In This Guide
Apply for a mortgage
Buying at auction
Buying in Scotland
Conveyancing
1. Conveyancing
2. The conveyancing process
3. Exchange and completion
4. Costs
5. Choosing a solicitor
6. Complaining about solicitors
7. DIY conveyancing
Find and view
Negotiate
Plan your purchase
Success and failure
Surveys and valuations
To buy or not to buy
Conveyancing
DIY conveyancing
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On the other pages of this section, we have already established what exactly a solicitor does as part of the conveyancing process and roughly how much it is going to cost you. Given the sky high state of the housing market and the astronomical prices that people have been forced to pay for their homes, it is not surprising that there has been something of an upsurge in the number of people who don their robes and act like a solicitor for a while. Or at least do their own conveyancing.
Plenty of people with absolutely no legal experience are taking on the work and saving themselves hundreds of pounds. Conducting a local search yourself at the council planning department could save you tens of pounds for starters. There will be no fees to pay, and no mark-ups or VAT on any of the other disbursements.
It doesn't always take up as much time as you might expect and with a bit of pre-emptive research at the library, many people find they are more than capable of handling the necessary work. Another added benefit is the urgency with which you will no doubt handle the tasks that need to be completed. You will always treat yourself as your most important case, as it were, and you should be able to rely on yourself to swiftly respond to letters from the other solicitor and get the appropriate forms sent to the right places at the right times.
That's not to say that everyone should rush out and do their own conveyancing. It is complicated and you need to be fairly confident you're not going to make a mess of it all, as the penalties for making a hash of it all can be quite severe.
One of the things that makes self-conveyancing possible is the
fact that much of the work is form-based. A solicitor will have
a set of standard search forms and other relevant documents, which
require relatively little work to personalise them for you. You
can get hold of these forms from most legal stationers and The
Land Registry (www.landreg.org.uk)
should be able to supply you with forms for registering your ownership
of the property.
Make sure that you don't miss anything out from the list of activities
that a solicitor will normally carry out as part of the conveyancing
process. Do everything from making the preliminary inquiries to
working through the searches and you hopefully won't go wrong.
The main problem areas are likely to be the
lease (if there is one) and the contract. These are the bits
of the process where the solicitor most draws on his or her expertise,
so you will need to be careful, patient and thorough in all your
dealings with these two documents.
Check the terms of both documents extremely carefully, making sure you understand all the terms and the implications of all the clauses. If in doubt use one or more reference texts to assist you. Check everything - the spelling of your name, the proposed completion date, fixtures and fittings, restrictions and obligations and always double or triple check everything you don't understand the first time round.
Even when you are sure you have done everything, it may still
be worth getting a solicitor to give your work the once over and
ensure you haven't missed anything or made a glaring error. You
should be able to find
a solicitor who will do this for around £100.
Two final words - Good Luck!
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