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DIY Conveyancing – Should I do conveyancing myself?

Buying and selling a property can be a very expensive process. DIY Conveyancing is just one way to save money when buying or selling a property. Yes, even though Conveyancers go through years of training, it is possible to do the conveyancing process yourself.

How difficult is DIY Conveyancing?

It’s not rocket science, but conveyancing can be tricky and very time consuming. There’s a few complicated documents containing a lot of conveyancing legal jargon, it’s important that these are fully understood before undertaking any DIY Conveyancing. Anyone can do it, but it will take a great deal of effort to learn how.

How much would I save?

If you’ve read our average conveyancing fees page, you’ll know that the cost of conveyancing approaching £850. In areas like London prices can be double that. So you could potentially save thousands on the solicitors fees, but you’ll still have to pay all the disbursement fees yourself.

When should you avoid DIY conveyancing?

If you’re considering DIY Conveyancing, there are scenarios in which we highly recommend avoiding it:

  • if the property is leasehold
  • if the property is not registered with the Land Registry
  • if you have a mortgage (or will have)

Leasehold – if the property is leasehold, there will be a lot of extra conveyancing hassle. For more info read our leasehold conveyancing page.

Not registered – if the property isn’t registered with the Land Registry, you’ll have to register it yourself. This can be another complicated issue that’ll require more research and more work on your part.

Mortgage – most of the time, you won’t be able to do the conveyancing yourself if you are planning on buying a property with a mortgage. It’s rare for a UK mortgage lender to let you complete a property transfer without appointing a professional conveyancer. They deem DIY Conveyancing to be too risky and some lenders only accept a conveyancer on their list of trusted conveyancers.

We recommend that you should only consider DIY conveyancing if you:

  1. Haven’t got a mortgage to worry about
  2. And you are selling a registered freehold house.

Conclusion

DIY Conveyancing is the riskiest and most labour intensive way to save money on your property purchase. It’s also probably the least rewarding (financially speaking) way to save money.

There are far less labour intensive and jargonistic ways to save money on your property purchase.

I still want to try DIY Conveyancing!

If you’re the motivated type and still believe DIY Conveyancing is the right option, we recommend you buy a book, A Practical Approach to Conveyancing. This book takes a pragmatic, rather than academic, approach to conveyancing. It provides practical solutions to everyday problems encountered by conveyancing practitioners.

4 Responses

  1. Ian says:

    I’m looking to buy a small pice of land (under an acre) sold off by a water company with an old redundant water Tower on it, no building. Access through rights of access and easement rights. A very small cost for the land so was looking to go diy on the conveyancing to keep costs down. Would you think advisable to do so?

    • admin says:

      It’s a difficult decision, I’d find it very annoying if I has to spend around £1000 legal fees for buying a small piece of land.

      The legal side of buying land is easier than selling, but DIY conveyancing can still be pretty stressful. I’d recommend talking with the seller and their estate agents, see what they have to say/recommend (it would be nice to talk to the sellers solicitor/conveyancer, but they won’t speak with you as it may be considered a conflict of interest).

  2. Lorraine Atherton says:

    i would like to remove a name from my title deeds. The mortgage is paid and it is leasehold. Can i do this myself? if not can i get a quote? thanks

    • admin says:

      I would recommend doing it through a solicitor, it won’t be that expensive. You can contact the land registry directly, and they should be able to tell you more.

      If you try and DIY it you’ll still need to pay Land Registry fees, and you’ll have to re-register the property in your sole name – far easier and less stressful to leave it in the hands of the professionals. If it’s not done correctly, it might cause problems if/when you come to sell the property in the future.

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