Online conveyancing?

Red_Canna

What are peoples experiences of using online convceyancing? I am just about to sell and buy and wonder if on-line may be the way to go. Or, is it a false economy.

All thoughts appreciated.

Many thanks, RC.

P.S. Oh, this is my first post, so please be gentle!

Doozergirl

There are too many bad stories for it to be a good idea. You only see the benefit of a good solicitor when something bad happens and you need the help. Sometimes the issues don't come out until you go to sell.

I've used them before and it was *okay* because I've been through the process many times, I dragged them to completion because I knew what I should expect and what I wasn't getting. I have never done it again and went straight back to the good firm of high street solicitors that we had been using with success and have reaped the benefit of that when things have gone awry a few times since then.

sonastin

If you know that it will be an absolutely simple straightforward sale/purchase then you can afford to go with an online conveyancing outfit. But if you know that it will be that straightforward, why even pay a conveyancer - you might as well do it yourself.

If things go smoothly and there are no hiccups then it can be worth saving the money but if anything is/goes wrong you really want a good solicitor looking after your case. Hindsight is the only thing that will tell you for sure which one you've got so it depends how much you want to gamble with such a large purchase!

STAR_BUCK

for both my house purchases we used Fidler and Pepper and dont have a single bad thing to say about them. very good, prompt service and i loved the fact that I could talk to my conveyancer straight away and had online access to my file so knoew exactly what stage the legal work was at. If you do use fidler and pepper get a quote from the website https://www.legalmove.co.uk as I found that the quote was over £100 cheaper than if I went on the fidler and pepper website and got the quote.

kwte

Hi,

We used these solicitors and they were useless. We had loads of time but on the day of exchange they didn't have the mortgage deed signed so we had to run around to make up for their mistake. Then they registered the house in only my name so not my husbands! It took 8 months to do the necessary additional paperwork then they didn't send it off in time to the lender. They may be cheaper but I wouldn't recommend them.

There are plenty of conveyancing firms offering a better service I believe - as have heard from many friends.

Good luck!

Pennywise

Whilst there are a lot of complaints about online conveyancers, it's not a certainty that you'd get good service by using a "proper" solicitor's practice. People complain about local solicitors as well. As with everything, there are good and bad both ways. You'd be far better getting personal recommendations from other people you know and trust who've recently bought/sold a house.

go_cat

We used a local solicitor as they didn't work out much more expensive and we had one solicitor dealing with us all the time who talked us through loads of stuff and helped us avoid paying unnecessary indemnity insurances for our sale. Our buyers on the other hand used an online one who were slow and quite sloppy e.g same questions asked of our solicitor 5 times even though they had the answers the first time

Yorkie1

Online conveyancers are cheaper because they probably have fewer overheads, and a greater proportion of unqualified staff doing much of the dross-work. You often don't have a named person dealing with your transaction (so no oversight of any issues, nor anyone to contact directly), and you can't just drop in to ask questions in the way you could for a local person.

Gentoo365

I have used 1stpropertylawyers and they are o.k.

Not much 'help', more a list of instructions.

e.g.
Please log in and read the search reports
Please print off this document, sign and post it
Please scan in a copy of your passport

I don't really need much more though and needed a firm that are on HSBC panel so I am not complaining.

One thing I would say is that you should check the 'extra' fees, just in case any of them are relevant.

evansmummy

We used an 'online' solicitors (who happened to be based in our home town and where my mum worked which is why we used them). BIG MISTAKE.
The person who was dealing with it was obviously the assistant with the solicitor signing it off. I could never speak to the solicitor, the assistant was like a rottweilier! :eek:

We were sent the final enquiries list of questions from our buyer and told to get on with it. It was things that they should have dealt with. We ended up having to contact the council and all sorts of things.
We, admittedly, have an grade II listed house but they just didn't want to deal with anything out of the ordinary.

Basically the upshot of it was because of their incompetence we lost the sale on the house.:mad:

So now we have another buyer and we have used a traditional solicitor (who cost near enough the same) and she, so far, has been great.

It really isn't worth 'saving' money on something that has such knock on effects on your life.

Hoof_Hearted

We used FWDLaw to sell and they were fine. Very good communication throughout.