Reaching Out: How The Right Legal Avenues Can Help

Find Out Why Selling/Buying a House with a Mortgage Will Block You from DIY Conveyancing

2 February 2016 by Jessica Spencer

Conveyancing refers to the legal transfer of a title deed from the property vendor to the purchaser. The process is often completed with the help of a solicitor or conveyancer to ensure that the transaction is accurately and promptly completed. Since hiring a conveyancer will cost you some significant amount, you can decide to do the conveyancing on your own but this may be a daunting task. Perhaps you are comfortable with legal terminology and documents, have enough time, and need to save some cash, meaning that conveyancing on your own may be a viable option. However, take note of the following situations where DIY conveyancing may not work.

When You Are Purchasing With a Mortgage

If you intend to buy a property with mortgage benefits, your mortgage lender is likely to insist on legal representation. You can inform your mortgage lender that you did not want to be represented. In such a case, your lender would instruct its own conveyancer or solicitor who may act for you as well as your mortgage lender.

However, you would be responsible for the legal fee of the lender, and the fee may not be any less than the conveyancer would charge for representing both parties. This means that carrying out your own conveyancing would be pointless since there would be no benefit to be gained.

When You Are Selling With Mortgage on Your Property

If you have a mortgage on your property to be paid off from the proceeds of the sale, then you will not have the necessary forms to hand over on sale completion. This is because your mortgage lender may not be willing to issue the discharge documents before receiving the redemption funds. In such situation, the conveyancer of your buyer may be required to rely on your conveyancer's undertaking to repay the mortgage as well as provide the discharge documents.

Therefore, you can either request your buyer's conveyancer to directly redeem the mortgage, which he or she can refuse and you would have to find another conveyancer to deal with the redemption funds as well as provide the required undertaking. This means that in either case, you will have to pay some fee. Moreover, the buyer's conveyancer may quote a higher price so that you find another conveyancer. In this case, the fee you pay for instructing another conveyancer would have to be worthwhile for him or her to work on the transaction. This means that your eventual saving may not be really worth the risk or hassle.

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