Land sale - solicitor or not
Discussion
We are looking to sell an agricultural field, no mortgage, freehold in our name etc.. we purchased it without a solicitor doing all the forms ourselves. Now we have been told we cannot sell it without a qualified person (solicitor?) preparing a sale contract for us?? As it’s a simple sale can we not do this ourselves? I cannot find anything in law that states a solicitor has to be involved. This has come from a potential buyers solicitors. Any help please!
ks. Always thought that you did .garyhun said:
Thought as much.
They’re saying that so that they don’t have to, in their eyes, deal with an amateur who’ll make their job more difficult and time-consuming
Ah all starts to make sense thank you! So I can send them a copy of a sales contract (I was going to copy the one we got when we bought the land) and go from there? The buyers solicitor has stated I cannot as it has to come from a solicitor or a conveyance professional! They’re saying that so that they don’t have to, in their eyes, deal with an amateur who’ll make their job more difficult and time-consuming
MaisiesDad said:
garyhun said:
Thought as much.
They’re saying that so that they don’t have to, in their eyes, deal with an amateur who’ll make their job more difficult and time-consuming
Ah all starts to make sense thank you! So I can send them a copy of a sales contract (I was going to copy the one we got when we bought the land) and go from there? The buyers solicitor has stated I cannot as it has to come from a solicitor or a conveyance professional! They’re saying that so that they don’t have to, in their eyes, deal with an amateur who’ll make their job more difficult and time-consuming
garyhun said:
MaisiesDad said:
garyhun said:
Who’s saying you have to have a solicitor?
The potential buyers solicitor They’re saying that so that they don’t have to, in their eyes, deal with an amateur who’ll make their job more difficult and time-consuming
I wonder how long the CPSE form is for a field?
MaisiesDad said:
Thanks for the replies, very useful and confirms what I had thought. I’ve always been quite wary of solicitors but even more so since my Auntie got swindled out of an inheritance (google Linda Box solicitor!) I think she has been paid some of the money back but not all.
I think the guy is half right, to be honest...You don't need a solicitor or a conveyancer to do the work, but if you don't then you probably need to visit a solicitor in order to verify your identity (see boxes 12 to 14 on form AP1 - the application to amend the title)
Actually, drawing up contracts for sale of / instruments for the transfer of land are one of the few things that constitute reserved legal activities and so need to be done by/under supervision of somebody qualified. See sch 2 of the legal services act 2007. A buyer’s solicitor won’t do it do it for a seller on account of various conduct issues that arise. And even if thy could, as somebody else has said most wouldn’t be willing to deal with somebody who’s not represented - they’ll want a professional to make sure they’ll get decent answers to enquiries and ease the practicalities of exchange and completion.
Transferred a package of land from our garden to our daughter for her to build a house on, and she had to use a local solicitor as ours was handling our side of the transfer.
A relatively simple transaction, ballsed up and over complicated by this solicitor or the rubbish paralegal it was subbed too.
Bill was much higher than ours, and weeks after the bill was settled they tried to stripe her for another £100 as they said they they got the Land Registry fees wrong.
Told them by email that she would only pay under protest and to arrange a time to take a card payment over the phone, and that a formal complaint would be going into the senior partner regarding the mess that had been made of the entire process - she got an apologetic phone call 10 minutes later from the useless paralegal telling her to forget the extra £100 and inviting her to discuss what she thought had gone wrong. To my daughters credit, she accepted the non-payment offer in writing but declined to take her excuses - she’s currently composing the complaint...
A relatively simple transaction, ballsed up and over complicated by this solicitor or the rubbish paralegal it was subbed too.
Bill was much higher than ours, and weeks after the bill was settled they tried to stripe her for another £100 as they said they they got the Land Registry fees wrong.
Told them by email that she would only pay under protest and to arrange a time to take a card payment over the phone, and that a formal complaint would be going into the senior partner regarding the mess that had been made of the entire process - she got an apologetic phone call 10 minutes later from the useless paralegal telling her to forget the extra £100 and inviting her to discuss what she thought had gone wrong. To my daughters credit, she accepted the non-payment offer in writing but declined to take her excuses - she’s currently composing the complaint...
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