Buying a house is one of the most significant investments that anyone will make during their life. While it’s a massive financial investment, it’s also a surprisingly complicated process – you don’t just go into a shop and hand over your card, unfortunately.
It’s generally not something that you’ll do alone, and people often use the assistance of conveyancers and real estate solicitors. Do you really need them though?
What Is A Conveyancer?
In short, a conveyancer is an individual who is specifically trained in property laws, and deals solely with that legal area. They’re primarily used to draft contracts and deal with issues associated with the transfer of ownership between buyer and seller. While they’re highly specialised in this single legal area, they’re not fully qualified solicitors, and as a result, the amount of things they’ll be able to help you with is more limited compared to a solicitor.
What Is A Solicitor?
Without wishing to condense this complex role into a single paragraph or two, a solicitor is a fully qualified legal professional with extensive training in a broader range of legal issues. While solicitors receive more in-depth general legal training, they can also specialise in a single legal area, such as property law.
As a result of their broader area of legal expertise, solicitors can be used to handle a wider range of potential legal issues than a conveyancer. This may be beneficial in certain situations where a buyer or seller is concerned about a specific issue popping up, which is, quite frankly, 99% of every house sale.
So, Do I Need Both To Buy A Property?
You don’t legally require a solicitor to buy a property. If the transaction looks as though it’ll be straightforward, and there are no potentially problematic circumstances that are predicted to arise, then it’s often cheaper to not use a solicitor, who will tend to have relatively high fees compared to a conveyancer.
That being said, whether or not you want to use one will depend on the situation you’re in. If the transfer is getting complicated, with planning problems or other more complex legal dilemmas, then the advice of a fully qualified solicitor can be invaluable.
Read: 7 things to consider if you’re thinking about getting a mortgage
When Should You Decide?
If you feel like you may be more comfortable with the help of a solicitor, then it’s often best to involve them from the beginning. Legal assistance is almost always most effective as a preventative measure – legal issues are easier to avoid than they are to sort out after the fact.
At the end of the day, the decision of whether you should hire a solicitor, a conveyancer, or both, will depend on the specific circumstances of your sale.
If you feel like you want to be more informed about the overall process, and predict that there could be potential issues, then it’s best to play it safe and engage a solicitor. If it’s looking to be a straightforward sale, then you’ll likely be ok with just a conveyancer. It will come down to issues such as your budget and how comfortable you are with the overall situation.