Buy cheap, buy twice!

We all know that if something is too good (cheap!) to be true, it probably is!

If the ad says that it’s a Rolls Royce at a bargain price, you might find that it’s not the shiny showroom-ready vehicle you were hoping for!

And that you get what you pay for.

Nevertheless, I still sometimes have clients who ask me to check my quotes or ask for a discount.

Usually, I just try to explain to clients why our fees are at the level they are. The quality of the service we provide. The fact that we work nights and weekends and are always available for our clients. The number of clients who come back to us time and time again. Not to mention the people who instruct someone else and then end up coming to us because they are not getting good quality service from the firm that they picked.

However, occasionally I manage to come up with a unique answer to the question, which in this case was, why are you so much more expensive than the firm that did our property purchase last time? Well, the reason in this case was that the firm in question went bust last year with massive debts, and had to be intervened by the SRA, with all their staff being laid off at short notice, not to mention that any property transaction that was pending at the time would be at risk. If, for example, you’d exchanged contracts but not completed, the transaction could still continue but not without danger of additional costs and losses. This would be particularly relevant if you could not complete on the previously agreed date, which would mean that the other side would be entitled to compensation and/or to pull out of the transaction and keep any deposit they had received. It might not be the fault of the client that it was going wrong, but it was certainly NOT the fault of the other side.

If you go for a cheap firm (not just in law, but in everything), be prepared for a cheap service and for things to go wrong, such as hidden extras, services not being provided properly (or at all) and (worst case scenario) your chosen service provider going under mid-transaction, so that it ends up costing you much more than you were trying to save.

Kleyman & Co Solicitors. The full-service law firm. Reassuringly expensive!