25 OCTOBER 1963, Page 19

LAWYERS' LOOT

SIR,—About fifteen months ago 1 bought the house I

am now living in for £5,000. The moneys I paid to the solicitor who handled the transaction totalled £161, including, of course, such items of official extortion as stamp duty and the like. Nor were there any complications such as my having to sell an ex- isting house.

'City Solicitor' can plead, if he likes, until the price of houses falls. Someone—be it the Government, the local government concerned or the people who do the conveyancing—is making a bomb out of the desperation of the average citizen toliut a roof over his head.

ROBERT MCKINNON