Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2006 | Page 22

PROPERTY

Safety net for
homebuyers

OFFICES LOCATED AT:
27a Cross Street, Ryde
Tel: [phone]
Grove Mews,
Sherbourne Street
Bembridge
Tel: [phone]
8 Cross Street
Ryde
Tel: [phone]

Collapsing property chains
or problems with searches
can rack up unexpected
added
expense
for
property buyers – and with
an estimated 15-20% failing
to come to completion, it’s
an increasingly common
problem for purchasers.
So a unique service being offered
by long-established Island-based
lawyers and Commissioners for
Oaths, Terence Willey & Co., is
proving a big potential moneysaver.
For a one-off payment of £70,

the service will guarantee to pay all
search and legal fees incurred on
behalf of a client, should a domestic
property transaction fall through for
any reason.
According to lawyer Terence
Willey, the service has already saved
a number of clients hundreds of
pounds. One, who saw his potential
purchase of a £1m property fall
through at the point of exchange,
saved himself an estimated £1,000
in legal fees for work already
executed.
Mr Willey, who has run his own
multi-discipline law practice for 15
years and now has three offices on

the Island, says the service
is particularly appealing to
first-time buyers who need
to guard their hard-saved
deposit, as well as retired
purchasers on limited
incomes. By spending just £70 on
the contingency fee at the outset,
they are buying peace of mind in
the event of anything going wrong
with their purchase.
“We find that all our clients tend
to take it up nowadays as it makes
such sense” he says. “We agree to
underpin the transaction so that if
it goes off for any reason, there will
be no search or legal fees to pay”.

He added: “I don’t know of any
other law firm making this kind of
offer. All law firms will generally
charge at the point a transaction
aborts”.

House-hunting for
a living
After Tracy Brash helped a
friend on the mainland to
search for an Island property,
she
realised she had the
seeds for a potential new
business.
With her eight-year background in
propertymanagement,ahusbandin
the building trade, and an ongoing
renovation project at her own
home in Shanklin, the mum-oftwo certainly had plenty of inside
knowledge to draw upon.
This is why Tracy has just
launched her new property finding
service, Isle of Wight Homesearch,
which she reckons will take the
strain for families on the move,
particularly when they are looking
to relocate from across the Solent.
“It can cost a fortune, not to

22

mention hours of travelling time, for
people who are trying to find a place
over here” she says. “The whole
idea is for me to find and view all
potentially suitable properties that
fit the client’s profi K