Pulling out of purchase questions.

K_S

simon_or said:

Troy_af said:

TBG01 said:

What did your retainer, terms of business or whatever they call it say regarding abortive fees?

I'll have to have another read over the contract because it was so long ago, but I do remember it saying no sale no legal fee. However on the cost estimate invoice the "legal fee" is for around £600.. I take it this is probably the only amount I won't have to pay and I'll have to pay all other costs.

Aren't all conveyancers no sale no fee? That's always been the case with the ones I've engaged in the past. Given that more than a third of purchases in England fall through, it makes sense.

@simon_or Not all, but no-completion no-fee is increasingly common, mostly with the larger volume conveyancers and panels. It is quite popular with clients, for the reason that you've mentioned.

From what I understand, the cost of offering this is to some extent compensated for by increased lead conversion just like most promotional expenses.

Troy_af

With regards to fees. Obviously the original plan was to pay on completion, would this still be the case or will the solicitor be chasing me up for payment straight away? I can afford to pay so that's not an issue, just curious though.

Anyone have any further information on renting in this situation? It's quite worrying that I may not be able to rent for less than 6 month. Surely this is quite a common position people find themselves in if 1 in 3 house sales fall through?

babyblade41

Troy_af said:

With regards to fees. Obviously the original plan was to pay on completion, would this still be the case or will the solicitor be chasing me up for payment straight away? I can afford to pay so that's not an issue, just curious though.

Anyone have any further information on renting in this situation? It's quite worrying that I may not be able to rent for less than 6 month. Surely this is quite a common position people find themselves in if 1 in 3 house sales fall through?

You won't find a rental for under 6 months & quite difficult for less than 12 months.

My buyers who completed on their sale but had to wait for mine went into an Air BnB for a while 

t1redmonkey

Troy_af said:

Anyone have any further information on renting in this situation? It's quite worrying that I may not be able to rent for less than 6 month. Surely this is quite a common position people find themselves in if 1 in 3 house sales fall through?

You can try the website SpareRoom - there are often people on there renting out all/part of their properties for short term periods.

TBagpuss

Troy_af said:

With regards to fees. Obviously the original plan was to pay on completion, would this still be the case or will the solicitor be chasing me up for payment straight away? I can afford to pay so that's not an issue, just curious though.

Anyone have any further information on renting in this situation? It's quite worrying that I may not be able to rent for less than 6 month. Surely this is quite a common position people find themselves in if 1 in 3 house sales fall through?

It varies. If you find a new property and use the same solicitor they may be willing to wait and take both sts of fees on completion, but unless the terms of bsusiness say otherwise they would be enetitled to ask for payment straight away

user1977

Troy_af said:

With regards to fees. Obviously the original plan was to pay on completion, would this still be the case or will the solicitor be chasing me up for payment straight away? I can afford to pay so that's not an issue, just curious though.

Unless their terms of business clarify that, the only way to find out for sure will be to ask them. 

newsgroupmonkey_

simon_or said:

canaldumidi said:

simon_or said:

Troy_af said:

TBG01 said:

What did your retainer, terms of business or whatever they call it say regarding abortive fees?

I'll have to have another read over the contract because it was so long ago, but I do remember it saying no sale no legal fee. However on the cost estimate invoice the "legal fee" is for around £600.. I take it this is probably the only amount I won't have to pay and I'll have to pay all other costs.

Aren't all conveyancers no sale no fee? That's always been the case with the ones I've engaged in the past. Given that more than a third of purchases in England fall through, it makes sense.

No, it's not standard policy though some conveyancers offer this.

It might make sense for a client (assuming it's not more expesive) but not for the conveyancer since, as you say, 1/3 of all their work would go unpaid...!

Thanks, that's good to know. Must watch out to make sure that I only use the no completion no fee ones.

As for the sunk effort, that's just par for the course for the industry they're in, just like all the unpaid work done by the estate agent, mortgage broker, bank, etc when a transaction falls through before completion.

Just as a piece of advice, work out the costs first and whether you're prepared to take the risk.

As an example, we got some "no sale, no fee" quotes, but every one of them was twice as much as we're paying. They're putting their risk back onto you. We're doing buy and sell at £350k for £1824 all in, £1290 of which are legal fees.

As an example, one no-sale-no-fee conveyancer quoted £200 each way (buy and sell) for dealing with the mortgage alone on top of their fees.

I think they came out at around £3400 all in.

TBagpuss

canaldumidi said:

simon_or said:

Aren't all conveyancers no sale no fee? That's always been the case with the ones I've engaged in the past. Given that more than a third of purchases in England fall through, it makes sense.

No, it's not standard policy though some conveyancers offer this.

It might make sense for a client (assuming it's not more expesive) but not for the conveyancer since, as you say, 1/3 of all their work would go unpaid...!

Not all - and it is swings and roundabouts - if you go with a nosale no fee deal then you don't pay if your sale / purchase falls though but you will mostly pay a bit more over all to cover the lost fees forthose that don't complete.

saajan_12

simon_or said:

Troy_af said:

TBG01 said:

What did your retainer, terms of business or whatever they call it say regarding abortive fees?

I'll have to have another read over the contract because it was so long ago, but I do remember it saying no sale no legal fee. However on the cost estimate invoice the "legal fee" is for around £600.. I take it this is probably the only amount I won't have to pay and I'll have to pay all other costs.

Aren't all conveyancers no sale no fee? That's always been the case with the ones I've engaged in the past. Given that more than a third of purchases in England fall through, it makes sense.

No, certainly not standard. Increasingly solicitors are offering it because it feels 'better' if you don't have to pay as much for a transaction that doesn't go through, and people don't really pay attention to how much that increases the base fee if it does go through. 

Whether 1% or 99% of purchases fall through, how does it 'make sense'? On average the fee you pay would be the same as the solicitors' time for a failed transaction is covered by pushing up the fee for successful transactions. However conveyancers have a somewhat defined amount of due dilligence they SHOULD do (depending on what they find) and it would be sensible to pay for them to do that properly, not incentivise them to take shortcuts, ignore issues and push the transaction through to get their fee. This is different to say estate agents, who have relatively fewer tasks they HAVE to get done beyond pictures, publishing ad and holding viewings. Beyond that, they might go the extra mile to publish a great ad, progress the sale post offer etc if incentivised with 'no sale no fee'. 

Niv

Troy_af said:

With regards to fees. Obviously the original plan was to pay on completion, would this still be the case or will the solicitor be chasing me up for payment straight away? I can afford to pay so that's not an issue, just curious though.

Anyone have any further information on renting in this situation? It's quite worrying that I may not be able to rent for less than 6 month. Surely this is quite a common position people find themselves in if 1 in 3 house sales fall through?

AirBnB is worth checking out. Hosts will often offer sizable discounts on longer stays so don't just look at the headline price, you would need to look in a bit more detail.

You would of course need to put most of your furniture into storage which is also something to take into consideration.