You will need to employ a solicitor or conveyancer to carry out the legal work attached to the purchase of your new home.
As well as leaving a large dent in your bank balance, the legal process can be one of the most stressful parts of buying a home, so choose wisely.
A solicitor covers many aspects of the home buying process. This can include helping you when you’re renegotiating the price or making sure that any work the vendor has agreed to do on the property becomes part of the sale contract when it is drawn up.
The solicitor can untangle the legal jargon in title deeds and leasehold agreements.
When it comes to choosing your solicitor, there are a number of ways of going about it. The best way is personal recommendation.
People are always ready to tell you about the nightmares they had when buying their home, so a positive recommendation is bound to be worth something.
If you haven’t had any recommendations you could ask your lender or the estate agent if they can suggest someone.
The Solicitors’ Regional Directory lists law firms in your area, along with the type of work they do. This is available in most libraries and Citizens Advice Bureaux where you can also find the booklet Working with your Solicitor.
Alternatively you could call the Law Society public enquiry line which will offer you up to three names of solicitors in your area, or you can look at the listings in Yellow Pages.
You will pay a fixed fee, or a percentage of the value of the property. Fees start at around £400 and can rise to £1,500 on more expensive properties.
On top of the solicitor’s fees there are set costs known as disbursements. This term covers everything else a solicitor will charge you for, such as transferring the money from your lender to the account of the person selling you their home, VAT, postage and any other costs incurred in carrying out the work. There is also stamp duty to pay.
Fees are not the only thing that should concern you. Think about whether you get on with the person you’re talking to. Do they take the time to explain things properly or are they the type to assume you always know what they’re talking about?
You need to be confident that you can get the information you need, when you need it. For example, will there be times when you or the solicitor are not available?
It’s not much good if the solicitor is going on holiday around the time you want to move in.
For most people, receiving documents by post is perfectly adequate, so the solicitor can be based anywhere. But if you want to get your purchase through in a hurry, it may be better to use a local solicitor.
Bear in mind, too, that there will be quite long stretches of time when you won’t hear anything from your solicitor because they may still be waiting for answers to queries or the results of your local search.
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