Buying a home can be a stressful experience, and it can often be difficult to know what kind of legal assist you need with the process. One area in which you will probably need to take legal advice is that of conveyancing, which refers to the legal process of arranging the purchase, undertaking title searches, dealing with the mortgage lender, exchanging contracts and registering the transfer of the land.
Solicitors vs. Conveyancers
Conveyancing is a reserved legal activity, which means that only people who are licensed and regulated can undertake conveyancing work in exchange for a fee. Only a few decades ago, the only people who were authorised to undertake conveyancing work were solicitors, but this changed with the introduction of ‘licensed conveyancers’.
Licensed conveyancers are a type of lawyer who are only qualified to undertake conveyancing work – they are often cheaper than solicitors, but if your property transaction is particularly complicated you may want to opt for a solicitor instead as the conveyancing process could raise legal issues which a licensed conveyance is not trained to deal with.
Often solicitor’s firms will employ licensed conveyancers to deal with routine sales, but solicitors will be on hand to assist or take over if the situation becomes more complex.
Do I need to use a professional?
Anyone who is buying or selling a property can handle the conveyancing themselves and there is no requirement to engage the services of a legal professional, but conveyancing mistakes can be costly so people should avoid this route unless they are satisfied that they fully understand the procedure.
However, if you are funding the purchase of the property through a mortgage, you will always need to involve a professional at some stage. This is because the mortgage provider will not release the mortgage funds to you directly in case you abscond with them, and so the funds must pass through the hands of a trusted professional. In addition, the mortgage lender will want to be sure that its interest over the property is registered on the title deeds and at the Land Registry and it will not trust the buyer to do this on its behalf.
High street firms vs. “conveyancing factories”
A high street firm will probably give you a better level of service, be easier to contact, hold your hand all the way through and progress the matter quickly and efficiently. By contrast, a specialist conveyancing firm will be a more impersonal experience and you may not always know what is going on – for example, it is not uncommon to hear nothing from the conveyancing firm for weeks and then to suddenly be informed that a moving in date has been agreed. However, using a large-scale conveyancing firm will often save you hundreds in legal fees.
Surveys
It is advisable for all home buyers, including people who are relatively handy or have experience in construction, engineering or related professions to pay for a survey, even if they are satisfied that there is nothing wrong with the property. The main reason for this is to ensure that there is someone to claim against if a problem should later arise.
If a defect is discovered after a homebuyer has purchased a property, there will usually be no recourse against the seller of the property, particularly if the defect is something which wasn’t readily apparent. This leaves the buyer with no-one to claim against and means that he will have to bear the cost of rectifying the defect himself. However, if the buyer obtained a survey and the surveyor did not identify the problem, then he may be able to claim against the surveyor and the cost of repairing the defect will be covered by the surveyor’s professional indemnity insurance.
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