Conveyancing Solicitors - How to find one?

Squirrell

Our offer got approved today..... *yippeeeee* but now the scary part starts! Will be doing all the paperwork with the mortgage adviser this week but when would I need to appoint a conveyancer / solicitor?

I've been told that an conveyancer can be cheaper than a solicitor? Any thoughts on that?

Richard_Webster

I've been told that an conveyancer can be cheaper than a solicitor? Any thoughts on that?

I have spoken to licensed conveyancers who cheerfuly admit that they are no cheaper than local solicitors but some people use them because they think they are cheaper.

There are cheap solicitors and cheap conveyancers, expensive solicitors and expensive conveyancers, good solicitors and good conveyancers, bad solicitors and bad conveyancers.

It does really matter which it is - but I would steer away from "online" firms and go for somebody local who you can talk to. If there is a good local conveyancer they may well be better than an expensive online solicitor.

Whatever you do, get a few estimates and study them for small print and extras hidden deep in turgid and unreadable terms and conditions.

M.Holloway

There's a good list of solicitors on the Fridays site. You can search by area + law area etc..

Richards advice is sound, but local solicitors tend to charge more.

What ever you do, don't listen to whoever your estate agent recommends

morg_monster

Ask any friends or family who they have used. We did this on facebook and got lots of recommendations (and quite a few "DON'T USE Joe Bloggs, they were terrible").

We went with one good which a friend had used for her 2 house moves; not only that but the sol was a very good friend of her parents and had done all their house moves since the year dot. She worked for a "proper" solicitors firm and the clincher was that she was based in central london, very easy to get to for both myself and DH; saved a bit of time hand delivering things (and when we made our offer, multiple postal strikes were looming - so this could have been vital). Most of all, when I first called her, she answered the phone herself and was very nice and took time to answer a couple of "newbie" questions I had. Wasn't as cheap as online or warehouse conveyancing but we were very glad we used her.

timmyt

M.Holloway wrote: »

There's a good list of solicitors on the Fridays site. You can search by area + law area etc..

Richards advice is sound, but local solicitors tend to charge more.

What ever you do, don't listen to whoever your estate agent recommends

I would agree if the estate agent is a national one, as they do not care about their reputation (in my view) byt local agents make or break on it, and who their referred lawyers are is the crux to their survival, so listen to them and make your own judgement