Buying a house from my dad, does he need a solicitor?

Faz

I'm buying a house from my dad through an 'inter-family sale' where I will buying the house at a discounted rate and thereby eliminating paying any deposit. My loan amount will be equal to my father's mortgage.

The nationwide mortgage I am looking at includes 'free legal fees' which cover the conveyancer's professional charges. I have 2 questions:

1. What other legal fees will I need to pay and how much will this come to approx?

2. As I am buying from my dad, does he have to appoint a solicitor on his behalf for the sale or can we eliminate this cost by him representing himself?

G_M

Nobody has to use a solicitor for conveyancing. Anyone can do it for themselves. I have several times.

However, if you are buying with a mortgage, your lender will appoint a solicitor to put the mortgage inplace. The extra amount that solicitor will charge for doing the conveyancing for you at the same time is minimal so is usually worth paying.

When selling, if there is a mortgage (as in your dad's case) it helps to use a solicitor. This is because the buyer will need to be confident that the seller's mortgage will be repaid. Usually the mortgage is repaid with the sale money, so is not done until after Completion of the sale. The seller's solicitor gives un 'undertaking' to repay the mortgage, and this is believed because he is a solicitor. Where a seller has no solicitor, if he gives a similar undertaking the buyer (or his solicitor, or lender) would be foolhardy to believe/accept the undertaking as the seller might swan off to South America with the sale money leaving the mortgage unpaid and the charge left on the property which would be repossessed leaving the buyer homeless!

However, if the seller (your dad) paid off his mortgage (with savings) before selling, then he could sell a mortgage-free house without a solicitor (provided he knows what he is doing and/or gets a good book on the topic and is of resonable intelligence.).

Nationwide's free legal fees will not include 'disbursements' - charges the solicitor has to pay out on your behalf like searches, stamp duty etc. It will only cover the solicitor's own actual costs.

For details of solicitor's costs and disbursements, see here.

Richard_Webster

Your solicitor will have to carry out ID checks on your dad and, as has been mentioned, will need to make sure that the present mortgage is discharged. He will probably need a solicitor for that. Your solicitor is not going to hand over the money to your dad unless he knows the mortgage will be repaid. If your dad can only do this through using the sale proceeds then a solicitor is going to have to undertake to have the mortgage removed form the title and he can only do this if he has the money through his client account.

rabialiones

G_M wrote: »

Nobody has to use a solicitor for conveyancing. Anyone can do it for themselves. I have several times.

However, if you are buying with a mortgage, your lender will appoint a solicitor to put the mortgage inplace. The extra amount that solicitor will charge for doing the conveyancing for you at the same time is minimal so is usually worth paying.

When selling, if there is a mortgage (as in your dad's case) it helps to use a solicitor. This is because the buyer will need to be confident that the seller's mortgage will be repaid. Usually the mortgage is repaid with the sale money, so is not done until after Completion of the sale. The seller's solicitor gives un 'undertaking' to repay the mortgage, and this is believed because he is a solicitor. Where a seller has no solicitor, if he gives a similar undertaking the buyer (or his solicitor, or lender) would be foolhardy to believe/accept the undertaking as the seller might swan off to South America with the sale money leaving the mortgage unpaid and the charge left on the property which would be repossessed leaving the buyer homeless!

However, if the seller (your dad) paid off his mortgage (with savings) before selling, then he could sell a mortgage-free house without a solicitor (provided he knows what he is doing and/or gets a good book on the topic and is of resonable intelligence.).

Nationwide's free legal fees will not include 'disbursements' - charges the solicitor has to pay out on your behalf like searches, stamp duty etc. It will only cover the solicitor's own actual costs.

For details of solicitor's costs and disbursements, see here.

please elaborate on how a house can be sold without using a solicitor,
i m in similar situation, however seller has no mortgage , but buyer will be getting mortgate
thanks