DIY Conveyancing - Seller's solicitor won't accept my money

HopefulLondoner · 26 January 2017 at 2:11PM

I'm buying property, and I am lucky enough not to need a mortgage.
My offer has been accepted and I want to do my own conveyancing.
The seller's solicitor has informed me that they will not accept money from me, and will only accept money from a solicitor's account.

How can it be fair for them to add to my costs like this?

GDB2222 · 26 January 2017 at 2:19PM

Yes

Has he explained why? Most likely because of money laundering issues. So, you pay the money to your own solicitor and pay them to perform the ML checks on you. The vendor's solicitor does not have any additional cost for that aspect.

Otherwise, the vendor's solicitor either has to absorb that cost in what is often a pretty slim fee or he has to ask his client for more money.

You can, of course, explain to your vendors why you are considering pulling out of the deal.

Surrey_EA · 26 January 2017 at 2:23PM

Yes

I also suspect it's a money laundering issue.

Depends on how much you want the property. A solicitor's fee for acting on a purchase with no mortgage lender to report to is unlikely to be huge, particularly if the property is freehold.

DaftyDuck · 26 January 2017 at 2:32PM

Yes

No point in a poll: fair or not doesn't matter. It's what he's stated. You can ask why, and ask his recommendation, but he's likely to expect his job will be made harder by your diy conveyancing, and he will have to take the risk on the money himself. Normally ensuring and insuring that is the role of the buyer's solicitor.

csgohan4 · 26 January 2017 at 3:32PM

Yes

You can either pull out or get a solicitor to run your conveyancing. Simple choices to make.

Is spending a couple of hundred in the grand scheme of things worth the sale falling through?

More concerning is, are your strapped and mortgaged to the hilt for cash so much to have to do the Conveyancing yourself???

davidmcn · 26 January 2017 at 3:38PM

csgohan4 wrote: »

More concerning is, are your strapped and mortgaged to the hilt for cash so much to have to do the Conveyancing yourself???

Well, obviously not mortgaging this property anyway!

It's a reasonable money-saving course of action.

But with implications for money-laundering regulations - perhaps ask if the other solicitors would be prepared to do the money-laundering checks at your cost? Though if they haven't offered that as an option I guess they're not interested.

societys_child · 26 January 2017 at 5:05PM

There is the ML side, but I've heard in the past, solicitors don't like the thought of DIY conveyancing, it's like taking the bread out of their poor mouths (a kind of closed shop attitude)

DaftyDuck · 26 January 2017 at 6:53PM

Yes

From limited experience, it's less the closed shop, more that dealing with an amateur tends to mean more work for the other solicitor, more unshared legal and financial responsibility, and more likelihood of monumental c0ck-ups. The financial probity side of things is also obviously a concern.

We see on this site a number of disasters caused by poor solicitors, and rather more by cheap on-line conveyancing sweatshops. Imagine the increased likelihood of such chaos from the hands of mere amateurs (G_M excluded, of course).

Would you like to be the fixed-fee solicitor who had to empty that stable-full of horse manure - and keep your own client happy?

moneyistooshorttomention · 26 January 2017 at 7:09PM

No

I wouldnt be surprised if there is an element of "closed shop" about it. Plus a solicitor wondering if an "amateur" knows what they are doing and whether they'll have to do extra work because of it.

Well - it's not as if some solicitors/conveyancers/legal executives are great at their jobs either - but I guess the difference is they have some "bit of paper" that says they are qualified to do it.

There are (a few) people that could pick up a book on "How to be your own solicitor in a house purchase" (assuming they could find one and work through the stages from A-Z). There may not be many of them - but I know a few who could do so. In his younger days then my father would have been - and would probably have proved the point to the "doubter" by quoting evidence of similar things he'd learnt from scratch/then done well.

Are you one of the people that can pick up quickly how to do something totally new from A-Z and could you provide evidence to prove it? If so - it might be worth talking to your vendor along those lines - and see what they have to say about it. They may or may not believe you. They may or may not have cause to believe you.

If not - you may be faced with having to employ the cheapest conveyancer you can get your hands on - and then monitoring them very closely to ensure they are doing their job as well as you would do (assuming you'd read the relevant how-to book).

I wouldnt have thought it's that difficult a task to do - but most of us just cant be bothered and/or want someone else taking the responsibility for anything thats gone wrong (ie part of what we pay the "legal bods" for....so its on their heads and not ours).

TBagpuss · 26 January 2017 at 8:10PM

Yes

HopefulLondoner wrote: »

I'm buying property, and I am lucky enough not to need a mortgage.
My offer has been accepted and I want to do my own conveyancing.
The seller's solicitor has informed me that they will not accept money from me, and will only accept money from a solicitor's account.

How can it be fair for them to add to my costs like this?

How can it be fair for you to expect the sellers to add to their costs o you can save a couple of hundred pounds?

One issue is the money-laundering one. Solicitors (like other professionals) have pretty onerous responsibilities when it comes to ensuring that they have carried out proper anti-money-laundering checks and processes. If you con't have a solicitor then your buyers solicitors would have t do all that due diligence for you, as well as for your seller. That means extra time and cost for your seller and their solicitor, and greater risk for the solicitor as they can be personally liable (for things up to and including criminal convictions) is they fail to take proper steps. As a cash buyer you are automatically a higher risk.

The second issue is that dealing with an amateur is almost always going to create more work for the professional. It's bad enough for them when they are dealing with unqualified people at conveyancing farms but dealing with someone who is both unqualified and inexperienced, but who *also* has a personal interest in the transaction, is the stuff of nightmares. So it is a massive headache for the solicitor and likely means higher costs for their client (most conveyancers / solicitors' fixed fee T&Cs will allow them to increase the estimate where the case becomes more complex / difficult)

Then on top of that there are problems with the practicalities - there are very strict rules about when, and for how long, solicitors can hold money. With a mortgage advance the money will be sent back to the mortgage company if completion doesn't happen on the correct date; with money from a private individual there are other issues are issues around getting cleared funds but not holding money for too long, and further, massive, money laundering risks.

nic_c · 26 January 2017 at 8:40PM

Some solicitor firms can act very amateurish too, and to add insult to injury still charge you for it!!!

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DIY Conveyancing - Seller's solicitor won't accept my money

Is it fair that a solicitor refuses to accept my money? 92 votes

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