Moving home in 2019? Avoid paying for your conveyancing twice…

UPDATE - Due to the way in which the property market developed a pace, following the publication of this article, as a result of the Government's announcement regarding the Stamp Duty holiday, Holmes & Hills' No Sale, No Fee Promise will not be being applied to conveyancing services until further notice. Where a client was quoted with the No Sale, No Fee Promise applied and this is referenced in the terms of the quotation, this will be honoured.

When you move home, selling and buying property, you will need to employ the services of a conveyancing solicitor to deal with the legal aspects of the transaction, for which there is a legal fee.

Paying twice when transactions fall-through

What many home movers don’t realise is that if your transaction falls-through, which happens for many reasons and with increasing frequency, you will still be charged by your conveyancing solicitor for the legal work undertaken up to the point the transaction fell-through.

This means, you pay legal fees to your conveyancing solicitor for the transaction that fell-through and then have to pay them again for the legal work on the next transaction, which will hopefully be a successful one that goes through to ‘completion’. You essentially pay for your conveyancing twice.

How common is it for property transactions to fall-through?

Rightmove reports that nearly 30% of property transactions fell-through in 2018*, which is significantly more common than most people realise. Some commentators also believe the current economic uncertainty and slow property market may cause this percentage to increase as buyers and sellers become more cautious and risk-averse, making them more likely to pull-out of a deal.

How to avoid paying twice for conveyancing

The only way to protect yourself from the risk of paying twice for your conveyancing is to instruct a no sale, no fee conveyancing solicitor.

Holmes & Hills Solicitors is proud to protect its conveyancing clients from paying twice by providing its No Sale, No Fee Promise as standard on conveyancing transactions**.   

Holmes & Hills’ No Sale, No Fee Promise means that should your property transaction fall-through, whether it be a purchase, a sale, or a sale and purchase, you will not pay any of the legal fee quoted to you. When you then find another buyer for your property, or you find another property to buy yourself, you know you have not wasted any money on legal fees on your first, failed transaction.

Holmes & Hills clients also benefit from the firm's transaction fall-through rate being significantly lower than the 30% average reported by Rightmove.

 
Why do property transactions fall-through?

Property transactions can fall-through for a wide range of reasons, many of which will be out of your control, making it particularly frustrating when it does occur.

• Down-valuations - we recently reported how down-valuations are becoming more common (click link to read). Down-valuations are where a lender values a property lower than the purchase price, requiring the purchaser to put down a larger deposit, which many are unable to do.
• Seller or buyer changes their mind - until contracts are signed (which often does not happen until a very late stage in the conveyancing process) buyers and sellers are free to pull-out, perhaps because they find another property to buy, or another buyer offering more money.
• Surveys - surveys undertaken buy purchasers can flag issues with the property which causes them to change their mind about buying the property.
• Disagreements between buyers and sellers - parties can fall-out during a transaction over a wide rang of issues, including negotiations over maintenance work to be done in advance of completion, provision of paperwork concerning previous building projects (e.g. extensions), last-minute negotiations concerning purchase prices.

Get a no sale, no fee conveyancing quote

Get a no sale, no fee conveyancing quote from Holmes & Hills Solicitors. With seven offices across Essex and Suffolk, these being in Colchester (Marks Tey), Witham, Halstead, Braintree, Sudbury, Tiptree and Coggeshall, Holmes & Hills services thousands of home-movers across the region each and every year.

Recommended by national and regional developers

Holmes & Hills’ reputation for providing an excellent conveyancing service means the firm is recommended by a number of national and regional developers to purchasers of their new-build properties. These developers know Holmes & Hills’ conveyancing solicitors work as hard as they can to provide clients a stress-free home-moving experience.

*Rightmove Little Blue Book of property trends 2018/19.

**Holmes & Hills’ No Sale, No Fee Promise covers a maximum of one abortive transaction or two related abortive transactions (sale and purchase) in any given 6 month period, per client. No Sale, No Fee does not apply to auction sales or purchases; new-build transactions where a discounted fee has been agreed with the developer; third party disbursements already paid (e.g. searches); sales of new-build property; additional work agreed (e.g. Declaration of Trust). Holmes & Hills reserves the right to refuse to offer the No Sale, No Fee Promise at the point of receiving an instruction.