First time house buyer - help

I cannot imagine any lay person feeling sufficiently comfortable with regards to understanding the implications of the standard conditions of sale and drafting and entering into a bespoke contract for sale and a subsequent transfer of a legal estate.

Whether the everyman could also equip themselves with the requisite knowledge to understand the implications of a lease, easements, covenants (freehold or leasehold), other third party rights (profits/rights of common etc), rent charges, service charges, rights of pre-emption and so on and so forth is questionable not to mention the post completion ‘formalities’, money laundering/due dilligence, SDLT and other tax implications etc.

As I said above, there’s a great deal of misinformation flying around when it comes to residential conveyancing. I’ve encountered plenty of individuals who’ve considered it a walk in the park and have looked to complete a transaction without legal representation yet to a man they’ve retained legal representation shortly thereafter when faced with the intricacies of property law.

 

I’ve used MKB and they seem very good, around the grand mark which seems to be the norm and the receptionist is a tarn fan so it’s eveb better

 

There are some dreadful conveyancers out there, and I've consulted with multiple law fims down the years to have seen plenty of good bad and very very ugly. It's a super simple piece of work that I've been informed by multiple Partners that a straight forward transaction could be completed in a day.

As for the SRA, they are yet another toothless, pointless entity that offers little that benefits the client.

And duty of care should never be confused with quality, efficiency and good advice. The simple fact is law firms make very little from conveyancing as technology speeds the process up so much nowadays and lower charging juniors have to take the burden of the job.

 

Best bit of advice we was given when it comes to purchasing was, the work a Solicitor does in relati9n to it is very basic and nominal and given they have a code of practice to work to in terms of standards etc, go with the cheapest option.
Having bought 16 properties in my time I can honest say we get quotes and always go with cheapest and have never seen a difference EXCEPT on our very first purchase we used the Estate Agents recommended who were nearly twice price and gave worse service.