Online conveyancing - experiences?

JSCChan

Hi

I am just starting the process of appointing solicitors after having an offer accepted. I have seen an increasing number of online conveyancing firms (some are part of established firms) and they seem to offer competitive quotes ie. around £300 vs £500-600 for local firms.

Has anyone had experience of them and are there any they recommend? My concern would be that they get high volumes of cases so would not be able to devote the appropriate time to my transaction.

Thanks
J

Debras_Angel

My experience with them was okay.

I was able to email them at anytime and always got a reply back within the same day.

I did have a problem on the Thursday before we were due to move on the following Wednesday as they didn't have the 14 days notice period from the other solicitor so it was all hands on deck to get us sorted out in time. The gril I had been dealing with on a regular basis didn't read the info properly and wasn't up to speed on our move date. But they pulled out all the stops and got everything sorted within 24 hours of the phone call, so I can't fault them.

Everything in terms of completion on the day went like clockwork and we were done by 11.30am on both properties.

One thing I agree with a lot of people try and move on a midweek day as it's so much easier if anything goes wrong.

Cheers

Debs

bylromarha

May be helpful if you comment which firms you're considering and people can tell you if they've used them?

missk_ensington

I'm currently using Morton Solicitors in Dunstable, found through CMS and I'm happy. I get regukar email updates, with a checklist of where they are up to, I can always contact the office and it was by far the cheapest I could have found. Its cost me £570 including dispursements and VAT for a house bought for £90k.

JSCChan

Thanks for the comments. I looked at http://www.conveyancingexperts.co.uk/ who were quoting £290+VAT for their fees only, which seemed reasonable. Local firms were quoting up to £800+VAT, although obviously they know the market.

I am buying in a 6 year old modern development so there should hopefully be few issues. However is there any benefit from having a local firm as opposed to one of the online ones based at the other end of the country?

J

bylromarha

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=170708

2nd post on this thread I started about the very same thing raises a good point, Jorgan is an EA, so has a lot of experience with the whole process. Saying that, we went with a firm via legalmove.co.uk who are excellent, with an online casefile for our sale so we can see what's happening....£250 + VAT fees, plus no sale no fee.

www.fidler.co.uk

We are using a local firm for our purchase (builder incentive made us do it) more expensive, and they are far far worse than Fidler and Pepper, the company based 100 miles away.

puffinmuffin

Legal Fee: £245.00
VAT: £42.88
Stamp Duty:
(Stamp duty is variable and it depends on individual circumstances
and will be advised on instruction or contact) £TBC
Search Fee: £175.00
Registration Fee: £150.00
Land Registry Search Fee: £4.00
Telegraphic Transfer (TT) Fee: £35.25
Bankruptcy Search: £4.00
Total Purchase Fee: £656.13

This is the quote i got from the OPs web link for the purchase of 120k property. In my experience local solicitors will quote for the whole package rather than just legal fees