House Purchase - Finding Conveyancers - Manchester Area

mither_2

Good afternoon to you all. I have read these forums in depth and many advise house buyers to use conveyancers recommended to them by others, preferably local (opinions seemed to be mixed as to the merits of having a local firm complete the conveyancing). The problem is that I don't know anyone who has bought a property recently in the area.

I have agreed a price of £165k for the house and have a mortgage in place ( the bank's surveyor is going to check out the property on Monday) but have not found a solicitor. The sale should be relatively straightforward as I am not in a chain and neither is the vendor. I have read the HIP pack and there doesn't appear to be anything out of order.The property is a semi-detached freehold built in the 1920s and the vendor has owned it for about 5 years. It's in a long established suburban residential area so I don't expect there to be any problems with historic coal mining or anything like that.

The estate agent has put me in touch with their recommended soilicitor who has quote a price of £450 for "conveyancing for a propert purchase"

I've read that I can get this work done for more like £250 and that I shouldn't be using a solicitor linked to the estate agent anyway.

Some people have suggested getting quotes from 1 local firm, 1 distant firm and 1 online firm. Can anybody please supply some names of firms that they have used recently that were relatively inexpensive and relatively fast. As discussed above the job should be relatively simple.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. As you can tell I am a novice to this sort of thing. I am learning fast though!

Cheers

picklepick

Hello

We're in the process of purchasing a house and we're using Simpson Millar. They have offices all over the country but also one in Stretford. If you go to their website you can get an instant online quote.

So far, they've been wonderful and very efficient. They always call when they say they will and everytime we've needed to speak to them we can do so straight away. no problems.

Hope that helps

picklepick

Sorry should have said, their fees are about £350 for us. But then you have to add on all the costs of searches and third party costs etc.

Its a fixed fee, and of the sale falls through for any reason you dont pay anything. Read the T&C's though oviously

mither_2

Thanks for the advice. If anybody else shares this opinion or has any other suggestions then please message away.

Cheers

JQ.

I've always used Fergal Farrell, based in Didsbury. It's a good few years since our last purchase so I can't comment on cost, but he's always done a good job for us.

He's at:
Farrell & Hobbs Solicitors, Xenon House, 10 School Lane, Didsbury, Manchester M20 6RD