Appointing a Solicitor for Conveyance - When?

keithmdw

We are FTBs and will probably be making an offer on a leasehold appartment next week (as long as the second viewing goes well).

If our offer is accepted, when would you suggest the best point in the process is for us to appoint a solicitor, and what sort of charge should we expect? (it's a £90k property if that makes a difference).

Once our offer is accepted, we would obviously send back our mortgage paperwork (the bank have pre-filled everything to speed things up for us as we are going away), but should we appoint the solicitor before getting final approval on the mortgage or only when the bank give the green light (we have approval in principal but obviousy not final approval luntil paperwork is returned).

Doozergirl

:wave:

Contact a solicitor this week, inform them of your intentions to make an offer - you can provide them with the relevant forms of identification for speed and your offer will be stronger if you have a solicitor ready to go.

Once your offer has been accepted, you're in a position to give solicitors details to the estate agent straight away and your solicitor can carry out the necessary searches - these can take time so it's good to get going straight away.

A recommendation would be best. We had an appaling solicitor on our first house purchase but after talking to several friends we now have one who is proactive and doesn't require chasing up (this saves SO much stress). There are production line conveyancers out there who cost less but should be avoided at all costs (I've heard).

We pay an initial £220 for searches and then £400 + vat for the rest on completion. There are cheaper out there but I think we get what we pay for. Price of property is probably irrelevant at £90k - when houses are expensive, price goes up (they're not stupid!)

HTH

mimi_money_saver

We've just had an offer accepted and so are now finding the solicitor. To be honest we could/should have done this earlier and saved some time but I guess you live and learn. I'm finding that for my area (SE England) it seems that the solicitors fees are around the £550+ VAT with all the searches on top of that. My friend however has used a solicitor from up north and paid only £350 + VAT but he has had all kinds of trouble with contracts going missing and phone calls not being returned. It's best to go on recommendation of someone you trust.