Conveyancing and fees...

RJUK

Hi folks,

My wife and I are currently selling our home and appointed a conveyancer for both the buying of the new house and sale of our current house, and pre paid up front (£180 for the buy and £180 for the sell, so a total of £360), as they require you to do.

Then upon reserving our new build house we were asked by the builder if we could use their preferred solicitor to do the conveyancing on the buying side, and they said they'd pay towards the costs (which in turn saves us money).

So I called the conveyancing company that we had already appointed, and asked to cancel the selling side of things with them (no work has been carried out yet on that side of things), and just continue with the buying side of things with them.

However, they won't refund the £180 for the buying side, nor will they allow us to use it towards the selling side of things. We were told it was no move no fee at the beginning, which they say is still the case, but now they say that they just keep the £180 pre-payment "on file" to be used if we ever come to buy another house. (Unlikely, as we plan to stay put after this move.)

Can they legally keep this money? Or are they just trying it on?

I just want to know if I have any legal grounds to demand the money back, or if that's it?

Many thanks
RJUK

Dan-Dan

Why would you use the solicitor the builders prefer, do you not want someone completely on your side not both?

marksoton

Dan-Dan wrote: »

Why would you use the solicitor the builders prefer, do you not want someone completely on your side not both?

Because it's cheeeeap innit..... :wall:

lewishardwick

£180 will be a deposit. Check T&Cs. If it says no refund, you get no refund...

eddddy

RJUK wrote: »

Can they legally keep this money? Or are they just trying it on?

I just want to know if I have any legal grounds to demand the money back, or if that's it?

It depends on the terms of the contract/agreement that you agreed to. You need to re-read them.

If you don't think you ever received any such terms, ask the conveyancer to clarify how and when they informed you of the relevant terms.


Although TBH, it sounds very credible that a "no sale/no fee" agreement won't let you just change solicitors without penalty.


And - I would also be very cautious about using the developer's recommended solicitors...

Who would they tend to support on a borderline issue?

- You - who is unlikely to ever give them any more business ever again.
- The developer - who perhaps pushes dozens of punters towards them each year

pinkteapot

I would never use the builder's recommended solicitor. I'd happily pay a bit more to use my own solicitor who is actually independent and fully looking out for my interests.

SmlSave

pinkteapot wrote: »

I would never use the builder's recommended solicitor. I'd happily pay a bit more to use my own solicitor who is actually independent and fully looking out for my interests.

Rather out of character but; developers like Barratts and David Wilson homes often (but not always) source local solicitor firms that they 'push' buyers to.

If the firm is a local one then I'd actually go with them as if they know the development the process will run smoother as they've already read the standard Contract pack over (and over and over).

As to your deposit that you've paid OP, you really need to read the T&C's to see where you stand

visidigi

You haven't pre-paid the fees, you've paid a deposit, so it depends on what the contract states.

Having seen my conveyancing bill this morning I could only dream of £360!

G_M

RJUK wrote: »

Hi folks,

.....
Then upon reserving our new build house we were asked by the builder if we could use their preferred solicitor to do the conveyancing on the buying side, and they said they'd pay towards the costs (which in turn saves us money).

.......
RJUK

Don't do this. You're paying 00s of 000s of £££ so pay a little on top for a totally independant solicitor who has no links with the seller and will protect your best interests.

RJUK

Thanks for the advice all. I had the same concerns myself regarding the solicitors, but I spoke to them and they assure me it's just to help things run smoother and quicker because they deal with the company that we're buying our home from (David Wilson) all the time and know their procedures. They're governed by a code of ethics etc. but should I still be worried?

I confess that the driving factor is money - after all, it will save us a few hundred quid that could be very useful at the moment, but if it'll cause problems down the line then I'm open to reconsidering. We've not instructed the DW solicitor yet, so I'm still at the point where I can change my mind.

To clarify, it's not the same solicitors that DW use for themselves, although I concede that they may tend to favour DW come a dispute, due to the amount of business that DW put their way. The solicitor isn't very local, but they're not a million miles away, either.

However, their paperwork does make me worry. There's WAY more of it than we got from the conveyancer that we were going to use, and it asks questions that I think are very oriented to the house builder's interests. Things like asking us how much money we can put down at exchange of contracts (who ever pays any money at exchange of contracts?!).

I'm open to any advice, so would love to hear people's thoughts for and against. I'll also call the DW solicitor later and ask some probing questions, but I guess they're only going to tell me what they think I want to hear.

Kyresa

RJUK wrote: »

However, their paperwork does make me worry. There's WAY more of it than we got from the conveyancer that we were going to use, and it asks questions that I think are very oriented to the house builder's interests. Things like asking us how much money we can put down at exchange of contracts (who ever pays any money at exchange of contracts?!).

Erm... everyone. Standard contract terms are that 10% is handed over (or held to the other side's order) unless a lesser amount is negotiated.