DIY conveyancing

shazzerp

NEED some help please. A family friend who is a rigistered trainee solocitor has been doing all conveyancing work for our house with complete cooperation from the buyers solicitor. We are coming to the end of the process but have realised the she is not allowed to do the part where the money is held and transfers to the bank to pay off the mortgage. The bank will be doing the discharge of mortgage with the land registary it is just the bit where as a solicitor you promise to pay the money to the bank. Who do we get to do this and will they do just this bit ?

G_M

Your 'trainee solicitor' really should have known about this!

I'm not a solicitor but have DIYed several properties for myself, but DIY conveyancing is only possible/advisable in certain circumstances.

With selling, where there is a mortgage to pay off, DIY conveyancing is a no-no!

Only a solicitor can give the buyer a "solicitor's undertaking" that they will use the sale money to pay off the mortgage. Any undertaking or promise to do this made by a non-solcitor is meaningless. There is nothing to stop a DIY seller from promising to do this, but then actually disappear to South America with all the sale money, leaving the buyer with a mortgaged property!

As a buyer, facing this potential situation, the solution is to insist that the mortgage is paid off by the seller before contracts are Exchanged, and the Charge removed from the Title.. That way the buyer knows he's buying a Charge-free property.

The question for the seller is where to find the money to do this prior to the sale........


I suppose it is possible that another solicitor might agree to receive the sale funds, and might then give the buyer the required undertaking, but I've never heard of this happening. I also strongly suspect that before agreeing to this, the solicitor in question would

* want to check the contract details
* need to correspond with the buyer/buyer's solicitor
* need to satisfy the buyer of their role
etc

The fees for this would probobly end up being not far off the fees for full conveyancing, thus defeating the purpose of the excercise!

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

I can't believe this is for real. My other half is a solicitor. And was once a trainee. There is no way, as a trainee, she would have undertaken someone's conveyancing! There are so many reasons why, no PI insurance, nearly all employers won't allow moonlighting, no bank will allow you to touch funds etc. Should your family friend really be practicing law?!

Anyway, you need to contact a decent QUALIFIED solicitor sharpish, and ask them to take over. They will probably charge handsomely but such is life.

SailorSam

G_M wrote: »

Your 'trainee solicitor' really should have known about this!

With selling, where there is a mortgage to pay off, DIY conveyancing is a no-no!

I've done my own conveyancing on both a sale and purchase, it was over 30yrs ago now so i can't remember the details exactly. It was a lot harder then than i imagine it would be today. Today we have the Internet, when i did it i had to read all the books the library had on the subject.
G-M, although i did the conveyance while i still a mortgage, the Abbey National insisted i still paid their Solicitor, he was suppose to have checked i hadn't made any mistakes, but the main reason i needed him was to be there handing over the money.
I remember a couple of the books i read at the time saying, selling was much easier than buying. So long as you don't move out until you get your money, even if a mistake has been made that's the buyers worry. When you're buying if a mistake is made you could be left without a home.

shazzerp

was the abby national your bank or the bank of the buyers that requested to check things over ?

davidmcn

Shop around and I expect you should be able to get a reasonable fee quote for dealing solely with the completion aspects.

csgohan4

mates rates almost solicitor and now it may have backfired.


You get what you pay for. It would not have been prudent to have done this for a purchase costing many thousands of pounds


Good luck in trying to find a solicitor to take over, it may delay things for a few more months as they may want to start from scratch to cover themselves. They cannot trust anyone but their own work

SailorSam

shazzerp wrote: »

was the abby national your bank or the bank of the buyers that requested to check things over ?

The Abbey is my bank and where i had my mortgage.

davidmcn

csgohan4 wrote: »

it may delay things for a few more months as they may want to start from scratch to cover themselves. They cannot trust anyone but their own work

No need if all they're being instructed to do is handle the completion formalities. Though they'll need to cover the usual admin involved in anti-money-laundering regulations etc.

AdrianC

shazzerp wrote: »

Who do we get to do this and will they do just this bit ?

A solicitor. And, yes, but they will charge you.

Don't forget - if there's a mortgage involved, the conveyancing isn't just being done FOR the client, it's being done FOR the lender, too.

shazzerp

I think i may have found an answer. My mortgage company have given me an account number in the bank where they can accept the money and they will contact land registry and dicharge the mortgae. I will have to wait till monday to ask the solicitor of the buyer to see if she is happy with that. I can't see there will be a problem unless anyone else on here has had the experience on here of that being refused?.
At the end of the day the person that has been doing my side as a trainee solicitor has done an amazing job the solicitor of the other side has said so both quality and time scale wise we are all ready contracts sent out searches done and they are just starting searches. The reason i asked our family member to do it wasn't just to save money she is a very clever person and if this goes wel she will have the confidence to go and do the relevent courses become a conveyancer.