Should I pay my solicitor after his incompetence?

Should I?

I recently had a house sale fall through, and blame my solicitor for the failure. The house is in negative equity. I agreed with the bank that I would handle the shortfall, with the solicitor's and estate agent's fees being taken from the sale amount.

When I decided to sell I contacted a solicitor and informed him by email that there was a judgement on the house. I included, in the email, a copy of the land registry document I had received, and then personally delivered a copy to his office.

An offer was made within a few weeks. 2 months later my solicitor called me in to sign documents. I believe these were some kind of "intention to sell" documents. I asked him at that time how he had gotten the judgement removed, as I assumed this was why he had taken 2 months to get to this point (the buyer was already loan approved). He told me he wasn't aware of the judgement, and when I told him that he already had the information, he checked the land registry and found the judgement. He said he'd get it sorted.

5 months later the buyer pulled out having found and moved into another house.

I place the blame for the failure of the sale firmly at the feet of my solicitor. His fee was €3000, and I (probably stupidly) assumed that this excessive fee was to cover the cost of having the judgement removed. My question is ... should I pay him? If he presents me with a bill, would I expect it to be less than agreed, and if so, by how much?

Thanks.

hullaballoo

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