I'm selling a leasehold flat and will probably be doing my own conveyancing (many years ago I did my own buy/sell conveyancing successfully but I'm aware that I'm almost certainly out of date). Where's a good place to get up-to-date info and guidance?
A solicitor/conveyancer.
I am neither of the above.
David
Don't expect me to buy your flat. I will not deal with DIY conveyancers after an experience a few years ago which ended up with me paying my solicitor to assist one such in order that the "chain" did not collapse.
From a solicitor. The problem with DIY conveyancing is that there are all sorts of pitfalls, and if you do get it wrong the consequences can by financial devastating. Personally I view the costs of paying a solicitor for conveyancing as insurance against disaster. I would not touch a conveyancing firm with the proverbial bargepole.
And compared to estate agents, solicitors are a bargain.
Unfortunately, I cannot give you the name of an up to date book. Years ago, I used The Conveyancing Fraud, but that is now completely out of date. There are a large number of conveyancing handbooks on Amazon, some quite expensive. If you bought 2 or 3 of those, it would cost a fair chunk of what a solicitor would charge for doing the job.
There is not that much risk involved in selling a property, so I think some of the scare comments here are overdone.
+1. The biggest issue when selling is dealing with the deposit.
Unfortunately, despite my deep detestation of the soliciting "profession" I would probably use one these days, as they seem to have managed to close their shop again. The buyers representatives will squirm and raise lots of spurious issues if you want to do it yourself, so it's easier to grit your teeth and hand over the few hundred pounds. It won't make the transaction any easier, because you will still have to do their job for them and they'll add interminable delay and still raise trivial issues.
Of course, a solicitor won't be involved in any of the work, it will be a clerk, aka para-legal, who may have come from one of the no longer existing conveyancing firms.
I've DIYed conveyancing a few times, and also employed the "professionals" on occasion. The professionals add no value whatsoever to the process.
Perhaps you should look for a half-way competent solicitor? They are out there, and when you find one, you'll wonder exactly why so many appear to be an utter waste of oxygen. I can heartily recommend one (in Monmouth) if anybody wants to drop me an email.
On Thursday 24 October 2013 12:19 Huge wrote in uk.d-i-y:
Yes.
When you look at where 1.5-2% selling fees compute to for a typical house...
And the fact the the solicitor actually does some work!
On Thursday 24 October 2013 12:13 Peter Crosland wrote in uk.d-i-y:
For once I agree with Peter (sorry Peter!)
It's one of those things that if you bugger it up, you have no insurance against what might be a very large amount of money or a very large amount of work to clear up.
And the other problem is that your efforts are likely to be scrutinised by another solicitor some years down the line when someone else buys the property again.
Not only do you need to assess the *likelihood* of risk, you also need to assess the *impact* of a risk.
This is best done by thinking of Russian Roulette. The likelihood is 1 in
That last point does not really apply if you are sending.
On Thursday 24 October 2013 13:50 GB wrote in uk.d-i-y:
I disagree. If you cause a problem for the next seller and it becomes apparant it's your negligence, you might get some comeback.
Don't people object to the shit running down your chin?
Find a fixed price conveyancing firm on the internet. Very efficient IME. I think the last one I used was in Wales somewhere. It doesn't really matter where they are
I've no doubt that there are good solicitors out there, I've met 2 who seemed competent and pleasant. Unfortunately it was many years ago and they will no longer be practising, so you're still left with the pin method of selection.
However good the solicitor you will still get some delays, they are built into the system when using a third party.
Buyers solicitor raises loads of pointless enquiries and sends them to the sellers solicitor, he sends them on to the seller. Seller fills in the form, returns it to his solicitor who passes it on to the buyers solicitor. Buyers solicitor not happy with any number of answers to pointless questions and the rigmarole is repeated. If the solicitors have actually moved into the 20th century and can use email then the delays can be reduced, but I doubt that many have advanced that far.
Of course, there are the inummerable holidays that they seem to have, they won't be synchronised and there will be no one who can act on their behalf when they are away so the process grinds to a halt until they return.
In the case of a registered property owned outright with no complications, what possible impact could there be?
The buyer makes an offer on the property, is happy with any surveys etc, his solicitor "investigates" the title (ho-ho) and is happy with it. Buyer pays money, property is registered in new owners name. Pray tell me where is the risk? What amazing circumstance could possibly come back to haunt the seller?
On Thursday 24 October 2013 14:31 Bill Taylor wrote in uk.d-i-y:
Mine is very good with email.
But I can get a lot of stored up queries thtashed out in a 30 minute face2face like this morning...
Perhaps you could suggest what dreadful potential pitfalls might be involved in SELLING a £160k non-mortgaged flat, and why the fee (excluding disbursements and VAT) for so doing should be £800 ... ?
The OP is selling a leasehold flat. So your advice sucks from the outset.
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