What's the catch with no-move no-fee solicitors?

HarveyNichols99

I went on ReallyMoving to get some quotes for a house purchase solicitor, and all are offering no-move no-fee basis.

What're your experiences with this? Is it really as good as it seems on the tin, that if for any reason I or the vendor pulls out the solicitors won't demand a fee? 

GoogleMeNow

It will be just the solicitor's own fees which they won't charge you for.  Any other expenses, such as searches and surveys are third party disbursements and, once the money has been spent, it is not refundable. 

Also, do check the T&Cs to make sure that fees are not charged if you pull out.  It is more often the case that if another party pulls out, you wouldn't be charged as it wasn't your doing.

user1977

The downside is presumably that their fees for successful completions are inflated to cover the costs of all the abortive transactions.

Mahsroh

user1977 said:

The downside is presumably that their fees for successful completions are inflated to cover the costs of all the abortive transactions.

Yep, that was certainly my experience when I was shopping around for quotes. All the conveyancers that offered a "no move, no fee" type service we're all that bit more expensive in the first place. You're paying extra for them to take the risk on essentially. 

I had one aborted sale that I was charged for at £120 for so overall they were still marginally cheaper than the ones offering no move no fee. 

Bendy_House

If you are uncertain as to what's covered by this offer, email any such conveyancer you might use, and ask them. Under which circumstances will they not charge?

I suspect there's a good chance that you simply pulling out of the sale for no good reason (and 'found a better house'/'got cold feet'/'changed my mind' etc are probably not 'good' reasons) will not be covered. But the vendor pulling out of the sale, or the discovery of major structural issues, for example, almost certainly are. 

Why do they offer this service? Because it's a very appealing thing to have, especially in a crazy market where gazumping is presumably rife. Why do the other solicitors also offer it? To be competitive.

RS2OOO

My Conveyancer makes no mention of no-move no-fee on their website, but it was itemised on their quote with a zero charge.

Their quote was the 2nd highest of 5 quotes.

There are no written terms and conditions on the subject and when queried I was told pretty much the same as others suggest, i.e chargeable if I personally abort but not when others do. Disbursements excluded.

I found myself in a situation where a buyer (assumed to be on similar conveyancing terms) stopped responding to all communications but wouldn't actually pull out and I suspected due to their conveyancing terms they wanted me to cancel the sale to them so they'd not be liable for costs (whereas in cancelling I'd make myself liable with my conveyancer). 

So that's a potential outcome to watch out for.

steampowered

I don't think it is a good idea to go with the cheapest conveyancer.

Choosing a conveyancer is not like shopping for the cheapest mobile phone bill. You want someone who is going to look for your interests; be able to answer questions when you need to contact them; and be able to deal with the matter efficiently.

You only need to take a quick look around these forums to see the absolute nightmare some people experience when using cheap rubbish conveyancing factories like PPL.

Also consider going to conveyancers direct for quotes. Did you know that reallymoving charge a fee to the conveyancers (about £250+VAT is the going rate) when you go through their platform? Who do you think ends up paying for that?

googler

Estate Agents typically work on a no-sale no-fee basis, so why are you looking for a 'catch' when solicitors do the same?

user1977

googler said:

Estate Agents typically work on a no-sale no-fee basis, so why are you looking for a 'catch' when solicitors do the same?

Presumably because the whole selling point of estate agents is that they will successfully find somebody to flog your property to, whereas solicitors are (largely) not in control of whether a particular transaction proceeds to completion.

Or indeed, the transaction might not be completing because you've had the benefit of your solicitor's professional advice that you should not proceed with it! Not necessarily a good thing for your solicitor to be incentivised to complete...

canaldumidi

As with any contract, you have to read the conditions and understand them. As others have said, their fee for completing may be higher, to make up for losing money on a % of their clients, and there may be charges if you withdraw.

Having said that, I had an aborted purchase some time ago and halfway through the conveyancing the seller got a higher offer. We had a brief bidding war and then I pulled out. Although it was me that pulled out, the solicitor only charged me for disbursements.

breaking_free

I used a no-sale no-fee solicitor for a purchase which I aborted (I found out 8 or so weeks in that the loft had spray foam insulation). I immediately told my solicitor not to do any more work and told him the reason. I was only charged for the searches.