Hi all, I have agreed with the local land owner to buy a small plot off him
for not much money, to use to extended my garden. I have been in touch with
some solicitors and they are asking £600 all in to do the work. that's
nearly 90% of the cost of the land! surly there cant be that much work
involved in buying a plot of land...other than checking through the contract
and applying for a change in ownership of the land? I have done a diy
divorce before so im not afraid of doing it myself...the conveyancing that
is! can anyone give me any advice or point me in a direction of some useful
websites?

ta!

Steve

"Huge" wrote in message
...
"R P McMurphey" writes:
Hi all, I have agreed with the local land owner to buy a small plot
off him
for not much money, to use to extended my garden. I have been in
touch with
some solicitors and they are asking £600 all in to do the work.
that's
nearly 90% of the cost of the land! surly there cant be that much
work
involved in buying a plot of land...other than checking through the
contract
and applying for a change in ownership of the land? I have done a diy
divorce before so im not afraid of doing it myself...the conveyancing
that
is! can anyone give me any advice or point me in a direction of some
useful
websites?

Based on my experience, DIY conveyancing should be against the law.

And based on mine (4 d-i-y sales, 4 d-i-y purchases) solicitors are
slow, careless, and sloppy (spelling their client's name wrongly;
describing my neighbour's land instead of mine in my mortgage deed;
numerical errors in the completion statement; and many more examples)

So while some solicitors (or rather their clerks) may be quick,
thorough, and cheap, by no means all of them a just as not all d-i-y
conveyancers are as incompetent as the one example Huge usually cites.

As for assistance: the Which? book is helpful for straightforward cases,
but, iirc, tells you not to d-i-y when you're buying part of the
seller's land, or unregistered land; Joseph's "Conveyancing Fraud" is a
bit gung-ho about it all, but is one to read when you have moments of
doubt; Bradshaw's "House Buying, Selling and Conveyancing" is fairly
comprehensive, up-to-date, and only 12 quid.

Admittedly, I did have a few years of writing contracts, so the odd bit
of legalese does not unduly worry me, but to anyone capable of reading
and understanding the books I've mentioned, and who can write reasonable
English, I'd say: "Go for it!"


--
Kevin Poole
**Use current month and year to reply (e.g. )***
Car Transport by Tiltbed Trailer - based near Derby

On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 17:36:35 -0000, "R P McMurphey"
babbled like a waterfall and said:

Hi all, I have agreed with the local land owner to buy a small plot off him
for not much money, to use to extended my garden. I have been in touch with
some solicitors and they are asking £600 all in to do the work. that's
nearly 90% of the cost of the land! surly there cant be that much work
involved in buying a plot of land...other than checking through the contract
and applying for a change in ownership of the land? I have done a diy
divorce before so im not afraid of doing it myself...the conveyancing that
is! can anyone give me any advice or point me in a direction of some useful
websites?

ta!

Steve

Find a local Licensed Conveyancer. The Council license them and should
have a list.

R P McMurphey wrote:

Hi all, I have agreed with the local land owner to buy a small plot off him
for not much money, to use to extended my garden. I have been in touch with
some solicitors and they are asking £600 all in to do the work. that's
nearly 90% of the cost of the land! surly there cant be that much work
involved in buying a plot of land...other than checking through the contract
and applying for a change in ownership of the land? I have done a diy
divorce before so im not afraid of doing it myself...the conveyancing that
is! can anyone give me any advice or point me in a direction of some useful
websites?

ta!

Steve



http://www.landreg.gov.uk/

We will be as helpful as we can!

http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/so/

May not be as helpful as LR but you must provide evidence (to LR) of any
Stamp Duty Land Tax paid or a certificate of exemption.

Richard

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The information contained in this post
may not be published in, or used by

http://www.diyprojects.info

"R P McMurphey" wrote in message
...
Hi all, I have agreed with the local land owner to buy a small plot off
him for not much money, to use to extended my garden. I have been in
touch with some solicitors and they are asking £600 all in to do the work.
that's nearly 90% of the cost of the land! surly there cant be that much
work involved in buying a plot of land...other than checking through the
contract and applying for a change in ownership of the land? I have done
a diy divorce before so im not afraid of doing it myself...the
conveyancing that is! can anyone give me any advice or point me in a
direction of some useful websites?

You should be able to find a conveyancer to do it
for about £200-300. You can do it yourself - there
are books to help. A friend of mine did his first
purchase this way. Decide how much of your time
£250 is worth. If your going to spend longer on
this than that, pay someone else to do it.

Al

PS How much land do you get for £660?

"Al Reynolds" wrote:
There are books to help.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0852029926
was the one my friend used - it's updated regularly so you
need to get the most recent version.

If you want to get a solicitor to reduce their standard costs,
you could point out that they won't need to deal with a
mortgage company. You probably don't need to do any
local authority searches as you already know about the
land. Bear in mind that the cost of disbursements (like
Land Registry fees) are non-negotiable.

HTH,
Al

Al Reynolds wrote:
You probably don't need to do any
local authority searches as you already know about the
land.

You may /think/ that you know about the land, but do you know
/everything/ about it?

