House Buying - Finding The Right Conveyancer

Jill_Roberts

i am just about to appoint a solicitor for the house I am buying. When we sold our last house I was really dissappointed with the service provided, it took too long and they made the searches on the wrong address. Has anyone tried the online conveyancing companies, and if so how do you know they are reputable. Are they any better or should we stick with getting a local recommendation?

Slayerx

I work for https://www.legalmove.com

I'm not sure how competitive we are but I would recommend our services.

If you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll answer them to the best of my knowledge.

djm1972

Hi Jill,

The problem with recommending conveyancing firms is that most people either move or buy a home maybe once or twice in their lifetimes; and in most cases would not have used the same firm more than once.

Therefore, the best recommendation you are likely to get is "I used this firm once and they were great"; whereas almost certainly someone else has experienced a problem with the same firm.

Conveyancing is a procedural, event driven process. The real test of a firm's competence comes when a case goes out of process into an anomalous situation. If somebody can recommend a firm that handled a particularly difficult case then I think that recommendation could hold some weight; otherwise I wouldn't honestly take a single case referral as being any safer than choosing any local solicitors out of Yellow Pages...

Slayerx

djm1972 wrote:

Hi Jill,

The problem with recommending conveyancing firms is that most people either move or buy a home maybe once or twice in their lifetimes; and in most cases would not have used the same firm more than once.

Therefore, the best recommendation you are likely to get is "I used this firm once and they were great"; whereas almost certainly someone else has experienced a problem with the same firm.

Conveyancing is a procedural, event driven process. The real test of a firm's competence comes when a case goes out of process into an anomalous situation. If somebody can recommend a firm that handled a particularly difficult case then I think that recommendation could hold some weight; otherwise I wouldn't honestly take a single case referral as being any safer than choosing any local solicitors out of Yellow Pages...

I couldn't of put it better myself.

I often here great and bad things about the firm I work for because everyone has varying expectations and standards.

I don't want peope to think im to tout for business for the company I work for I was just offering a link and my opinion of the serivce they offer.

Phirefly

Slayerx wrote:

If you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll answer them to the best of my knowledge.

Hi Slayerx

We've had a quote for conveyancing from Legal Move that seems competative but I have a couple of queries.

On the quote, the local/drainage/environmental search is itemised at £245.26, is this an estimation? Our local council (Charnwood) have told me their standard search fee is £102.

Also, is it practise that cases are handled by one individual or is is passed along as the case progresses?

And it wasn't clear on my quote whether it was a nocompletion-no fee service.

I'd greatly appreciate any information you could give on the above, thanks

Richard_Webster

You need to look carefully at Legal Move's quote because the present topline £197 + vat isn't the whole truth - have a look at "View the Detailed Quote..." and you will find the £115 + VAT for dealing with the legal work on the mortgage, the £75 + Vat for the SDLT form, the higher than average £39 + Vat electronic transfer fee and (if applicable) the £150 plus VAT leasehold fee.

Anybody getting an estimate for conveyancing from any solicitor needs to check what possible extras there could be to see if they are genuinely one off things related to the particular property - or amounts such "Professional Indemnity Contribution" or "Incidentals including postages, telephones, photocopying and faxes..." which are really profit elements dressed up in a different way to make the topline "Conveyancing on Sale or Purchase" estimate figure look low.

Phirefly

Thanks for the advice. I spoke to a representative from Legal Move about the fact that the searches fee was so much more than our borough council's standard search fee and he couldn't give me a satisfactory definitive answer. His waffle about "oh well searches vary/standard fee/good value" blah blah put me right off them.

Anyone had any dealings with Abode?

pknottm

I used conveyancing-warehouse.com for selling my house in December, and have just purchased one this month using them.

They are polite, answer phones quickly and always returned my calls when promised. Also, their online quote was only a a couple of quid out from the final bill!

They do charge extra for filling in the SDLT form (but give you the option to fill this in yourself, which is fairly straight forward to do yourself), for completions less than 5 weeks, £35 extra for completions within 7 days of exchange, etc.
They didn't charge any extra for dealing with the mortgage company.

For straight forward transactions I would definitely recommmend them.

Phirefly

pknottm wrote:

For straight forward transactions I would definitely recommmend them.

Wow thanks I just ran a quote and they've come out considerably cheaper than all the rest.