How hard is conveyancing?

rxbishop

!!!!!!.

I mean for a professional lawyer must be a doddle, get their technique down filling in the forms and that, doing the searches, must be quick as hell. If I could be bothered doing all the old pony at university, reckon I'd be tempted to just do that all the time if I could charge upwards of a grand a pop. Sod doing all the other time consuming, tricky legal aid, divorce, corporate law stuff. Churn out a couple of conveyancing jobs a week and you're laughing. Keep the overheads down and sun yourself on the med for half the year.

googler

How do you propose to get even a couple of jobs a week when you're away for half the year? People will forget you're there the other six months and will hire someone else. You'll have to re-launch the business every time you come back.

!!!!!!.....

dorset_nurse

Haha I laughed out loud at that reply. Love it.
I'd have a home in the Caribbean I think...:cool:

rxbishop

Couldn't you work from overseas? When I read one of the articles on here they said that there is no need for the conveyancer to be local. Seems like something that is ripe for an online company to set up and undercut all the high street lot. Could get a load of indians doing it via a call centre i'd've thought - it's largely done on the internet ain't it via searches or whatever.

googler

Wouldn't work, because nobody WANTS to deal with a call centre in Mumbai.

There's a backlash against foreign call centres, which has led to some companies making a selling point of having UK call centres

Folks round my way don't even want to deal with people on the other side of Scotland, never mind the other side of the globe.....

Yorkie1

Mortgage lenders won't have you on their panels so bang goes most of your work!

googler

How would you deal with getting important documents (title deeds, dispositions, etc.) between you and other solicitors when you're abroad?

paddyrg

A lawyer buddy absolutely hates having to do some domestic conveyancing work for the practice. He says you spend your life writing to other lawyers about curtain poles and lightbulbs and old white goods, draining your life for a fixed fee which is very cheap compared with their usual hourly billing rate.

chesneyoctopus

I think that you would be lucky to acheive a fee of £1000.00 per transaction - usuallly it is half that.

You need to qualify as a solicitor, which involves a great deal of expense, and takes at least six years.

You will need indemnity insurance, and that is far from cheap.

kalico

First, let's get some facts right. It is not necessary to be a solicitor to perform conveyancing. I've done my own a couple of times and I'm not a solicitor (at least the last time I checked! :-) )

The job can be done by a Licensed Conveyancer and the only problem is finding one. Plus, sometimes they charge as much as a solicitor.

The process of cenveyancing is pretty straightforward as long as there are no problems. And the whole point of having registered land is that it should be easy, like buying or selling a registered vehicle. Indeed, I forget whichever significant dude from history introduced Registered Land, but he declared the purpose of having it to be something along the lines of "To make the buying and selling of land as easy as the buying and selling of goods and other chattels". Or some such similar (please don't attack me for the poor accuracy of the quote).

In my experience, anyone with half a brain who could fill out a V5 document for a car could perform 99% of the conveyancing stuff, with a little guidance from a book or the internet. The problem is that the 1% where there could be issues is a bit of a bummer, because the issues can be big and expensive if mistakes are made.

In any event, nobody with mortgage is going to be allowed to do their own conveyancing by their lender. They simply wouldn't take the risk. But if you didn't have a lender, then it's straightforward, as I've said and selling it easier than buying. At the end of the day, even if small mistakes were made in the selling convenyancing, the money either arrives in your bank account or it doesn't. It would only be an issue if you didn't get rid of the property and it had some sort of liability or exposed you in some way that's best avoided.

Buying is not too difficult. The searches are straightforward and in the old days I just took the forms into my local council who had a rubber stamp to answer most of the questions. e.g. "Q. Are there any plans to build a motorway through the back garden?" ... Rubber stamp: "A. Not in so far as we are aware at the present time." - Total cop-out, so to speak and pretty worthless. But necessary, I grant you.

These days all the searches are done on computer and can take a lot longer as computerised things tend to (but they are still fairly standard replies). I liked going in to the council offices because I paid my £16 and waiting whilst they did it there and then.

As for the solicitor doing the conveyancing, forget it. They will almost certainly have some (legal qualified or not) assistant doing the bulk of the work. It is NOT rocket science. However, the solicitor must put his/her name to the work, so they do have a responsibility to get it right. In my experience, the admin people doing the bulk of the work are more than capable, so I wouldn't give your solicitor any tough questions like "Will this conveyance be performed by a qualified solicitor?" It really won't make a difference.

I have to agree with the statement above that it is ripe for an internet business. I'm surprised there isn't one already (there probably is and I'm just buying now, so will go to look for one). There is also no need, in 99% of cases, for the conveyancer to be local. Mostly I have used firms and we've mailed forms back and forth in the post.

Mainly, my friendly solicitor and I agreed a flat rate of £250 per property, plus the usual extras. That seemed a fair rate. What annoys me now is that a solicitor's first question when you call them for a quote is likely to be "How much is the buying/selling price?" They'll give you all sorts of reasons why it costs more to write a different number on the forms. (usually, they rant on about insurance and such like, which I suspect is guff). Remember that just because it's a solicitor, the price is still negotiable.

The main trap I would advise not to fall into is thinking that the process is difficult. Get rid of any image of a poor solicitor burning the midnight oil going through pages and pages of documents and searches to make sure that the land you're buying is what you think it is. That's a fantasy that many lawyers would love to portray, to justify the ridiculous fees they charge for what is a relatively straightforward (in the main) admin task. If it's Registered Land then it's Registered Land. It's either in your name (with a Charge to the bank from a Mortgage) or it's not. There really isn't that much to go wrong.

On the other hand, if it is not Registered or if there is anything unusual or in any way questionable, then be damn sure to use a good solicitor. Then they justify their money.

With regards to debates about curtains and light fittings etc I lose patience very quickly. People should pick the phone up to the vendor/buyer and just agree it between themselves, then TELL the conveyancer what you have agreed so they can stick it in the paperwork. (The expression is to "Instruct a solicitor" after all). If the seller doesn't comply with what you've agreed and they take all the curtains and fittings and god knows what that you agreed would be left in the house, you'll find that your chances of redress are nearing zero. Yes, it's possible but I would debate whether it is worth the hassle. Far better to use that old fashioned thing called trust to work with the other side and reach agreement.

For all of this and throughout the entire process, my advice be to keep estate agents out of things as much as possible. They come way down my list of respected professions. Lower even than the lawyers, hehe! :-) (And by the way, before I get loads of lawyers or estate agents attacking me, let me say that I am generalising and that a good solicitor or estate agent is worth their weight in gold. Maybe you are one of those good ones. But there are lots of them out there who frustrate processes unnecessarily. Let's just say that stereotypes do not come about without a reason!)

Note that I make a distinction between conveyancer and solicitor, since your conveyancer may not be a solicitor.

Hope all of this is helpful or interesting to someone. E&OE and all that.

Regards.

diesel_dog

Timing is pretty important and that seems to escape a lot of the people you pay out to on buying and selling.