Contracts for property purchase & Solicitor

Richard_Webster

Also, our solicitor initially quoted that it would be £300 (approx) for the searches, but now he's requesting £350 for them. Should I point out to him that he quoted £300 before? Or in the final bill he'd put the exact numbers for each search and would recalculate everything (and reimburse us if we overpaid for smth)?

A solicitor can't always know all the local circumstances when he gives an estimate. Some areas straddle local authority districts where there can be big differences between local search fees. For instance, in my area, Portsmouth charges £50 and next door Fareham charges £164, just for the local authority search. So I don't think it is unreasonable for him to say initially that the searches will cost about £300 and then to ask you for £50 when he knows more detail.

I generally agree with what TimmyT has said about looking at the contract - this is a legal document which will contain amendments to a set of standard conditions which themselves take up two sides of A4 in very small print. These amendments generally deal with what happens if something goes wrong between exchange of contracts and completion, which is quite rare. The contract itself therefore will be quite meaningless and boring to most people beyond stating the names of those concerned, details of the property being sold, and the price.

Copies of the title and any relevant transfer deeds or leases and of questionnaires completed by the seller and any additional questions and replies should be supplied before exchange with a report explaining their significance. A solicitor has to use his time as efficiently as he can. If he copies everything at an early stage he would be bombarded with lots of questions about what something meant.

Often he would have asked the seller's solicitors about the matter and would advise the client of the significance of the point once he had a reply. Before he gets a reply, if asked about it, he would have to go through a whole range of possible scenarios depending on what the sellers might say in answer to his questions and this is simply unproductive and can confuse and scare lay clients over matters which are often easily resolved and frequently quickly become non-issues.

timmyt

G_M wrote: »

Just to add to Timmy's comments: you are paying a pofessional to do the job; check the contract, Title; associated Conveyances; searches etc etc. That being so it is sensible for him to do all that, correct any errors, clarify any inconsistancies, fill any gaps and THEN pass you a complete, and accurate, pack. With, as Timmy says, a report/resume.

If he sent you documents with errors, gaps, inconsistances I expect you would not be impressed!

Plus if you intend/prefer/want to check all these yourself, well, you might as well do the whole job yourself.

No reason you shouldn't, if you have the nouse and the purchase is a straightforwrd one......

DIY conveyancing is ...... moneysaving. Well, unless the mortgage lender's solicitor charges a bomb.

(Off to bed now - I'll read Timmy's response to that last suggestion tomorrow!)

glad to oblige ...

NEVER do your own DIY conveyancing, as it is a legal procedure full of traps. Even paid conveyancers make mistakes but go up against a lawyer and it will be unfair on you and they may 'get one over on you' and only you to blame.