Online Conveyancing Companies - Any recommendations?

Yvette394

We have just agreed a sale on our leasehold flat. We have been dealing with a local solicitor to deal with the lease extension which is now completing. However they do not provide fixed prices and therefore the conveyancing estimate may cost in the region of £1000 inc VAT as long as there are no issues and a further £75 to ensure no sale no fee. We have accepted an offer lower than we would really like so every penny counts. Just wondered if anyone had any recommendtions as we are looking for a good company which wont cost the earth and will push the sale through quickly.

Any help greatfully received

Yvette394

Is there no one that has used a good company?

cattie

As it's a bank holiday weekend there are a lot of MSE addicts either away, or spending time with their families, so you just need to be a bit more patient for a reply.

Have you tried to do a search to see if there are any other posts that have recommended online conveyancing servicing?

googler

I'd rather deal with somebody face to face.

Martin_1950

Hi ~ I have used 3 'Online Conveyancers' in the past & could have got it done at the same price local so i would next time use one local.They will all give you a final price for the work & they will all blame the other conveyancer for any hold ups ~ This is what they do,sorry nothing is smooth,you need to pester them all the time.

motherofstudents

To be honest, I wouldn't recommend an online conveyancer. We had an absolutely awful experience with one. Why don;t you ring a few local solicitors, it may be slightly more expensive but well worth it when you need them.

Martin_1950

You do not need a Solicitor ~ Just a conveyancer who has low overheads & can pass this on to you in a cheaper 'Final Price'.

Yorkie1

As a general rule, with online conveyancers you don't get a named person who does the transaction from start to finish. Usually most of the drudge work is done by an unqualified team of people, with a conveyancer (not necessarily a solicitor) at the end.

Therefore there is no continuity of oversight of technical issues and problems - which are especially likely with a leasehold flat. You are also quite likely to have difficulties in communicating with them.

On a leasehold flat transaction I wouldn't risk it for the sake of saving a couple of hundred pounds.

katehumm

I can echo what has been said. We were originally using an online conveyancing outfit for a house purchase that subsequently fell through. They were slow, impossible to get hold of and I never spoke to the same person twice.

In our subsequent purchase (that all went through fine) we used a local solicitor. It was easy to get hold of him, he was efficient, communication was excellent and I was able to save much time by visiting his office to deliver/collect documents. In the end his total bill came to only £30 more than the online outfit.

Yvette394

Thanks for everyone's response I think I will probably go with the local solicitor but have had my fingers burnt by another company whos estimate was £1500 - £2000 for some land conveyancing when the bill arrived it was £6000!

evansmummy

I agree steer clear of online conveyancers.
We used Optima Legal and we believe they were one of the major contributing factors towards the collapse of our house sale.
We have, luckily, found another buyer and are staying clear of them and using a local solicitor. The 'saving' compared to a local solicitor wasn't worth anywhere near the stress they created.