DIY conveyancing on purchase - vendor's solicitor being awkward

Stromboli

All comments appreciated, thank you.

G_M

I'm shocked.

Suggest to your daughter that she give her solicitor an ultimatum:

Act for her at the original agreed price, or allow her to move to another solicitor without the current one billing her.

Undertakings - what 'undertakings' are needed since a) you are buying, not selling and b) there is no mortgage?

money-laundering check - offer to get this done locally (for £20?) by another solicior

holding money in their clients account - what money? You pay 10% on Exchange (as normal) and the rest on Completion. Why is this different?

and having to see me to hand over documentation - make clear YOU will attend THEIR offices. They don't need to see you for more than 5 minutes which is how long they'd spend on the phone if you were using a solicitor.

Unfortunately only your daughter (the solicitor's client) can resolve this by being tough and insisting he deal with you at no extra costto her, or allowing her to switch (at no cost to her since it is HE who is changing the terms of his contract with her).

Best of luck, and let us know how you get on.

Thrugelmir

G_M wrote: »

I'm shocked.

Suggest to your daughter that she give her solicitor an ultimatum:

Act for her at the original agreed price, or allow her to move to another solicitor without the current one billing her.

Undertakings - what 'undertakings' are needed since a) you are buying, not selling and b) there is no mortgage?

money-laundering check - offer to get this done locally (for £20?) by another solicior

holding money in their clients account - what money? You pay 10% on Exchange (as normal) and the rest on Completion. Why is this different?

and having to see me to hand over documentation - make clear YOU will attend THEIR offices. They don't need to see you for more than 5 minutes which is how long they'd spend on the phone if you were using a solicitor.

Unfortunately only your daughter (the solicitor's client) can resolve this by being tough and insisting he deal with you at no extra costto her, or allowing her to switch (at no cost to her since it is HE who is changing the terms of his contract with her).

Best of luck, and let us know how you get on.

In my personal experience when people go stomping their feet there's often more to the tale than is being told.

Building_Surveyor

if your only reason for doing it yourself is because your daughter took the solicitor you had chosen first then i would just get another one.

doesn't matter if you THINK you are competent or not. have you done this before? do you know how much time, work will go into this?

what the solicitor charges is down to them - if your daughter doesn't like it i would suggest she takes her business elsewhere. simple. even if shes out of pocket, otherwise be prepared to abide by there terms - but this is your daughter issue, not yours. although you are related you need to try and remain as impartial as possible.

giving the solicitor an ultimatum? - unless they are struggling for work that plan is likely to backfire.

Stromboli

The fact my daughter instructed this solicitor before I could isn't the only reason I decided to go down the DIY route - I was already thinking about this. As the lawyer I'd previously been happy with wasn't now available, I decided to do it myself rather than choose from an unknown bunch (as mentioned, I've previously been let down by a different local firm).
I'm happy I've properly evaluated the complexity of the process; as I'm retired I have the time as well as the ability to do this.
My preference would be to adopt the approach suggested by G_M but, as he recognises, that relies on my daughter being tough. I understand the solicitor is claiming she is asking her to do more than he'd quoted for, so he'd probably claim she's in breach if she pulled out and present her with a bill. Without seeing the small print of her contract I don't know whether there is a clause saying the fee is based on the buyer being legally represented. I'm concerned that if I appeared to get too involved in trying to argue my daughter's case, it would look like the lawyer's supposed fears about conflict of interest were coming to fruition.
Even if she went elsewhere, by the time she'd found a lawyer/conveyancer who was less precious (if she managed to do so), we'd both have lost time.
Much as I'd like to set feelings aside, I suspect that I could end up feeling guilty if this drags on because of a decision that I took. It's unlikely that the person selling my daughter's next house would pull out owing to delay, but I have to recognise that's a possibility.
I'm reminding myself that I didn't set out to take on the legal world's virtual stronghold on conveyancing and if I now slip into doing that on principle, I'll be creating a headache for other parties but not for the lawyer.
Also, there's potential for the additional costs to my daughter to match or exceed what I would have paid if I'd used a lawyer/conveyancer. If I was buying from a stranger I might be able to shrug my shoulders about that, but it's not so easy with family.
I'll need to check whether my daughter has the stomach for a scrap and decide where to go from here.
Once again, thank you for all the suggestions and reality checks.

terryw

As this is a cash transaction with no lender involved is there any reason why your daughter is bothering with a solicitor anyway?

Stromboli

Thanks TerryW. My daughter is buying another house with a mortgage, so the lender requires her to be legally represented for that purchase. She could have dealt with her sale/ our purchase separately, but I think she felt more comfortable paying somebody to handle it all. With hindsight, once we knew that she wanted to move and that we would buy her house, perhaps we ought to have dealt with her sale and our purchase on a DIY basis. We could still try to do it separately now, but don't want to lose time if we can help it.

BristolBob

Stromboli wrote: »

The solicitor has no idea whether I am competent, but has assumed I am not and demanded at least £300, plus agreement to pay more if there is more extra work than he has anticipated.

You may be educationally competent but you are not professionally competent. If the solicitor is dealing with another solicitor they know the methods of redress available are effective if things go wrong. If you mess up things may fall on their own head if they have not taken the time to be particularly thorough.

advice_please_2

What's the reason for wanting to DIY conveyance?
If you're purchasing only there are some online places which do it cheap enough, but if you're thinking of saving £500 or whatever it is fair enough

Stromboli

Part of motivation for DIY is to save money but, as mentioned, I have the time and, I believe, the ability to do it properly. In most cases when I have used law firms, they have proved to be slow and sometimes difficult to get hold of. In one case the conveyancer messed up a very basic item on completion and, when this came to light, he had moved on and the firm was of no help in sorting out the problem. In the end I did it myself. In theory it's great having professional expertise at hand and supposed redress if they get it wrong. In practice it's not always like that that. I know I'd do it properly and address all issues promptly. I know many conveyancers do a good job, but you don't know how good yours will be until the job has been done.