How do I get a solicitor for such a simple task? (Supervising Mortgage deed signing)

leftism

We're signing the deed for a Joint Borrower Sole Proprietor mortgage with Skipton.

My In-laws are the Joint borrowers (basically they are just guarantors, not financially invested or anything). 

But Skipton require them to have had legal advice before signing the deed. It just means a solicitor needs to make sure they understand what they are signing. It should be a tiny job, because they know exactly what they are signing. 

But I don't know what type of solicitor to go to for this. Does anyone know if there is an online service? We just need it done as quickly as possible. 

As always, thanks forumites!

HobgoblinBT

Contact any local solicitor independent from the one that you are using.  Expect to pay in the region of £350 upwards.  In order to be considered independent, the solicitors should be paid by their clients, ie your in-laws.  

tacpot12

Although your in-laws think they know what they are signing, the solicitor is duty-bound to ensure that they understand all the implications of what it is they are signing - an experienced solicitor will have seen all or most of the different ways that such arrangements can go wrong, and will make sure that your in-laws have considered every possibility. It might feel like the solicitor is not doing much, but they are giving professional advice and have to have indemnity insurance in place so the cost might be c£350, but it could be money well spent. 

MovingForwards

Any conveyancer / solicitor who deals with conveyancing can do it.
Get them to contact a few local firms for quotes and to find out how it would be done in this current climate.

davidmcn

HobgoblinBT said:

In order to be considered independent, the solicitors should be paid by their clients, ie your in-laws.  

The fact the other party reimburses the costs (which is pretty commonplace) isn't deemed to affect the independence of the solicitor's advice.

leftism

Thanks guys! Managed to find one and they can do it quickly for 150, so all good!

[Deleted User]

MovingForwards said:

Any conveyancer / solicitor who deals with conveyancing can do it.
Get them to contact a few local firms for quotes and to find out how it would be done in this current climate.

A lot of firms dont do it actually.  None of the 9 firms in my town offer it.   They say they dont make enough money out of it to justify the risk they take on.   Most of the online conveyancing firms wont offer it either as they dont usally have many solicitors at hand and are generally staffed by conveyancers. 

I refer my clients to ILAConnect as they do it over zoom for £150+vat.  Otherwise the only one within 25 miles of me charges £800 to do it. 

Not as simple as I first thought when i first submitted a JBSP case

SDLT_Geek

Not as simple as I first thought when i first submitted a JBSP case

A perceived risk with the Joint Borrower Sole Proprietor cases concerns SDLT.  If the non-owning party is putting in capital, then this structure often does not work well.  This is an issue where the SDLT treatment is more favourable if only the other party is treated as the "purchaser" for SDLT purposes.  If the "non-owning" party is making a genuine gift of the money then that is fine, but often they expect their contribution to be reflected in the underlying ownership.  That can mean the advice the non-owning party needs can be more involved than one might expect.