Cover for solicitor fees?

daisyrose

Is it possible to insure the costs in case of a failed house purchase/sell? We have a good solicitor but our last purchase failed and we don't want to risk it again. I would appreciate some recommendations please.

Thank you !

Essex22011

We have learnt not to proceed with the searches until everything else is in place- mortgage, survey, vendors new home!
We done this with our last property but unfortunately the vendors 'changed' their mind about selling before exchange so the searches had already taken place. The solicitor only charged us for our searches so we only lost out on £140. I would avoid going to a solicitor where you have to pay fees upfront! I think it also helped that we made the solicitor aware we were using them for the next purchase. Hope this helps

eddddy

Hi daisyrose

There are quite a few solicitors who offer 'no sale, no fee' or 'no purchase, no fee' deals.

In reality, their fees are probably slightly higher for sales/purchases that complete, to compensate them for the work they do on failed sales/purchases. So it's your choice...

I've also come across solicitors who optionally charge a fee (e.g. £100) for a 'no completion, no fee' deal. So if the sale doesn't go through, you end up just paying them £100. If it does go through, you pay their standard fee plus £100.

You would need to compare prices, to see which is the best deal.

But the examples above only cover solicitors fees - if you're purchasing, you could still end up losing search fees, survey fees, mortgage application fees etc.

Richard_Webster

Hi daisyrose

There are quite a few solicitors who offer 'no sale, no fee' or 'no purchase, no fee' deals.

In reality, their fees are probably slightly higher for sales/purchases that complete, to compensate them for the work they do on failed sales/purchases. So it's your choice...

I've also come across solicitors who optionally charge a fee (e.g. £100) for a 'no completion, no fee' deal. So if the sale doesn't go through, you end up just paying them £100. If it does go through, you pay their standard fee plus £100.

You would need to compare prices, to see which is the best deal.

But the examples above only cover solicitors fees - if you're purchasing, you could still end up losing search fees, survey fees, mortgage application fees etc.

Yes, that's right.

I think you can get insurance to cover search fees etc.

With any scheme depending on the wording you can find sometimes that there may be conditions attached like they will only pay out if it is not your fault. So if the other side doesn't pull out but just delays and messes around for a long time sometimes people pull out and try to claim - it is possible with some of these schemes you would not then be covered because you decided to "pull out".

daisyrose

Thank you all for your comments. We have a very nice solicitor and want to stay with him so maybe we should speak to him about our concerns.

We have buyers who have been very good but want to move quickly so I am not sure how they will take it if we wait until everything else is in place but that is how I would like to proceed.I would like to have the survey done on the house that we want before we do anything else. Is that possible do you think? I have a head ache already and it's only day one!