Bear in mind that the cost of disbursements (like
Land Registry fees) are non-negotiable.

but tiny. Assuming the land is unregistered. It is registered, isn't
it? How long has your neighbour owned it? A thought has occurred: do
you know if you are transferring an entire title or just a part? A
Transfer of Part is not that straightforward. As I said, at LR we will
do our best to help but there are some things best left to those who
have done it before.

Richard



HTH,
Al




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Real email address is RJSavage at BIGFOOT dot COM

The information contained in this post
may not be published in, or used by

http://www.diyprojects.info

"Huge" wrote in message
...
"Autolycus" writes:

"Huge" wrote in message
...

[17 lines snipped]


Based on my experience, DIY conveyancing should be against the law.

And based on mine (4 d-i-y sales, 4 d-i-y purchases) solicitors are

I'm not terribly interested in a willy-waving war, thanks.

A small relief, for which I am appropriately grateful.

slow, careless, and sloppy (spelling their client's name wrongly;
describing my neighbour's land instead of mine in my mortgage deed;
numerical errors in the completion statement; and many more examples)

So sack them. Have you ever tried sacking the vendor/purchaser?

Easy - refuse to deal with them. As you (below) would do with me. In
the examples I've mentioned I, too, could have refused to have further
dealings with the buyer (whose solicitor it was) in the first case, but
decided to leave my nose attached to my face; in the second I could have
sought a different mortgage provider (ditto); and in the third, it was
rather late, a couple of days before completion, to do much apart from
pointing out the error to the seller's solicitor, tempting as it was to
hand over several hundred pounds less than was truly due.


So while some solicitors (or rather their clerks) may be quick,
thorough, and cheap, by no means all of them a just as not all
d-i-y
conveyancers are as incompetent as the one example Huge usually cites.

snip

Oh, and by the way. Don't expect to do business with me if you're
doing
your own conveyancing.

The pleasure would be mine.


--
Kevin Poole
**Use current month and year to reply (e.g. )***
Car Transport by Tiltbed Trailer - based near Derby

"Richard" wrote:
Al Reynolds wrote:
You probably don't need to do any
local authority searches as you already know about the
land.

You may /think/ that you know about the land, but do you know /everything/
about it?

A fair point. It is at the end of the garden, however, so the
local authority searches are unlikely to turn up anything
different to the ones he has already had done on the house.
An environmental search almost certainly won't find anything
different. We're only talking about a £700 piece of land.

Bear in mind that the cost of disbursements (like
Land Registry fees) are non-negotiable.

but tiny. Assuming the land is unregistered. It is registered, isn't it?
How long has your neighbour owned it? A thought has occurred: do you know
if you are transferring an entire title or just a part? A Transfer of Part
is not that straightforward.

Would it not be simplest in this case to get the landowner to
do the work separating the parcel of land (paying their own
solicitor) and then do a normal transfer on that parcel.
Certainly if the landowner selling this land has set the price
based on the purchaser paying all the legal fees, and there
is a transfer of part to be done, then £600 sounds more
reasonable.

As I said, at LR we will do our best to help but there are
some things best left to those who have done it before.

Believe me, the LR is one of the few national institutions that
I still hold in very high esteem - my dealings with them have
always been a pleasure and the standard of service exemplary.

Regarding leaving things "to those who have done it before",
I still think it is worth considering whether any of the costs can
be avoided, but like you said, it depends on the complexity of
the particular case.

Al

Al Reynolds wrote:

Would it not be simplest in this case to get the landowner to
do the work separating the parcel of land (paying their own
solicitor) and then do a normal transfer on that parcel.


I was going to ramble on about who is benefiting most from this
transaction but I really think that it's going to be too much trouble to
go through a formal transfer. They're much better off just moving a
fence to benefit the new owner in return for a wodge of notes to the
current owner and forgetting about the registration issues. Give it 10
years and apply for adverse possession. That'll cost the OP a certain
amount but, if the current owner doesn't object, should be less hassle
than trying to do it properly now.


Believe me, the LR is one of the few national institutions that
I still hold in very high esteem - my dealings with them have
always been a pleasure and the standard of service exemplary.

Ta! Just pretend you didn't see the paragraph above ;-)

Regarding leaving things "to those who have done it before",
I still think it is worth considering whether any of the costs can
be avoided, but like you said, it depends on the complexity of
the particular case.

Al


Richard





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"Richard" wrote
| I was going to ramble on about who is benefiting most from
| this transaction but I really think that it's going to be
| too much trouble to go through a formal transfer. They're
| much better off just moving a fence to benefit the new
| owner in return for a wodge of notes to the current owner
| and forgetting about the registration issues. Give it 10
| years

12, IIRC

| and apply for adverse possession. That'll cost the OP
| a certain amount but, if the current owner doesn't object,
| should be less hassle than trying to do it properly now.

It will not work, as the possession is not *adverse*, which is a
prerequisite for *adverse* possession.

And what happens if the current owner sells / dies / becomes mentally
incapable / a motorway is to be built through the property / etc...

Local authority and other searches are another thing, they may have been
done when the house was purchased but since then there may be new government
ideas, environmental regulations etc.

On the subject of legal fees, there are provisions where the land value is
below a certain amount and there is no conflict of interest for *one*
solicitor to advise both parties.

Owain