Would you use a solicitor or a conveyancer?

I was pointed in the direction of these posts to stick up for my profession!

Firstly to the comment about solicitors having no qualifications other than experience: they are not solicitors! The route to any legal qualification in order to practice is long and difficult hence the eventual salary is higher than could be expected from someone who didn't do any form of further and then higher education.

Now back to the beginning! Conveyancer or solicitor? A solicitor (as has been said) has qualified to practice in any field of law, a Licensed Conveyancer has qualified under the auspice of the CLC whereas solicitors are regulated by the Law Society. Both are equally well trained and both can deal with conveyancing matters but the LC has obviously trained with one field in mind in order to offer the most topic specific advice available. Think of a solicitor as a GP and a LC as a hospital specialist; both qualified to look after you medically but one has more specific training. Don't forget that Legal Executives can offer the same service and have still undergone a large amount of training (more general as in a solicitor's training but to finally qualify you must do an area specific course and proceed to specialise in that area). They are often cheaper than a solicitor as they work under a solicitor's supervision. Just to finish the list, many banks and insurers also have permission to convey in limited circumstances.

However, when costs around the £300 mark are mentioned, you surely mean what professional snobbery dubs a 'Conveyancing Cattle Market/Factory'. Usually on online-based firm that can lower costs by not running large offices and therefore offer you lower fees. BUT (you knew it was coming!) they can also lower their fees because much of day to day routine work is underdone in a sort of call centre environment, you may ring up for an update and not speak to your 'file handler' but someone who is reading notes from a central computer system. There is nothing wrong with this as long as long as the system to accurately up to date and you don't mind not talking to the organ grinder so to speak.

Professional services really fall in the 'you get what you pay for' category; do you prefer the Tesco Finest, Tesco Premium or Tesco Value range when you are grocery shopping? Price is often a concern (especially for first time buyers these days who are really struggling) and maybe cheap is best in that case, but don't expect cruise liner service for a Haven holiday price. To be fair though quality of service depends upon your chosen professional; are they helpful, friendly, informative, always return your calls and keep you posted? If so great! Cost doesn't matter! But the cheaper the fees, the more cases a firm/company will have to take on to stay in business which may mean they can devote less time to you specially and in our modern 'fast food, quick fix' society, patience is not a quality seen in abundance! Especially when you are experiencing one of the most stressful events you can ever imagine!

Everyone is correct, personal recommendations are definitely the way to go as you can rely on your friends' and family's opinion; just picking the first firm in the phone book leaves you with luck of the draw. We would always potential clients (and estate agents should advise you similarly and not just push you into using their 'in-house' conveyancer who could actually be half way across the country) to obtain at least three quotes (same as with any other purchase/service really) and speak to the conveyancers to get a 'feel' for how they work and if you will get on, after all you will be speaking to them for anything from say four to twelve weeks depending on your chain, personal circumstances and a whole hosts of things that make conveyancing totally unpredictable!

And if you have had a bad experience make sure you let your conveyancer or their firm know, they have to tell you at the outset about their complaints procedure. It helps to improve quality if we know what we have done wrong in the past! Also give your conveyancer as much information to help as you can; do you prefer email or phone, do you expect to receive weekly/every other day updates even if there is no progress to report, do you have a completion date you really must achieve? Help us to help you! I know the legal profession are about as popular as the HMRC, traffic wardens or even George W Bush but just shop around until you find the firm that fits and works for you and then you should receive a service you can recommend and use again.

Right, rant over, everyone's bored, don't lawyers go on and on... off to count the piles of cash and polish the devil horns...;)

Glad you've got yourself a good'en, Milky_Mocha! Since you asked I'm unergoing Legal Executive training so at the moment I'm a Conveyancing Executive as a Licensed Conveyancer oversees my work, it's a complicated area, so many titles for the same work!