How many solicitors do you need when relocating?

[eatyourveg]

Moving from Kent to Hampshire

The Hampshire EA has recommended using 2 solicitors - one in Hampshire for the purchase and one in Kent for the sale.

Is it common place to have more than one? We haven't moved for 25 years and just used one to relocate here but the housing market is completely different so wondered what others have done

These days you are far less likely to visit the actual solicitor in person, and the solicitor will almost never visit the property being bought/sold.

As such there is no particular need for the solicitor to be local to the property in question, and it would likely cause more confusion/communication difficulties if you were to have two different solicitors acting for your sale and purchase.

we're using same solicitors for sale and onward purchase (house a few hours away). Gives me less people to chase

We used separate ones as we had a short temporary accommodation break between houses when relocating, but agree you can use same one for both. Only thing we’ve found handy is being able to drop paperwork off in person to ensure it gets there (you still have to sign & have witnessed paper copies of some document’s) and do the ID checks.

We used separate ones (pre- covid). Partly because we got a deal and partly because I dealt with the sale of one and Dh dealt with the purchase of the other. Just suited our circumstances.
I can’t think of an outstanding reason why you shouldn’t use the same one for both.

Thanks all - I think we will go for just one this end.

Unless there is a compelling reason not to I would use same for both so as pp said only one person to chase

we found it really helpful both regarding selling and buying to have a very local solicitor

I can’t see how different counties would be an issue- same laws and all that. If you were buying in England and selling in Scotland meanwhile I could totally see why you’d probably need two as totally different laws

I think if you’re planning the move as part of a chain, so you complete on both sale and purchase on the same day, using separate solicitors would be a recipe for disaster.

Mad to use separate solicitors! I've never met in person any of my conveyancing solicitors. They don't need to be located near the house.

@eurochick does depend on circumstances. I did meet two of our solicitors. (A long long time ago in the depths of history).

Of course you can choose local solicitors and pop in in person if you want to, but you don't need to. I've used the same person for my last two moves and never met her.

Fwiw I am a lawyer in a different area and very rarely meet my clients in person. Some are located on the other side of the world.

We used one, but it was all done remotely. Not even sure where there were based.

We relocated from SE to NE last year. We chose a solicitor in NE for both selling and buying - we moved into rented inbetween in the NE. You have to do ID checks with both (which costs!) so simpler and cheaper to use one.

We've never set eyes on our solicitor, although have dropped things off in person at their office.

There are some documents you need to have witnessed and signed with a 'wet' signature (ie not online) but that can be done by anyone, it doesn't have to happen at the solicitor's office.