any solicitors happy to deal with a self-conveyancer for lender purposes?

monkey_writer · 14 February 2006 at 5:34PM

I'm planning to do the conveyancing on our house purchase myself as I want to be in control of the process and to learn about the house as I go along.

However, we are buying with the help of a mortgage and the mortgage company will almost certainly need a solicitor to check over my conveyancing and to act on their behalf to transfer the money etc.

However, most solicitors don't want to do this. They offer a set service and charge a set amount.

Does anyone know of a solicitor that is happy to work with a self-conveyancer? Has anyone been through this process? Did they charge the same to just check your work as they would to do the lot themselves?

Thanks!

RiskAdverse100 · 15 February 2006 at 10:09AM

From a purely money saving point of view, I can see little point in trying to do your own conveyancing if you are taking out a mortgage.

If a mortgage is involved then the lenders will insist on a conveyancer acting for them. Where the buyer has instructed a conveyancer then the lenders are usually happy for the same conveyancer to act for them. This saves on costs as there is no duplication of work.

But why do the lenders need a conveyancer?

In simple terms - to make sure title to the property is investigated properly, to raise all the usual enquiries, to carry out all the necessary searches and to make sure that their mortgage is registered against the property. If it all goes wrong they need to be sure that they can sell the property and recover their loan and they will want a conveyancer with professional indemnity insurance to be acting for them so that, if the solicitor has been negligent and hasn't done their job properly, they can sue for damages.

So the conveyancer who acts for the leders is not simply going to 'check over your conveyancing'. They will do all the work that a conveyancer acting for you would do - and charge more because it is you and not the lender who is paying their costs.

Yes it is possible to do your own conveyancing to save money - but not where a mortgage is involved.

Do also bear in mind that, if you do act for yourself, what happens when something goes wrong? Is the potential to save a few hundred pounds really worth the risk?

RiskAdverse100

monkey_writer · 15 February 2006 at 12:19PM

I see what you're saying RiskAdverse, but surely if I'm doing all the searches, I'm doing all the too and fro with the vendor's solicitor, then my lender's solicitor doesn't have to do all this.

I can pass him (or her) the paperwork, they can check it out, they can transfer the mortgage. That's a greatly reduced workload.

I'm intending to find a conveyancer/solicitor myself to act for my lender... but haven't found one yet.

I understand that the bank needs to cover itself against shoddy conveyancing work, and their indemnity insurance is a strong point, but when it comes to my risk - I have heard plenty of scary stories about solicitors and I will be putting far more work and effort into making sure I get every detail right than any solicitor would (or could afford to, given the fees).

Look forward to hearing your take on these points.

RiskAdverse100 · 15 February 2006 at 1:26PM

You mention that you are going to be doing all the searches yourself. The only search that you could have any involvement in is the local authority search.

There are three ways of doing a local authority search.

1. You send a standard set of questions to the local authority that they answer. You can rely on these answers because they have come from the local authority.

2. You use a firm of search agents to visit the local authority. They get all the information needed to reply to the standard questions by visiting the various council departments themselves. You can rely on their answers because they invariably have £5m insurance to cover any mistakes that they might make.

3. You visit the local authority yourself and get the information needed to reply to the standard questions.

While your lender will be happy with a local authority search produced by the local authority itself and should be happy with a search produced by search agents with suitable insurance cover they certainly are not going to be happy to rely on information you have obtained.

Yes, you will probably do just as good a job as either the local authority or the search agents, but how do the lenders check that this is the case and what comeback do they have if you have made mistakes?

So you might be happy to do a search yourself but your lenders will insist on either option 1 or 2.

Other searches are often necessary although you are not going to be able to do these yourself.

Yes, you would no doubt be able to arrange for the searches to be done (ie send off the application forms along with a cheque) but that will involve little time or cost savings.

I do think you first need to read one of the DIY conveyancing books so that you have a better idea of what a conveyancer actually has to do when buying or selling a property. I am afraid that it is rather more than some 'tooing and froing' with the conveyancer on the other side and collecting together some paperwork to 'check out'!

RiskAdverse100