Obligation After Offer Withdrawn
I hired an attorney after our offer was accepted. However, after the engineering report came in I decided I would like to withdraw the offer. What is my obligation to my Attorney at this point? What is the usual practice? Thx.
I hired an attorney after our offer was accepted. However, after the engineering report came in I decided I would like to withdraw the offer. What is my obligation to my Attorney at this point? What is the usual practice? Thx.
Depends on what your arrangement was with the lawyer when you hired him/her.
We went through two attorneys on our purchase; one charged by the hour (the deal didn’t work out, but we still had to pay for the hours incurred). The other charged a flat fee, and said she would not charge if we did not close.
If there wasn’t an explicit agreement, I’d say you should do whatever you think is fair given how much work was done in your particular situation.
I would let the attorney know that you will not be needing his or her services. Unless the attorney has done any actual work on your behalf I doubt you owe anything — if you do, that should be set forth in a retainer agreement or engagement letter.
If the attorney comes back to you with a high number question him about how many hours the work took.
Ed Kopel Architects
You should ask your attorney; depending on how much work was involved on his part, it might be anywhere between 0 and half the regular fee.