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Query about conveyance legal fees

5 replies

MarthasHarbour · 23/10/2012 14:53

Hi there

Ok so we have accepted an offer on our house (less than two weeks on the market Grin) and have found a house we love.

We have a mortgage with Nationwide, we have secured our mortgage in principle and have a certificate.

There thats the stressful bit over! Hmm

Onto legal fees. The deal with Nationwide is that we get free legal fees on the purchase of our new property. Now that would save us about £500. Obviously the searches and disbursements etc are extra.

The cover does not include selling our home. We have a solicitor who has given a decent quote for selling.

My question is:

Is it a faff/stressful instructing two solicitors, ie the local one for selling our home and the free one provided by Nationwide for buying our home? As i say it would save us £500, but we want a quick sale (by January) so i dont want to tempt fate and wonder if we should just pay up the £500.

All advice gratefully appreciated! Smile

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MarthasHarbour · 23/10/2012 19:10

Bump

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financialwizard · 23/10/2012 19:59

It can cause delays, especially if you are selling and buying on the same day. I have known some transactions spill over to the following day leaving the people homeless for the night.

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mumblechum1 · 23/10/2012 22:06

tbh, the "solicitors" who you'll be getting for free are more likely to be a kind of conveyancing factory than the sort of personal service you'll get with a high street solicitor. They are generally call-centre based and staffed by unqualified people with only supervision by solicitors, so often you will be speaking to a different person everytime you call.

Having said that, £500 is q a lot of money, so if you're not really bothered about having a personal service, go for it.

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mycatlikestwiglets · 24/10/2012 09:52

If you haven't already, I would recommend asking Nationwide whether they are prepared to use your preferred solicitor rather than whoever they have lined up for your purchase (by contributing toward their fees). Some lenders have agreements with a range of high street solicitors which gives you more choice.

The conveyancing factory type solicitors tend to be very difficult to get hold of and far from proactive - I certainly wouldn't use one if I had the choice. You may be stuck with them regardless though if Nationwide insist on using them for their own legal work on the purchase.

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MarthasHarbour · 25/10/2012 12:20

Thank you all for this advice - pretty much what i suspected.

mycat i asked NW if they would use our solicitor and they wouldnt. We are sticking with NW as we really rate them, have our current mortgage with them (would be too complicated to move as we are in middle of a fixed rate).

I think i will stick with my preferred solicitor - we want a quick move, it is a dinky property chain so want it to be stress free. DH has been told to suck up the £500! Wink

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