Should I involve a lawyer in a land sale? This is a question anyone thinking of buying or selling a property, particularly a parcel of land, should ask themselves.
I’d advise you to involve one, a lawyers role in a property traction is indispensable.
The lawyers role when acting for the Seller include:
• Preparing agreement
• Preparing title documents
• Approving transfer
• Procuring execution of transfer
• Attests the execution of a transfer
• Receives and accounts for the proceeds of sale to his client.
When acting for the Purchaser:
• Going through title documents
• Carrying out search
• Sending out requisitions on the Title (..and Agreement) and advising for the same
• Preparing transfer
• Attending to the execution of transfer where necessary
• Stamping and lodging documents for registration
• Obtaining and paying the purchase monies to the seller’s advocate.
You might feel like you can perform some of the above functions all by yourself to cut on extra costs. However it is important to point out that by so doing you may in fact be risking yourself to more costs. A conveyancing lawyer does these duties for her/his clients every day. They have therefore become conversant with all the other organizations/parties the seller and purchaser would have to come into contact with. Using such a lawyer eliminates the risks of innocent sellers and purchasers dealing with “cunning and dodgy” ministry of land officials and land clerks.
Further, each parcel of land comes with its own unique circumstances. A person entering a Sale of Land Transaction as “a one time deal” or “once in a long time” deal may not be able to identify some of these unique circumstances as easily as a conveyancing lawyer who does this everyday and has dealt with so many different parcels of land would.
So how can tell that you are dealing with a fake lawyer?
A fake lawyer would collect money from you and after 2 hours call you back to confirm that the land title is good and walk away with the money not minding whether the title it is defective or there is a problem.
Some lawyers never visit the property physically to inspect it themselves, due to their ever busy schedule, they’ll give their own professional opinion. Thats not a good thing because the client rests his opinion on the lawyer’s observations.
Some lawyers never seem to interrogate the Agent or Landlord to get to the root of the matter to know who is lying and who is being truthful they would just recommend anything to get their commission.
Some lawyers don’t even know how to detect a fraudulent survey plan, and how to read one, talkless of advising the client on what steps the client should take with the survey plan. Ignore such people from day one.
Some lawyers don’t even know where the property they want to buy on behalf of their client is and would just take a sample document of a property sold adjacent to that house, photocopy it and appendix their signature and walk away with their 10%. Thats not good. Never allow a lawyer take you through that joy ride.
An ideal lawyer will take you through the whole process and fulfil your job till your satisfied before they get paid. Any lawyer asking you for immediate money or deposit for this or that without completing the job is just a hack. No work no Fees. If they continue to barge you about money from day one, know your dealing with a shark.
He/She must earn her legal fees 120%.
Scout out for Property Lawyers who know their Onions and are ready to stick to their principles and do due diligence. Also ask these Lawyers for references and ask Thousands of Questions just the way you would ask Agents Questions. Always document everything emails, phone calls, text messages, receipts everything. Never just hook up with anybody or lawyer without checking them out. We have loads of shady people including lawyers.
What should an ideal lawyer do?