When do you HAVE to appoint a solicitor?

nicegirl

I thought there had been a thread on this recently but can't find it..

We have had an offer accepted on a house last week. Mortgage application seems to be going ok so far and we have identified a solicitor that we want to use (had a quote from them for the work). The solicitor requires a part payment of some of the fees upfront once they officially opened a file for us.

However, my partner is insistent that we wait until the survey comes back before we properly engage the solicitor (and start paying for things). It's an old property and was on the market quite a while so he wants to see what comes back before we spend any more money. On the other side we've got the estate agent insisting that we need to give him the solicitors details.

Is it ok to say at this stage, 'we intend to use These Solicitors but please don't contact them as we won't be engaging them until after the survey'?

We are not in any rush and neither are our buyers, so we're not really concerned with it holding things up.

Thank you!

Rollinghills

If your vendor is OK with it then you can wait until survey is completed. Our vendor insisted we appoint a solicitor and book mortgage survey before taking the property off the market.

If it is an old property and you have concerns about its condition the mortgage survey is not sufficient, you need a building survey. Yes it is an extra money but without it you do not know what you are buying. With an old property I would do a building survey before applying for the mortgage if you have to pay the mortgage valuation fee yourselves.

pinkteapot

It's all a negotiation. The EA will naturally push you - they want the chain to go through as fast as possible, and waiting a couple of weeks to instruct the solicitor will delay things by a couple of weeks (your solicitor will request local searches from the council, and these have a waiting period to then get them back).

However, you can stand firm and tell them you'll instruct as soon as the survey is back.

Some vendors will keep a property on the market until a solicitor has been instructed. You can negotiate and say you want it off the market.

There are no rules. If you wanted months to instruct a solicitor your vendor would naturally be upset. But saying you want to wait until after a survey isn't completely unreasonable in these circumstances.

You can tell the EA that you're organised, and you'll work with your solicitor to get to exchange ASAP once they're instructed. Sound on the ball and it'll help - this is the sort of thing EAs want to hear.

You said that you and your buyers are in no rush, but what about the seller of the house you're buying?

nicegirl

That's kind of the attitude we want to take pinkteapot, thanks.

I meant to say sellers, sorry! We are currently renting, having sold our property last summer.

The property is not really that old Rollinghills, we've just been used to new builds.:) It's in great condition so we're happy to just have the homebuyers report.

But thank you.

Kirstie93_2

Hi

This is very similar to my boyfriend and I at the moment.

We got an AIP from Halifax at first and then started booking viewings. The first house we viewed we loved and made an offer, which was accepted.

The next thing is the EA wanted proof of deposit and the details of the solicitors we were using (they wouldn't take the property off the market without this). They wanted this the morning the offer was accepted.

I rang the Halifax that day and booked in to speak to a mortgage adviser to start the application.

We sent an email to the EA with details of the solicitors but said that we were waiting for a couple of quotes from others just in case, they replied that if that was the case they would have to put the property back on the market. We decided to stick with the original solicitors as I work there and realised it would be a lot easier in regards to paper work and speaking with the solicitor.

We received a terms of business from our solicitor, but left this until we had spoken to the MA about the application and booking the valuation as the solicitor wanted £250 straight away for the searches) which obv we didnt want to pay out until the valuation was back.

It took from 4th March to 23rd March for the valuer to get to the property, but we received the report 25th March in the post and I took the terms of business to the solicitor the next day.

The sellers didnt seem to have a problem with any of this. I spoke to the solicitor (benefit of working at the same firm) when I handed her the terms of business and cheque and the sellers solicitors had already sent the draft contract and all other paper work through so hopefully things should progress without problems!

Sorry about the long post but it sounds like a very similar situation and good luck!

G_M

When do you HAVE to appoint a solicitor?

You don't. If you choose to do the conveyancing yourself then you don't have to appoint (instruct) a solicitor at all.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Which-Guide-Conveyancing-Consumer-Guides/dp/085202813X

AdrianC

If you're happy with a homebuyer's report, then you can't be that concerned about the results of the survey - so waiting for them is only adding delay. With that in mind, I'd say - no, you aren't being reasonable.

If it was a full structural, that's another question entirely.

stator

Give the solicitors details to the Estate Agent, then they will know you are serious and not just messing about. They will send the memorandum of sale. Inform the solicitors that you will be using them, but not to do anything yet and don't pay the fees yet.

firebird082

Can't you just instruct the solicitors, but tell them not to start doing anything until you tell them? Yes, you pay the searches money upfront, but if they haven't done the searches, then that just sits there, ready for use on another house if this one falls through. That's what we did...

jbainbridge

firebird082 wrote: »

Can't you just instruct the solicitors, but tell them not to start doing anything until you tell them? Yes, you pay the searches money upfront, but if they haven't done the searches, then that just sits there, ready for use on another house if this one falls through. That's what we did...

Exactly.

Just get on with it.

Instruct the solicitor and lodge your money to pay for your searches. By all means hold off on the searches until your survey is back. In the meanwhile there will be paperwork you can do.

Doing this won't cost you money - but shows that you are willing.