DIY Conveyancing for a Purchase at Auction

Degenerate

observations_from_a_hill wrote: »

What's the date of the OCE's?

4th March 2011. Is that too old?

observations_from_a_hill

Do a Land Registry search now - it may not protect you up to the date of the auction but it will at least up-date you to now.

How much are you thinking of investing?

Sorry I'm slow to respond, only just got the hang of the laptop!

G_M

Degenerate wrote: »

4th March 2011. Is that too old?

You need to ask?

:rotfl::rotfl:

No, seriously, you'll be fine. It's only a year ago. Nothing will have changed in that time-period...........

AlexSnow

I do hope that the seller isn't in any sort of financial trouble which could result in somebody slapping an entry on there between completion (when you pays the money!) and when you finally get the property registered into your name.

If you don't know how to stop that happening - don't DIY it!

Degenerate

observations_from_a_hill wrote: »

Do a Land Registry search now - it may not protect you up to the date of the auction but it will at least up-date you to now.

Thanks for the tip - I'll do it online in the morning.

Can I take it that the LR search brings up if any changes have occured, then if they have I need to order new Office Copy Entries of the Register of Title and Title Plans?

How much are you thinking of investing?

Around £90K.

G_M wrote: »

You need to ask?

:rotfl::rotfl:

No, seriously, you'll be fine. It's only a year ago. Nothing will have changed in that time-period...........

I take your point about the age, but I'll eat my hat if anything has changed.

There's other documentation relating to the old dear being officially certified doolaley under the Mental Capacity Act. Along with the state of the house, It paints a pretty clear picture of an elderly Spinster who was way past the point of looking after herself properly, had no relatives to care for her, but was resistent to leaving her home. Social Services eventually had to intervene to get the deputy appointed and put her into nursing care. The year's delay is almost cetainly due to the legal process - it's (righfully) not easy to get legal power over someone's affairs against their will.

sonastin

Degenerate wrote: »

...given the following, it could be a waste of money:

- I'm buying not selling (no liability to a purchasor)...

Personally, I'd say that it is more of a risk going DIY when you are buying than when you are selling.

Selling you can just hand over whatever you have and say "figure it out for yourself". Caveat emptor applies so as long as you aren't fraudently misrepresenting the property it is pretty darn hard to make any liability stick. Once the money is in your bank it is pretty much over and done with.

When buying, the cash leaves your account at the start. If it then turns out that you've bought yourself a lemon, or worse still you've given the money away and not actually got anything to show for it because you made a mistake somewhere along the line then you are in a much worse position.

You have to balance the money involved and the probabilty of things going wrong - £300 to a solicitor for something unlikely versus £however-much-you're-spending versus the consequences if the unlikely thing did go wrong. The cheaper the property and the more confident you are in understanding what could go wrong, the stronger the argument for DIY.

Degenerate

AlexSnow wrote: »

I do hope that the seller isn't in any sort of financial trouble which could result in somebody slapping an entry on there between completion (when you pays the money!) and when you finally get the property registered into your name.

If you don't know how to stop that happening - don't DIY it!

Again this is one of those risks that applies in most cases but seems moot in this instance. A court-appointed deputy is managing this woman's affairs. As a legal professional, they have no interest in trying to pull a fast one on her behalf, just to realise the value of her assets.

GDB2222

Years ago, I did a lot of my own conveyancing, using a book called the Conveyancing Fraud, which contained a long section which was effectively a cook-book approach to conveyancing. Nothing went wrong.

In the circumstances you outline, I entirely agree with you that nothing is likely to go wrong in this case either. Nevertheless, the advice you have received to buy a book for £8 from Amazon seems absolutely spot on to me. You need to follow the steps in the conveyancing process yourself, and do it rapidly before the auction. Some of this is obviously worthwhile, like getting up to date office copy entries, so that you are protected against new charges being registered against the property. However, you might want to dispense with some of the other stuff. Personally, I think that a lot of the local searches are pointless. What you really want to know is whether your next door neighbour to be has permission for a massive development, and the standard local searches do not tell you that.

Is the £300 fee charged by the conveyancer money for old rope? I can only say that I have a £500 minimum fee that I charge for my line of work, and the fee quoted only covers a couple of hours of professional time. You are not being taken advantage of, but obviously if you can do the work yourself and your time permits ....

Richard_Webster

A LR search tells you if anything adverse has been registered since the date of the issue of the official copies you have been supplied with.

Usually the contract will provide that if something adverse does show up you can refuse to complete unless it is got rid off.

Also a LR search gives you "priority" for about 6 weeks. This means that once the search is done if you submit your application for registration of the transfer to you within that time, nobody else can register any further adverse entries.

Also you will have to complete an AP1 application and deal with the LR's ID requirements on an ID1 form, which might mean travelling to the Land Registry to produce your ID.

poppysarah

Degenerate wrote: »

- I'm buying not selling (no liability to a purchasor)

Apart from the most important one of all.
You.