DIY Conveyancing and selling

ACG

Thanks for the reply.

Appreciate it saves money and i understand that can be a big thing for anyone when were talking about hundreds of pounds.

As someone that deals with solicitors i agree some can be useless, infact there are some i will refuse to deal with due to them being incompetent.

As a buyer or seller i wouldnt want the extra hassle of stressing whether they are up to the job or not, i think i would rather give them an extra £500 say to go with a solicitor.

Everyone has their own opinions though and if everyone thought like me, there wouldnt be a market for it so i know not everyone follows my train of thought.

Bloblik

Why did I consider it ?? the first and only time I bought a property I used a solicitor ... but I must admit I was let down by him, so as has been said before ... if a realistic charge was made and the Solicitor did what he promised then people wouldn't need to consider DIY conveyancing.
I paid my solicitor a £10k non returnable deposit (requested by the seller) and signed a lock-in agreement, meaning I had to exchange contracts within 7 days or lose my deposit and the property, the solicitor over ran, fortunately the seller gave him some extra time, but after 2 weeks things had still not progressed to anywhere near exchange ... despite my daily chasing and calls and the seller threatening to pull the plug .. so I stormed into his office and demanded it be done that day, I had run round and collected the searches ensuring they were ready, funds and mortgage also were ready to go ... at reception he appeared flustered and he saw I meant business, he disappeared to his office - and 40 minutes later he reappeared ready to see me, we went into his office - checked through the deeds to make sure no covenants existed, checked the searches - arranged for funds to be transferred and it was job done - all in about 20 minutes, so in less than an hour of his time it was done (and I think the 40 minutes waiting was him finishing off another job) ... and he charged me £750 for that !
Personally I think its all smoke and mirrors, as has been said - its just forms and reading, if you can organise and are literate - and are fore armed by researching and educating oneself - I believe it can be done ... providing it doesn't involve:

* mortage
* Leasehold
* Unregistered property
* Title contains complex covenants

I personally think when it comes to a straight forward administrative procedure, step forward, be forearmed and be confident, if a solicitor pours scorn, make sure you know your stuff and let him know, then watch him crumble !

ACG

Thanks for the response.

I dont think it removes any doubts i have, but i suppose your not interested in the slightest about that. Personally i think good for you, if more people did it, maybe the cost would come down and people like myself would open up to the idea a little more.

hoohoo

ACG wrote: »

I have nothing of any use to enter into this thread, this post is more because im a bit of a nosey git, but why are you doing this yourself?

Im not having a go or anything like that, and i dont mind having a go at certain things myself but this is something that is quite technical and if i was a buyer it would put me off purchasing your property or selling to you as the whole process can be stressful enough as it is.

I recently sold my house doing the conveyancing myself. It required me filling in a few forms (which I would have had to have filled in anyway) and writing five letters, mostly one paragraph replies to the buyer's solicitor.

I didn't have to visit the other solicitor to exchange contracts nor did he visit me.

It was all very easy and painless and I saved a ton of money; those five letters would have probably cost me £500-£700.

As for being stressful for my buyer, they didn't care two hoots and seeing as everything was turned around the same day I received it, the only hold up was at their end.

For a straightforward sale, if you fill in forms and write letters for your job anyway this will be no big deal. Otherwise, it's probably not for you.

Bloblik

hoohoo - was your property mortgage free and freehold then ?

hoohoo

Bloblik wrote: »

hoohoo - was your property mortgage free and freehold then ?

Yes to both. I would now be confident enough to do a conveyance with a mortgage too, but obviously that is slightly more complicated.

Bloblik

Interesting, like so many things it comes down to experience ... I have none.

As I have a mortgage, but no experience - what route would you recommend ?

G_M

hoohoo wrote: »

Yes to both. I would now be confident enough to do a conveyance with a mortgage too, but obviously that is slightly more complicated.

Bear in mind that with a mortgage:

* if buying, the mortgage lender will appoint a solicitor (at your cost) to act for them in setting up the mortgage. The extra cost involved in asking that same solicitor to act for you too is so minimal that it is not worth DIY. A lot of the work is duplicated.

* if selling, se my posts above about paying off the mortgage first, and 'solicitors undertakings'.

Bloblik

Great replies, all very revealing.
Point taken about the 'undertakings' - where selling, so that makes DIY Conveyancing a bit of a no-no if a mortgage is concerned, I guess unless you were a person of notable reputation on a paar with a solicitor.

How do solicitors justify charging what they do for 'administrating' a purchase or sale of a property.

Yorkie1

Bloblik wrote: »

Great replies, all very revealing.
Point taken about the 'undertakings' - where selling, so that makes DIY Conveyancing a bit of a no-no if a mortgage is concerned, I guess unless you were a person of notable reputation on a paar with a solicitor.

No, you have to be a solicitor, legal executive or a licensed conveyancer. No other 'notable reputation' would do. This is because of professional regulatory requirements and those of the lenders. It's not about whether they like a person's haircut or type of job.

How do solicitors justify charging what they do for 'administrating' a purchase or sale of a property.

How much do you think they should charge for protecting an individual's interests against possible litigation in the £000Ks?

Advising on the implication of legal searches, conditions on what you can and cannot do with the land, rights of way that you may not have known about, consequences of answering a question in one way rather than another, etc? Professional indemnity insurance to cover the £000Ks of money going through their books on each transaction? Overheads? Checking your paperwork before it goes to the other side? Checking the other side has done its work properly? Dealing with the lender's paperwork? Registering your title afterwards. Paying the stamp duty.

On a £200K purchase my legal bill was less than £1K.

The EA fee for the seller, at a low 1%, would have been £2K; at 1.5% it would have been £3K.

The EA's work, by comparison, is far less risky and involved - particularly if they get the seller to do all the viewings.