Do I need solicitor to sell my half of house to my sister?

Tomcatgalaxy

Hi all,
My mum died last year and left myself and my sister her house. It is worth £138k, and I have agreed to sell my half to my sister and she intends to rent it out. Probate sorted..... Do I need a solicitor to essentially transfer my 50% of the equity for the agreed sum? Her solicitor is saying yes, a few forums I have seen say no. I have already represented myself through court regarding family issues, so have some experience with legal paperwork etc...... Thanks

TBagpuss

You don't have to have a solicitor but will need to compete an ID1 form, which (unless you can get to a Land registry Office) needs to be signed by a solicitor - most solicitors will make a charge for this or may not be prepared to do it for people who are not their own clients.

Your sister's solicitor is acting for her, not you, so cannot advise you, and must recommend to you that your get your own, independent advice.

I assume that you have no mortgage, and that the price your sister is paying represents a true market value for the property?

Is your sister actually using a solicitor, or is it a conveyancer?

Tomcatgalaxy

No, I have no mortgage, and I've accepted just less than half of the market value to keep the peace and 'be a good brother'....


She is using a solicitor off the 'net, so I've asked her to get the solicitor to email me what they want, as they have already told her they will only deal with other solicitors! Great start!

Tomcatgalaxy

Aha! Possibly just using a conveyance as apparently she went on e-conveyancy.com?

TBagpuss

May well be. In my experience they (cheap conveyancers) often struggle with something which is even a little out of the ordinary.
You could always ask your sister to over the cost of you seeing a solicitor if*her* conveyancer is demanding it (especially if she is getting the property a bit cheap!)

G_M

No solicitor required for either of you.

Tomcatgalaxy

Its that 'keep the peace' problem..... apparently her 'solicitor/conveyancer' has suggested they would have to charge my sister more if they dealt direct with me! Is that normal? God knows what she's paying, but if she's aiming to do it on the cheap, I'm certainly happy that I'm doing it for myself!

da_rule

It's not normal for a solicitor to say this. At the end of the day who's are they to know that you are not actually a solicitor yourself (obviously don't lie and say you are). They may say that if the other party doesn't have a solicitor and things take longer because of this then this would be valid. But they should not charge extra just because they're dealing with someone who isn't represented.

Land_Registry

For information purposes take a look at our online guidance re What to do when a property owner dies as well as how to Transfer ownership

As others have posted transferring ownership may be quite straightforward although a degree of form-filling is of course required.

If your sister is using a conveyancer then the issues of identity, money transfer etc come into play naturally.

G_M

Tomcatgalaxy wrote: »

Its that 'keep the peace' problem..... apparently her 'solicitor/conveyancer' has suggested they would have to charge my sister more if they dealt direct with me! Is that normal? God knows what she's paying, but if she's aiming to do it on the cheap, I'm certainly happy that I'm doing it for myself!

Sistr should sack conveyancer - and refuse to pay any fees on grounds it is the conveyancer who is raisig the problem.

Either get another conveyancer - making clear the circumstances when requesting quote before instructing - or both DIY as the Land rep suggests.

getmore4less

What did the executor do - has the house been transfered to your names, if this was the plan it would have been easier to just have it done as part of winding up the estate.