until they started work on my account.

At first, the conveyancing firm twice refused to release my documents supporting the TA6 form, stating they needed to calculate the abortive costs invoice. They relented when I objected. 

What is a reasonable invoice to expect? I’ve already paid £100 on account.

Jane Denton, of This is Money, replies: There can be many reasons why a property sale or purchase does not go ahead. 

In your case, you became too unwell to go ahead with the sale. This happened a mere three business days after you appointed a conveyancer. 

Solicitors or conveyancing professionals will normally charge for work already undertaken and any disbursements incurred before the cancellation. 

You should have received a contract setting out the terms of business from the conveyancing firm. This will outline what happens in the event a proposed transaction is cancelled and what fees may be incurred once this happens. 

Given you pulled out just three business days after appointing the conveyancing firm, your costs should not be significant. 

I asked three solicitors for their thoughts on how much you can expect to pay after cancelling the sale due to illness.

Manjinder Kaur Atwal, director of housing law at Duncan Lewis, says: When you instruct a conveyancer, you enter into a contract with them, usually set out in their terms of business. 

Those terms should explain what work they will carry out, what they will charge, and what happens if the transaction falls through. But just because a sale or purchase is cancelled does not mean the firm can charge whatever it likes.

In your case, the timing matters a great deal. You cancelled only three business days after instructing the conveyancer, and you were told at the outset that they would not even begin work on your file for three business days. That immediately limits what they can reasonably charge you for.

Conveyancers are entitled to be paid for work actually done, not for work they were planning to do later. 

In the first few days of a transaction, this is usually limited to opening the file, carrying out basic identity and anti-money laundering checks, and perhaps a brief review of the information you supplied. 

If they had not started reviewing title documents, ordering searches or raising enquiries, there is very little substantive work to bill for.

In situations like this, a modest abortive fee is normal. For an instruction that ended so quickly, it would usually be measured in tens or low hundreds of pounds, not large sums. Given that you have already paid £100 on account, it is quite possible that this already covers the work carried out.

The firm was also wrong to refuse, even temporarily, to release documents that belong to you. 

Guarantees and certificates you provided remain your property and should not be withheld as leverage while a bill is being calculated. That is poor practice and not what clients should expect from a regulated firm.

This is unlikely to amount to professional negligence, as that involves serious errors causing financial loss. However, it may raise concerns about client care and whether the firm is acting fairly and transparently.

If you receive an invoice you feel is excessive, you should ask for a clear breakdown explaining exactly what work was done and when. 

Compare this carefully with the firm’s original terms of business. If you remain unhappy, use the firm’s complaints procedure. 

If that does not resolve matters, you can take the issue to the Legal Ombudsman, which regularly deals with disputes over conveyancing fees and can order bills to be reduced or refunded.

Given the circumstances and your illness, you are right to question anything more than minimal administrative costs.

Amaka Jackson, managing partner at Jackson Longe Solicitors, says: This situation comes down to what you agreed in your client care letter and how much work was actually carried out before you cancelled.

In conveyancing, most firms quote a fixed fee for the whole transaction. However, that does not usually mean the fee is automatically payable in full if the matter falls through. 

Nearly all engagement letters provide that if the transaction aborts, the firm may charge for work completed up to that point, plus any disbursements incurred.

Three working days is a very short period. In that timeframe, the solicitor may have opened the file, carried out identity and anti-money laundering checks, reviewed initial documentation and possibly drafted the contract pack if you were selling. 

If substantive legal work had not begun, the costs should reflect that.

With a £100 payment on account, I would expect the abortive invoice — if any — to be modest. It should be supported by a clear, itemised breakdown of the work undertaken and the time spent.

As for refusing to release your own documents until abortive costs were calculated, that is heavy-handed. 

While solicitors can exercise a lien over client papers for unpaid fees, that right applies to properly incurred and billed costs, but not not speculative sums.

If the invoice appears excessive given the short timeframe, you should raise a formal complaint with the firm. If unresolved, you may refer the matter to the Legal Ombudsman, who can assess whether the charges are reasonable. 

Natalie Bradley, partner and head of conveyancing at Stephensons, says: The first place I would advise to look is the terms and conditions you agreed to at the outset. These documents should explain exactly what the firm is entitled to charge and in what circumstances.

Start by checking whether your quote was provided on a no sale, no fee basis. Many conveyancers offer this, and if yours did, you cannot be charged legal fees if the transaction didn’t proceed. 

In that situation, the only amounts you might legitimately be asked to pay are third‑party costs the firm has already incurred, such as identity checks or other small external disbursements.

It’s also worth checking whether the solicitor gave you a 14‑day cooling‑off period. When you instruct a solicitor remotely, by email, phone or online, consumer law usually requires them to provide one. 

Within that time, you can cancel without any charge, unless you expressly agreed for the work to start immediately and signed a waiver giving up the cooling‑off period.

Some firms do include provisions for abortive fees when a transaction collapses. These are only valid if the terms and conditions clearly explain that such fees apply and set out how they will be calculated. If the solicitor didn’t properly highlight this, or the wording is vague, it becomes much harder for them to justify charging you anything now.

Even where abortive fees are permitted, the solicitor must still act reasonably. At an early stage in a conveyancing matter, the work tends to be limited to basic administrative tasks: opening your file, carrying out identity and anti‑money‑laundering checks, sending you standard forms and reviewing any initial documents. 

These tasks are generally low‑value and might typically add up to somewhere in the region of £50 to £150. 

You should not be charged anything close to the full conveyancing fee if no substantive legal work, such as reviewing the title, raising enquiries, preparing a contract pack or ordering searches, was carried out.

If the amount you’ve been asked to pay seems high, you are fully entitled to ask the firm for an itemised invoice. 

This should break down the work they say they performed, how long they spent on it, and the charges attached. 

If you still feel it is excessive, you can use the firm’s internal complaints process to challenge it, with the option of escalating to the Legal Ombudsman if needed.

Finally, you’ve already paid £100 on account. That money must be deducted from any legitimate fee or disbursement they claim. They cannot simply keep it unless it is properly allocated to work actually done.