Advice on selling a flat
Posted by: Mekon on 18 April 2005
I'm a first-time seller, and I've just accepted an offer on my flat. I'm somewhat lost as to what happens next, and my estate agent is pushing me to use their own conveyancers. When we bought we used Shoosmiths (national company), who were relatively cheap and were much more efficient than the sellers' local solicitor.
Does anyone have advice/recommendations using these big companies to handle buying and selling? For what it is worth, it is possible that we may be moving away, so if we appointed a local solicitor, would that be problematic?
Posted on: 18 April 2005 by Mick P
Mekon
The only solicitor who will look after your interests, is one who is independantly chosen by you.
A corporate solicitor is mainly interested in pushing through the paperwork ASAP because the estate agent wants everything sped through.
Using a local solicitor is fine. You can discuss matters over the phone and any documents requiring signature can be sent by registered post.
Regards
Mick
Posted on: 18 April 2005 by CPeter
When we bought & sold 9 years ago, we phoned a number of solicitors asking about their fees; we were stunned by the differences. Mind you, this was nine years ago.
rgds,
Peter
Posted on: 18 April 2005 by Hawk
The estate agent might be getting a bung from the local conveyancer so first step is to get at least three quotes to make sure that the price you are going to be charged is fair.
On the plus side if you go with the estate agent recommendation it SHOULD mean that they have a good relationship with them and will communicate well. This in theory should speed things up a bit as the estate agent will be keen for your sale to progress quickly so he can secure his fee! Also you can give the estate agent a bit of stick if your unhappy with the conveyancing...
Whatever you decide you should make a point of speaking to the person who will be responsible for your case first, ask a few questions and see how you get on with them...
Last thing, if you are going to repurchase make sure you get a quote for that too... Its not unknown for a firm to quote very low on the sale, and then hit you were it hurts on the purchase once you are commited to them!
Good luck!
