Stepson is looking at a flat in a Victorian building, ex hotel which was converted in 2012, what specifically do legal fees cover and would a buildings survey be necessary as we can probably assume the developers carried out a survey before converting the building.
Any ideas?

Conveyancing involves doing searches to check for potential problems – everything from mining history to checking every thing has planning and there have been no neighbour disputes etc etc things that could give you potential troubles. I am guessing it is leasehold so it will also go into details of that.

I think you can get diy packs to guide you through doing it yourself.

I’m a conveyancing solicitor and I wouldn’t deal with an unrepresented buyer so you may have that to contend with – too much hassle with money laundering requirements etc etc.

Make sure he’s not going to end up liable for his share of a £500k scheme to replace all the windows/install a new lift etc!

A solicitor would translate the lease & hopefully spot any nasties lurking

Make sure he’s not going to end up liable for his share of a £500k scheme to replace all the windows/install a new lift etc!

Hmm.. that’s worth thinking about!

many pitfalls sadly.. Any lease needs professional (or indemnified) representation -in my opinion.

Or to put it another way: trust no developer -and for a new scheme consider what happens to headleases/freeholds and lessors obligations (the lift, the roof, the pool?) – especially if things don’t go to the developers business plans. If your an early buyer and/or the deal covers these risks it could still be worth doing though.

When your not a cash buyer though, none of this matters – the lender will require indemnified representation for their interests anyway – in house or hired. You pay for this one way or another. They will possibly have specific loan-to-valuation or indemnity rqmnts for new developments.

If your a cash buyer – It’s an age-old insurance gambit I guess. Can you understand or quantify the risk & afford to cover the loss without it.. Unless you have good experience or deep pockets – possibly not..

Seriously. Why would you not spend 500-1000 on getting someone who actually knows the law in this area to help when the cost of screwing up could be life altering.

Leaving aside all the points above that are very valid there’s also stuff like bankruptcy searches that need to be done so you don’t risk poor title and challenges to ownership and the back up of their pi insurance if it goes wrong.