Solicitor Question

[MammaDramaLlama]

We are first time sellers and have just had an offer accepted. I've been told by the EA that we need to instruct a solicitor for a memo of sale now even though we haven't even started looking for our onward purchase and wouldn't proceed until we do. Does this seem right? Do we still have to pay the solicitors for the memo of sale if ultimately the sale doesn't go through for some reason?

It can take a week or two to onboard with a solicitor so yes I would instruct one and get the ball rolling, your buyers will expect you to have a solicitor or they may think you aren’t serious sellers. And yes you need one for the memo or sale normally

You usually don't pay anything till completion, and you'll need to instruct a solicitor to get started

I can recommend https://onpsolicitors.co.uk/get-a-quote/

Used them on my sale/purchase last year, completed in 8 weeks no issues at all

Basically if you don't instruct a solicitor to start your sale your buyer won't think your serious!

Definitely get a solicitor instructed. Your buyers will walk away as you won't look interested in selling, and get some viewings underway sharpish. You don't want to lose your buyer in the current market.

Im in the same position (have accepted an offer on our house, but haven’t found one to buy yet) and yes we had to give the estate agent our solicitors details.

its good to get the ball rolling.. it took me a little while to find one I wanted to use.

I got quotes from 4, and found they all used different terminology so took a while to compare them all to see what they were charging for what.
I had to go back and query 2 as they had mistakes!

We’ve picked one, and she’s sent lots of forms through for us to fill out.. which is going to take some time … so I’m going to work on filling those out.. but not send them back until we have found somewhere, so that we’re not paying anything yet.

It’s appropriate to instruct a solicitor at this stage. But you can ask them to open a file for you but not do any other work for you yet so as not to incur fees at this stage.

Once both sides have a solicitor the EA will be able to issue a Memorandum of Sale which makes the sale feel more official.

@BunnyMum2000 you need to do those forms now, not only once the chain completes, or you could lose your buyers.

Thanks everyone, I will get onto solicitors now.