Any solicitor recommendations for conveyancing?

Even if it is I'd never do it myself - you want someone to sue in the event of a **** up.

 

That's probably the truth of it. I'll hold my hands despite my thoughts on it I'd be too fearful to try and do it myself.

 

This with bells on.

A few solicitors don’t touch residential anymore for this reason. Little money and big hassle, especially in the current market boom.

Even a good solicitor is hampered by muppets on the other side who frankly can be useless as they are just glorified call centres almost.

And just because a house has been sold several times before, doesn’t mean anything unless a good solicitor has gone through it. Past mistakes need to be picked out.

Barnsley has some good firms though - no need to look out of town.

 

David Raybould at Heseltine Bray and Welch is excellent. Have used him recently for both buying and selling. He's really helpful and went out of his way for us when the seller was difficult.

 

Wosskow Brown on Regent Street. Used them twice in the last five years and wouldn’t hesitate to use them again. Competitively priced and great service

 

If you're buying with a mortgage your lender will want their own check on the legal work. This will usually be done by the solicitor you hire (who will normally be on their 'panel'). But if you do the work yourself the lender will insist on using a solicitor to do the check and report on title for them (at your expense, of course!). If you're selling you will have to draft the contract and if you're buying you'll have to draft the transfer, both of which require some understanding of property law. And the list of things that have to be checked for appears to grow all the time - flood risk and chancel repair liability appear to be two of the newer favourites! If acting for yourself there are certain practical hurdles. For example, stamp/duty land tax. The appropriate filing for this in order for the Land Registry to accept your completed transaction is usually by means of solicitors'/licensed conveyancing firms' direct electronic link with HMRC. Even if your transaction is ineligible for SDLT, you still need to obtain a document stating that is the case, which you have to produce to the Land Registry with your application for registration.

The Thatcher government legislated for licensed conveyancers in the mid-1980's in order to cut conveyancing costs and increase consumer choice. In order to compete, this resulted in solicitors' firms having to cut their own costs and have unqualified or part-qualified staff undertake most of the work with a qualified solicitor having oversight and responsibility for the work undertaken. That partly explains why delays can still be endemic, despite the attempts to streamline the conveyancing process over the years. Rather like Thatcher's cutting of brewery 'ties', it is a policy which has had some unanticipated consequences!

 

Yes 100%

 

Used MKB, a young asian lad whose name I can't remember last time I bought a house in 2018. He was very thorough and a nice person to deal with. Not cheap, could have gone fixed fee for half the price but this isn't an area to cut corners in my experience. He stopped me buying a house on top of an old mine shaft and made sure the vendor of the house I went on to buy paid for an insurance as they had lost part of the title deeds

 

Correct.
From what Janie tells me, they have never been as busy. Furloughed staff, people working from home including lenders staff. Pressure to get completed before stamp duty increases.
Everyone who has a sale or purchase (including me, when we've done it) thinks their matter is not receiving the attention it deserves. Estate agents take the bulk of the cash from sale costs for relatively little work.
She's done it for twenty odd years and deserves a medal on top of the ridiculous low pay she gets for such a pressurised knowledgeable job.
Then there's folk from the more affluent parts of the country who want their conveyancing doing because it's much cheaper up here. That's a topic on it's own!

 

Knob.

 

What?

 

If you'd had said. "If there are any problems, by using a conveyancing firm, there is some protection". Which is what I think/hope you meant. Rather than the "where there's blame there's a claim " comment!

 

To be honest, Mansfield Red's comment "Even if it is I'd never do it myself - you want someone to sue in the event of a **** up" is absolutely correct in the context of posting on this board.


You're being too harsh, in my opinion.

 

That is what I was saying (albeit a bit glibly) - that it's effectively an insurance policy. I think it's fairly obvious I wasn't suggesting people go chasing conveyancers with frivolous litigation.

 

Agree entirely.