lawyer sent a bill but never asked for his service

california hi all,i was selling my house and during closing found out
that half of the house had to go threw probate ,my real estate agent
was pushing me to go threw probate fast, but i told him he has to wait
until i get all the members of my family together . two weeks later
he calls me and says he set up an appointment with a lawyer.
i told him i will get my own lawyer,then he said just go with him
and see what they have to say so i went.
when we got there we went in to a room the lawyer's started talking about
probate and that they will start the next week, then i said wait a minute
i did'nt want to start probate now and that i'am only here because my agent
asked me to come.(to make a long story short.)
the lawyer sent me a bill for $708.00 but i never asked for his service's
or signed any papers ?

thank's for your help

forward the bill to your real estate to pay.

If you were not the executor of the estate, discuss this with the executor and the estate might possibly have enough funds to be able to pay this expense, since the estate was supposed to pay for this anyway. Executor would have and should have had to use a real estate attorney anyway, so it doesn't matter who picked him.

And ask the attorney to send the bill to the estate executor.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

why should the estate pay anything? The real estate agent set up the meeting. the poster and the estate never agreed to pay for the attorney. The agent is the one who hired the attorney to try and close the deal. the agent is responsible for the bill.

The estate is going to be the recipient of any income from the sale and the professional services is just a related expense. True, the real estate agent should have gotten permission before the hiring was done, but it was done on behalf of the estate anyway.

it doesnt matter about the intent of the real estate agent or if the estate benefits from the attorney's advice. the agent hired the attorney and the agent should pay for the attorney.

And what is the next step when the agent refuses to pay the attorney's bill?

the poster should send the bill to the agent with a letter explaining that the agent retained the attorney without the consent of the poster and therefore the agent is responsible for the bill. send a copy of the letter to the attorney.

the ball will be in the attorney's court for any next move. the next move will most likely be against the agent.