Buying and selling

Press, 12 July 1988, Page 12

Buying and selling

Sir,—Lindsay North (June 30) in an article, “Legal advice for house buying and selling,” states that a lawyer will be needed when buying or selling a house This is not so. I (along with others) have bypassed the middle man . and dealt directly with'the Larids and Deeds'Officfe. Registering mortgages causes more complications, but; in my case there was good will on the part of the mortgagees which enabled these transactions to occur without the services of a lawyer. Lindsay North would have presented a more balanced article if he had stated that people do have a choice about engaging a lawyer. Conveyancing is a job which could quite easily be opened up to, say, individuals or companies and controlled by the Lands and Deeds Office registering these activities. Competition in this field would be welcomed by many house buyers to counteract the monopolist situation which at present seems to be the case.—Yours, etc.,

P. G. BROWN. June 30, 1988.

[Mr North replies: “I would agree that it is possible to buy or sell a house without using a lawyer. The article did, however, point out that there are a large number of potential pitfalls in such a transaction and that the use of an expert is advisable because of this. Mr Brown does tend to confuse the act of registering the transfer and mortgage documents in the Lands and Deeds Office with the whole of the sale and purchase transaction itself. The registration of the documents on its own is relatively simple, but this is only the end of what can be a complicated transaction. I do not agree that conveyancing could quite easily be opened up to ‘individuals or companies’ as is suggested. Unless those individuals or companies are to have trust accounts and similar controls as do solicitors under the Law Practitioners Act, then the public will be at risk from inexperienced, and possibly dishonest, operators. As to competition, there is already substantial competition within the legal profession. In view of the present level of charges in the Lands and Deeds Office, I would wonder whether any control over conveyancing by that office would lead to any reduction in cost to house buyers — which, I assume, is the essence of Mr Brown’s inaccurate comments about m6nopolies.”]