Solicitors and Buying Property

[stekar]

Would appreciate some advice please...

Moving upto Caithness in the next few weeks, and being in England we are not familiar with the Scottish legal system for buying a property.

Should you obtain the services of a solicitor before you find a property you want to buy?

Is it ok to use a solicitor out of the area, by which I mean Inverness? The reason I am asking this is because we have heard that the solicitors in Caithness do not seem to work very well with each other, and are not very efficient :confused Is this true?

Can anyone recommend a good solicitor?

Thanks in advance :)

[bandite]

try ewen thoms at young robertson he is very good :D

[colmac]

I second that. Ewan Thoms at Young Robertsons is excellent. He is very thorough. He has handled both our forays into house/land purchasing and selling our first house.

[Bobinovich]

Thirded! It seems Ewen has been doing some good work 'cos he's handled our last two house purchases as well.

Just out of interest stekar have you already got a property in mind? Are you looking for a particular area of Caithness? Price range? House type?

[stekar]

So Ewen Thoms seems to be the one to go for then! I am right in thinking that if I want to buy a property that is for sale through Young Robertson I won't be able to use him? It has to be a different firm of solicitors?


Bobinovich.... we were up there last weekend looking around. Think we would prefer country as opposed to Wick or Thurso. New or old but prefereably detached.

[champagnebaby]

So Ewen Thoms seems to be the one to go for then! I am right in thinking that if I want to buy a property that is for sale through Young Robertson I won't be able to use him? It has to be a different firm of solicitors?


Bobinovich.... we were up there last weekend looking around. Think we would prefer country as opposed to Wick or Thurso. New or old but prefereably detached.

When we bought our house in December the sellers were with Young and Robertson and so were we. It was a private deal and Ewen Thomss represented them and Elaine Robertson represented us.

We thought it wasn't allowed to be done like that either but had no probs apart from poor communication but i guess it probably saved fees for getting letters sent out and stuff :D

[Solitude]

We have just recently bought a house in Inverness (no easy feat lemme tell you). You need to get a solicitor to do the conveyancing etc and aslo the process of putting in an offer. As for arranging the survey this is usually done through your mortgage provider. Don't know how it works up in Thurso but once you've found a place it is always best to get a survey before you go ahead and offer as subject to survey offers usually get rejected. It works in the fact you get an offers over price or a fixed price. Offers over you can usually expect to pay anywhere up to 12% on top of that. Once the offer is submitted, if there are any other offers it usually goes to a closing date and where you will receive either an acceptance or rejection. This is your confirmation that the house is yours and the scottish law binds this so ther is no chance of GZing.

[katarina]

So Ewen Thoms seems to be the one to go for then! I am right in thinking that if I want to buy a property that is for sale through Young Robertson I won't be able to use him? It has to be a different firm of solicitors?


Bobinovich.... we were up there last weekend looking around. Think we would prefer country as opposed to Wick or Thurso. New or old but prefereably detached.

You can use the same firm as long as you use different solicitors. we've just done that very satisfactorily.

[stekar]

Ah, I didn't realise that, thanks for clearing that up for me katrina and champagnebaby :)

Solitude, thanks for the low down on how the process works :) sounds like it's going to be fun :confused

[Hobo]

I used Georgesons and they were absoutely fantastic. They're efficient, speedy and give excellent customer service.

Unfortunately I found Young Robertson were a little difficult at the front desk. Which is why I was discouraged and went down the road to Georgesons!!!!

[laguna2]

I did not have a good experience with Young Robertson, so in future will use a different firm.

[rockchick]

Just wondering if anyone has any updates to this thread? We are unable to use our solicitor of choice (the buyer got there first!) so are now casting about looking for another solicitor to handle the sale of our house. Does anyone have any suggestions of who to go with? or perhaps who to avoid?

[mums angels]

Just wondering if anyone has any updates to this thread? We are unable to use our solicitor of choice (the buyer got there first!) so are now casting about looking for another solicitor to handle the sale of our house. Does anyone have any suggestions of who to go with? or perhaps who to avoid?

I used Alistair Bracken from Ross and connell, dunfermline he was very good and i'm from thurso

i'd avoid young and robertson they have a habit of dragging things out ...in my opinon/experience :)

and i know that person that bought my last place used Macphersons and was constantly having to phone them to get things moving again

[Marty McFly]

I've had experience of all of the solicitors in Caithness, for one reason or another, over the last few years and would have no hesitation of going back to Young Robertson & Co again.

But, before you make your decision, ask them all for a written estimate of their costs...that'll help you narrow down your choice, I can assure you! :roll:

[j4bberw0ck]

Rule 1. Do NOT offer on a property without doing it through a solicitor and without having at least a "valuation for mortgage purposes" and if it's an old place, preferably a "homebuyer's report" from a Chartered Surveyor and Valuer.
Rule 2. See Rule 1
Rule 3. See Rule 2

[rockchick]

I used Alistair Bracken from Ross and connell, dunfermline he was very good and i'm from thurso

i'd avoid young and robertson they have a habit of dragging things out ...in my opinon/experience :)

and i know that person that bought my last place used Macphersons and was constantly having to phone them to get things moving again

Alistair Bracken was the one I was going to use, but the buyer got there first! and he can't represent us both...sigh...

I used to use Dunnett & Co, until Ms. Ball became depute Fiscal and left the firm. People seem to blow hot and cold regarding Young Robertson...either they're fine or they're absolutely awful! but not sure what the deciding factor is...

[highbury]

can't recomend any of em, and found the first mentioned worst of all, 30 months to register land as forgot, no apology etc...., good solicitor in dornoch ( name eludes me)

[stratman]

This company dealt with my conveyancing and it was straight forward. The actual solicitor was Jane Queerie (not sure I spelled that correctly). she could not have been better. She explained things very clearly. http://www.macphersonandco.co.uk/ Good luck

[Valerie Campbell]

I would recommend Ewan Thoms at Young Rob. We had a whole heap of problems selling our house because of lack of paperwork which the solicitor in Wick we had used for buying hadn't checked out properly on our behalf, and Mr Thoms was very helpful and explained what was happening, what we could do etc. Before you sell, do check that all your warrants, completion certificates etc if you have done any building work to the property are in order or you could end up losing a sale over it.

[stekar]

We used an Inverness solicitor, who was really good. From offer to entry was less than four weeks, and they didn't charge the earth.

Macleod and MacCallum, excellent!

www.macandmac.co.uk

[mums angels]

Alistair Bracken was the one I was going to use, but the buyer got there first! and he can't represent us both...sigh...

I used to use Dunnett & Co, until Ms. Ball became depute Fiscal and left the firm. People seem to blow hot and cold regarding Young Robertson...either they're fine or they're absolutely awful! but not sure what the deciding factor is...

Think it depends on which person from young robertson people use..from what i can see on here ewan thomas is good but its the woman thats there that i've heard bad things about ...

[Skerries]

I would recommend James Jack at MacPhersons. Jane Quiry is good, too.

I'm surprised Ewan Thoms at Young & Robertson is being praised because my experience of him is not good at all. :eek:

[ashaw1]

We are using McPherson & Co in Thurso as recommended by a local estate agents. We have never bought a house before so fingers crossed. So far they have been great!