On Jun 29, 9:19 pm, (Andrew Gabriel)
wrote:
In article .com,
writes:

Am I right to think that DIY conveyancing is legal in Scotland?

I.e. that the buyer or seller of a house can act in person.

And would e.g. a seller's solicitor be guilty of obstruction if they
refused to deal with a buyer who was acting in person?

When I last used a solicitor for conveyancing, they advised
that their fees were sometimes almost doubled when having
to deal with a DIY conveyancer. Also, the process generally
took longer which increased the chance of it falling through.
[This was England though.]

I doubt that's the sort of advice they would give in writing!

In my experience it has taken far less time than it would have done if
the DIY conveyancer hired a solicitor, mainly because a DIY
conveyancer, if they've got any sense, will maintain direct contact
with the other party (and any other parties in the chain, if
necessary), as well as with the other party's solicitor. A solicitor
is not allowed to do that; their professional rules perceive it as
like giving instructions to someone else's dog in the park - a social
no-no. Most of them don't like it either when a DIY conveyancer on the
other side speaks directly to their client, although there is
absolutely no rule, law, or convention against it, and it's a good
idea for people to keep in touch so that small problems can be
prevented into growing into the sort of big ones that can arise when
people don't know where the other party is coming from. Also DIY
conveyancers tend to reply to letters within a day or two. At least
that's how I've done things.

When both sides use solicitors, it's quite common for things to foul
up at a late stage, owing to solicitor error, without the actual
parties knowing anything about it, because problems are sorted out
between the solicitors who obviously a) have a shared interest in
getting their money, and b) do not want to do the dirt on their
brother. It's like with the medical fraternity - murder is one thing,
but bringing the profession into disrepute is considered to be far
graver. DIY conveyancers don't tend to cover up for solicitors. (In
parenthesis: it's normally the office clerk who does the conveyancing
work anyway).

The solicitors' "argument" that you shouldn't do your own conveyancing
because you aren't insured against making a mistake (or can't sue
yourself if you do) is ridiculous. You shouldn't make a mistake! It
isn't hard to do. You don't get bricklayers saying don't build walls.
Building a wall actually is quite hard, but their attitude is, if you
know how to do it, do it.

I haven't heard of a case where a DIY conveyancer causes unnecessary
delay. In my most recent sale, my buyers were two people, each of whom
had their own sale, and each of whose buyers also had a sale, and it
was definitely yours truly who pushed the pace all the way through.
Must have saved about 4 weeks. Which isn't to say it doesn't happen
that a DIY conveyancer can slow things down. But most unnecessary
delays are caused by solicitors, unbeknownst to clients kept in the
dark, who don't even see all of the correspondence. Some delay is also
caused by local councils.

John