Different solicitors for sale and purchase

[BramleyMoore]

Hi all. Looking for advice!

We are accepted an offer on our house a few months ago. We lost out on final bids for an onward purchase so decided we'd continue with the sale and move into rented. We engaged a solicitor for the sale.

Fast forward 2 months and the house we were interested in has fallen though, the vendor wants to sell to us instead of relisting. We have agreed a price.

As their buyers pulled out almost at exchange, the estate agent suggested we engage the same solicitor as them as they have already done the searches etc and we should be able to purchase quickly to align with the estimated completion date for our house sale I.e. sale and purchase on the same day next month.

I have agreed to this as desperately want the dates to match up but wondering if I've overlooked obvious problems by having two different solicitors? Has anyone else been in this position and did it cause problems?

Thank you!

It looks like just more people in the transaction imo. In some case it might be easier for you to get papers and bring them to another office themselves rather than wait for them posting.
we had one solicitor, but I did this with our and bank - 10 minutes walk for me whereas by post it would be a few days.

Separate solicitors for a sale and purchase can cause problems unless you're prepared to complete the sale and purchase independently, i.e. different completion dates. Even if you use the previous buyer's solicitor, the solicitor will need to approve your ID and do AML checks and re-draft the contract. They will also need to see your mortgage offer and do checks on that. While a lot of the enquiries may have already been covered, the process may not necessarily be quicker. The EA is trying to be helpful, but of course, they don't participate in the legal work and won't know if it will be quicker. The solicitor still has to represent you and that involves repeating steps for you, already done on behalf of a different buyer.

The searches the previous buyer had, you might be able to buy, but there is usually a time limit on their validity, so be careful about buying 'used' searches. If you have a lender, they may well insist on new searches.

The other problem with separate solicitors is the 'undertaking' to send the deposit up the chain. Your selling solicitor cannot undertake to provide the deposit to the buying solicitor until they actually have the deposit in their bank. If this is coming from lower down the chain, they won't get this until completion day. Normally a buyer's solicitor would want this undertaking in advance of completion day, so you might find that the solicitors will only agree to a simultaneous exchange and completion date. This can be fraught with the not knowing until the day, that you are actually moving. This is also difficult when trying to arrange movers to pack up your belongings.