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How to deal with persistent conveyancers when selling your home

Journalist: Joe Wright, Telegraph

ended 07. March 2024

How to deal with persistent conveyancers when selling your home

At the Telegraph we're doing an advice piece on selling your home and the issues you could come across with your buyer's conveyancers. 

Sometimes their requests can massively hold up the sale and people are faced with an unreasonable number of questions /demands. Up to a point, can you refuse to comply if they are just too unreasonable, and what is classed as unreasonable? 

Being transparent from the outset is obviously the best course of action from a seller's point of view, but how can you work together to speed up the exchanging process, and end the constant back and forth? 

Finally, what if you're asked to take out indemnity insurance - do you have to do this, and who foots the bill?

Any help with this is much appreciated. 

6 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Ben Perks
Managing Director at Orchard Financial Advisers
Sometimes purchasing a property can become frought with contentious issues and Solicitors can end up going back and forth which leads to unwanted delays and unnecessary stress.
Clarity from all parties at outset is vital, if everyone enters the process with the best intentions deals are much more likely to complete quicker.
Key to this is getting a good team behind you.
Working with a good reputable Conveyancer who communicates well to all parties is essential.
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Editor
Chris Barry
Director at Thomas Legal
The majority of enquieries are considered "standard" however it's the additonal "non-stadard" enquieries which are open to interipitation of the relivence to each question.

It all comes down to apetite to risk and whether the practitioner is comfortable taking a view or whether they feel the need for further clarification to protect themself and their client against any potential future claim.

If the buyer themself insists on a certain enquiry to be raised, the lawyer can explain that the enquiry may not nessicarily be worth persuing but in short the lawyer would most likely act on their clients strict instruction.

The seller should engagage their lawyer at marketing stage and provide them with as much information as possible to provent the need for future back and forth.

Search Indemnity is not compulsary to resolve a matter although is often worth it as its a cheap soltuion which can make mean the deal can progress
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Aaron Strutt
Product and Communications Director at Trinity Financial
One of the significant issues we find is that it takes some conveyancers so long to ask the questions to confirm what they need. The current system can be very slow.
Sometimes, they ask for documents that people don't have, like boiler reports or electrical safety certificates, or FENSA statements for windows and doors, which people rarely keep. Searches from local authorities can also be incredibly slow or impossible to obtain. Hackney Council was hacked a few years ago, and it is still not operating correctly, which forces homebuyers in the area to purchase homes with indemnity insurance and without the proper checks.
International buyers coming to the UK often can't believe how complex the home-buying process is.
Buyers must watch the timelines to ensure the mortgage offer does not expire because securing extensions is not always possible. This may mean they have to apply again & lose their rate. It seems like transactions were quicker before covid & they are not back up to speed.
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Rhys Schofield
Brand Director at Peak Mortgages and Protection
A lot of this stems from many corporate estate agents tending to use sausage factory conveyancing outfits that just delay things in general with silly and un-neccessary enquiries. My advice would be factoring in who your estate agent is pushing your prospective buyers to use from a conveyancing point of view when trying to win your listing. Ask the agent then google to see if their reviews are decent. If not, run a mile and list with another agent instead.
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Austyn Johnson
Founder at Mortgages For Actors
Conveyancers are aware of the timescales thhat are often extended due to the searches and local councils etc, so they push for this reason. they should however, not push the client ttoo much. We should be careful not to overwhelm the clients as they have a lot of people suddenly in contact with them and are trying to jjuggle all the different aspects of a new home. With estate agents already starting th journey off with plenty of hassle, the rest of the process should be nice and smooth. Best outcomes is what we all aim for yes?
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Gary Bush
Financial Adviser at MortgageShop.com
Selling your property can be stressful, especially if the buyers solicitors raise lots of queries. Some of this can be down to whether the buyers are using an experienced solicitor - trainees/newly qualified or solicitors that have not been practising for a long time want to dot every I and cross every T and may not be prepared to take a view on historic planning/building regs documents like an experienced long practising solicitor.

The best advice would be to answer all queries in as much detail as quickly as you can even though this can be frustrating. However, if the situation really is going on, the next step would be to involve the Agent to put some pressure on the buyers to speak to their solicitor to find out whether the issues being raised really are important or not! Sometimes they are important and so if this is so, you need to be as proactive as possible. If an indemnity policy needs to be obtained, you can negotiate payment for this - a 50/50 split is not uncommon.