Conveyancing, how to avoid the "big cost"?

skidom

We are under offer, however, we don't have a solicitor yet. The main probem seems to be the price. We have been quoted different prices, from £300 - £1200. As we are downsizing, we clearly can't afford it....don't want to go into too many details. Are the online solicitors any good? Who would you recommend if so? How about nationwide?

Any ideas would be great, thank you in advance

JingleJangle

In my experience, you get what you pay for.

NittyGritty

get a few quotations from at least 3 in ur local area then ud have a good idea of a price,

G_M

Have you got a mortgage? If not, do the conveyancing yourself and save the full amount.

Otherwise shop around carefully. Do not assume a cheaper quote will cost you less. Read the small print and look for the 'extras'.

This will help you compare.

kingstreet

Assuming you are selling and buying, I'd expect legal fees to total around £1,000 + VAT plus disbursements on the purchase which could be as low as £200 or as high as £400.

Sale only should total between £550 and £600 inc VAT.

As has been suggested, contact three firms in your vicinity and ask them to mail you full quotations. They'll need to know the area you are likely to buy in so they can correctly calculate the local search fee.

Don't pick three in the same town as you'll be amazed to find how little the fees differ between them. If you live close to three towns, pick one from each town so you can compare.

skidom

Thanks everyone so far. No, we are just selling. We'll be buying in Scotland so we can't have the same solicitor as we can't make an offer unless we sell in England.Any other ideas would be highly appreciated

puddleduck

Consider your job / career / employer and any related union or professional bodies that you might belong to. There may be "perks" which include discounted contracts with solicitors for conveyancing that are not well advertised.

We've just paid just over £300 (including VAT) for our sale by being referred to a solicitor in this way - a properly qualified solicitor and paralegal in a visitable office in a major city.

thor

I have been round a few solicitors in my town to get conveyancing quotes for buying and they range from £700 to £900. After reading about internet conveyancing costs being as low as one or two hundred pounds I must admit it is very rare to see such disparity for a similar service. Can this be explained by low overheads and poorer quality service only?

dawyldthing

i hope this site keeps going for many years as things like this are really really useful to know and would take a lot to find out normally