DIY conveyancing

[fourtwentyfour]

Twenty years ago I did my own conveyancing for both sales and purchases. I know there have been changes since, probably the fact that much is done on line, although this doesn't seem to have made any difference to the speed of the process. I am planning to manage the work myself for a sale for which has just been aborted following a buyer's (reasonable) change in circumstances and a solicitors enthusiasm for charging for the work in addition to fees for the same (next) sale.

Can I safely proceed, or are there some serious issues that will catch me out? Are there some here who might have answers if I get stuck in the process, although I feel fairly confident and have a set of dated text books, including the famous Michael Joseph one.

Thanks

[pochisoldi]

Twenty years ago I did my own conveyancing for both sales and purchases. I know there have been changes since, probably the fact that much is done on line, although this doesn't seem to have made any difference to the speed of the process. I am planning to manage the work myself for a sale for which has just been aborted following a buyer's (reasonable) change in circumstances and a solicitors enthusiasm for charging for the work in addition to fees for the same (next) sale.

Can I safely proceed, or are there some serious issues that will catch me out? Are there some here who might have answers if I get stuck in the process, although I feel fairly confident and have a set of dated text books, including the famous Michael Joseph one.

Thanks

Two biggest problems:

1) Proving who you are - to the other side's conveyancer, and if required to HM Land Registry
2) An inbuilt resistance from the other side's solicitor/conveyancer/droid in a conveyancing factory to dealing directly with a vendor/purchaser.
For example:
a) Lower level of trust when dealing with information provided by the DIYer.
b) Additional difficulty in doing due diligence (e.g. MLR compliance) on an DIYer (There is no register of DIY conveyancers...)
c) A resistance to providing information or clarification which could be seen as giving free legal advice to the DIYer (cue potential conflict of interest.)

Remember that everyone treats legal costs as an unneccessary burden, and 99% of the time will always go for the cheapest option, even if it means a purchaser in Kent speaking to 10 different people on the phone each time they phone an office in Stockport. In other words, the ease of completing the transaction is out of your hands, and dependant on how much money your purchaser is willing to pay to do the job.

My advice:
Don't DIY when selling if:
Mortgage, or legal charge on the property which will be cleared on completion of the sale. (You need a conveyancer to act as stakeholder to hold part of the proceeds for the charge owner)
Any kind of LR restriction which doesn't get automatically removed on sale and cannot be removed prior to exchange.
Selling a leasehold property - IMHO Buying leasehold requires a lot more vigilance by the purchaser's conveyancer, if they don't like something, they'll cover their [expletive deleted] and lead the purchaser into pulling out (See 2a above).
If there are known issues with the title/boundaries/private rights of access that appeared when you purchased.
(Personal example: the title plan for my house shows a boundary onto a 4ft alleyway at the back, some land was ceded to the LA to build a maintained access road, but nobody amended the plan, nor documented any easements, so the vehicular access to my garage has been established by prescription)

I would never DIY a leasehold property purchase, and you can't DIY any purchase with mortgage or a remortgage.

ClitheroeKid will be along shortly to add to/correct the above...

PochiSoldi

[fourtwentyfour]

Thank you for the helpful guidance.

The property is two years old, has no mortgage, is freehold and no problems as far as I can see. The only issue seems to be MLR compliance. As an individual with no legal back-up I guess this is either a problem or not.