where to complete?

Richard_Webster

If you had a solicitor he would be able to give professional undertakings to another solicitor who would be able to rely on the your solicitor checking your ID to make sure that you are the person entitled to sell the property in question.

If I was your buyer's solicitor I would be saying that either you come to my office or you pay for the extra costs of instructing a solicitor in Milton Keynes to attend at your house and carry out all the necessary checks on my behalf.

I assume you do not have mortgage to discharge. If so how can the buyer's solicitor be sure that you will pay off the mortgage out of the sale proceeds?

G_M

1st - congratulations on doing your own conveyancing, and good luck!
2nd - a bit worying you need to ask. Are you sure you know what you're doing!?
3rd - to all those posters saying "I didn't think solicitors had to actually meet" or similar - this poster is doing his own conveyancing. Many of the arrangements solicitors have between themselves will not apply
4th - As Richard says, I assume you have no mortgage otherwise you have a real problem (unless you have enough spare funds to pay it off before Completion)
5th - last time I did this I a) tried (and failed!) to get the buyer to use a solicitor local to me b) offered to go to the solicitor's office (yup - that's one of the major downsides of DIY) but c) ended up agreeing (at her solicitor's suggestion) to meet the buyer (no, her solicitor did not attend) in my local bank

Amazingly, the buyer's solicitor CHAPed the funds to my bank, I checked it had arrived, then I handed over the documents (the buyer didn't even know what they were, far less check them.)

Had the buyer had a decent solicitor however, they would never have agreed to this!

GDB2222

Richard_Webster wrote: »

If you had a solicitor he would be able to give professional undertakings to another solicitor who would be able to rely on the your solicitor checking your ID to make sure that you are the person entitled to sell the property in question.

The vendor's solicitor can carry out the usual identity checks without meeting their client. If you wish to ID the vendor on behalf of the buyer, that is perfectly reasonable, but surely it would be reasonable to get the passport etc sent to you - same as you would with your own client. Or do you insist on always meeting your own clients in person?


If I was your buyer's solicitor I would be saying that either you come to my office or you pay for the extra costs of instructing a solicitor in Milton Keynes to attend at your house and carry out all the necessary checks on my behalf.

You mean the ID checks, or what other checks would a vendor's solicitors normally carry out that you as the buyer's solicitor would rely on?



I assume you do not have mortgage to discharge. If so how can the buyer's solicitor be sure that you will pay off the mortgage out of the sale proceeds?

Could the vendor not reasonably agree that the buyer's solicitor will do that on the vendor's behalf? There seems to be a community of interest in getting that done, and is there a problem in the vendor getting an undertaking from the buyer's solicitor to do that (obviously retaining sufficient funds from the purchase money)? If there are additional costs for the buyer, that can't be an enormous amount and the buyers could be recompensed by the vendors. In the ones I have bought/sold it hasn't been an issue.

Having said that, I stopped acting for myself a long time ago. I found a small firm of solicitors that is not too expensive and clearly is more knowledgeable than I am. The guy can also handle it in a fraction of the time it was taking me.

timmyt

Good grief, here are the answers:

You are selling and doing the conveyancing DIY. Fine, but you are a delight to a Buying lawyer as you won't know when to stop talking or what to or not to answer. All those potential contractual warranties...so be careful.

If you have a mortgage to repay, then a lawyer will need to be instructed anyway to repay it from the sale proceeds, and you'll struggle to find one to do just that. Lets hope you have no mortgage.

Exchanging contracts means you need to send your part signed contract, with Land Registry ID1 to the other lawyer before exchange, and then you agree with the Buyers lawyer to exchange (Formulae A) and he will hold the deposit, not you.

At Completion, you will need to send the deeds and TR1 to the Buyer before completion - and really before exchnage - held to your order pending sending of the completion monies....no you do not have to attend anywhere...all done by phone.....and the other lawyer may become your Agent to send you your money, but only sending it on your releasing the keys through the Agents.

No Buyers lawyer likes it really, as you save money but you bump up the Buyer's legal costs, and the Buyer gets suspicious to know what in the property have you also gone cheap over too. And a lot of conveancers out there wont know how to deal with you and it could go wrong, be delayed.

But good luck