What’s the difference between a conveyancer & a solicitor when buying a flat in Australia?
March 30th, 2010 by admin
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5 Responses to “What’s the difference between a conveyancer & a solicitor when buying a flat in Australia?”
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A solicitor has gone through years of law school and is much more qualified and experienced in all aspects of the law. They are more or less lawyers.
A conveyancer has done a course in conveyancing alone and applied for a trading licence. I believe they are seriously underqualified for the job they perform.
Some conveyancers are cheaper, but some arent. When I purchaced my first property I found a solicitor who was cheaper then a conveyancer and he was experienced and knew what he was doing. When your playing with large amounts of money, laws and contracts you can never be too thorough.
A conveyancer who previously handled a case for my partner (its a long story) lost us the entire first home owners grant when we bought our first property (which we were entitled too, about $11,000) because he unaware of a law even I knew about. I will never risk so much money with someone so underqualified again, its not worth it.
Please dont make the same mistake I did, find yourself a good solicitor who can give you legal advise and knows their stuff. Even if it costs a little more, its worth it.
Use this site for your answer,
A standard conveyance is a simple process that any person with basic training can perform. Most conveyances are like this. The trick is identifying that the wheels are falling off at a stage when appropriate action can be taken to protect the client’s interests. A solicitor should pick that up (and if he or she doesn’t you can sue their backsides off). A conveyancer may not notice that there are problems and you may find yourself buying into a parcel of problems.
I am a lawyer and I use other specialist lawyers to do my conveyancing. I see it as cheap insurance. I would not use a conveyancer.
I’ve bought & sold on a number of occasions and each time have used a solicitor – Why? Peace of mind – I know this particular solicitor is EXPERIENCED.
Consider…cheaper doesn’t always = ‘better’, nor does professional (aka ‘solicitor’) always = ‘better’
Your conveyancing should be pretty straight forward, so some things to check/ask for;
– a fix price quote from 3 (a mix of solicitors & conveyancers)
– check their experience (particularly, have/ how many units have they done before?)
– will they be personally undertaking the process or is it 90% done by a office junior?
– are they confident in seeking remedies for delays or if things start to fall of the rails?
Hope this helps…
Conveyancer are a lot cheaper!