Our common law states that the seller gets to choose who the transferring attorney/conveyancer will be. However, the buyer must pay the transfer and attorney costs. This may seem unfair but if you think about it, the seller is more at risk if the deal doesn’t go smoothly because he is the party receiving the money. The seller is therefore entitled to choose an attorney who he feels safe with and can trust to manage the sale/transfer of the property. Ultimately to ensure a smooth and speedy transaction and receipt of money from the buyer.
This doesn’t mean the purchaser cannot suggest a transferring attorney but the seller would have to agree on this, which doesn’t happen very often.
In a nutshell, by law, the seller, as the owner of the property, gets to decide on the conveyancer because he stands to lose much more if things don’t go according to plan.
