Using a different solicitor for buying and selling

kevinlad

I'm a bit fed up with the solicitor I am currently dealing with for the sales of my house but I couldn't get out of it as the contract was signed and they have done some work (or so I think). Now I found a place to buy and wonder should I use a different solicitor for the purchase side of thing? Would it be more complicated or costy? Any advice appreciated!

chesneyoctopus

It is not a good idea to use two solicitors for a sale and purchase, where you wish to synchronise both exchange of contracts and completion. It is a lot simpler for the one solicitor to deal with both.

On the completion day, your sale solicitor will have to transfer your net proceeds of sale of your old property to your purchasing solicitor, which will incur additional costs. As there is also an additional bank transfer in the chain, it will take longer for you to complete your purchase, and so collect the keys on your new house.

chesneyoctopus

Forgot to ask - why are you fed up with your present solicitor?

kevinlad

I'm fed up because they are slow and non-responsive. I have been writing numerous emails and making phone calls chasing but either no reply or only their secretaries taking a message. It has been more than a month since the offer accepted and now still no sign of any estimated date for exchange of contract.

superbabe612

kevinlad wrote: »

I'm fed up because they are slow and non-responsive. I have been writing numerous emails and making phone calls chasing but either no reply or only their secretaries taking a message. It has been more than a month since the offer accepted and now still no sign of any estimated date for exchange of contract.

We had a similar problem with our original solicitor. Fortunately we were living in rented accommodation so we didn't need to complete both our sale and purchase on the same day. The sale went through (no thanks to the solcitor!) and the purchase almost fell through on the day we were due to exchange, so I changed solicitors for the purchase and 4 weeks later we completed and we're moving in tomorrow! :j

It may be easier/quicker/more convenient to use the same solicitor for sale and purchase but if they're already unreliable/unresponsive, I wouldn't expect them to be any different over the purchase, and I couldn't trust them to do a good job.