Can anyone recommed a conveyancing solicitor in SE London?

Windsorcastle

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Richard_Webster

Edited now - this post I mention below has been deleted but was a spammy reference to instant-legaladvice.co.uk.

I've just been on that site to have a look and to get a quote for buying a freehold house for £180,000 with a mortgage.

The figure given is on the low side, and we haven't seen their terms and conditions from the solicitor himself - see below about this. Because I opted to be "First Time Buyer" it showed no Stamp Duty Land Tax payable. The First Time Buyer SDLT relief was abolished some time ago so they haven't updated their website!

Also show an out of date Land Registry Fee!

They have series of articles which are nearly all in fairly standard format that says that Instant Legal's panel solicitor acted on a purchase/sale/remortgage of a property in XXX and they give a link to the relevant local authority website (why?). They say that the case was interesting because [insert some factor or the other] and then "By working closely with the solicitors on the other side of the transaction being YYYYYY solicitors – https://www.[some address].co.uk conveyancing solicitors based in ZZZZZZ the transaction proceeded to a speedy exchange and completion."

It isn't a solicitor's practice but merely a referral agency which collects 15% of the fees from the solicitor who gets the referral. You have to ask why any solicitor worth his salt would want to pay 15% of his fees to someone else to get the business.

The terms and conditions say:

"The Service offers no legal advice, recommendations, endorsements, or legal representation of any sort. The Service offers Customers a means to obtain an initial free consultation or free quotation from a Solicitor on the areas of legal advice provided. The Company does not practice law, nor provide legal services. Each Customer is solely responsible for choosing to use the Solicitor introduced and their terms of business with that Solicitor."

So it is not impossible that the solicitor would later send a load of T & Cs with small print and various extras noted to catch out an unwary client.

My suggestion for finding a conveyancing solicitor in SE London is to Google "Conveyancing Solicitor [Name of your area]" and then phone a few of them and ask for detailed written estimates. You can ask about extras on the phone - will there be any? Have a look at what they send you and examnine it critically - think about how approachable the person was and how much they seemed to know.

AlexMac

We live in SE London and when we bought and sold (4 times; both our home and a BTL) in late 2011 were really happy with our solicitor (even compared with the five others we've experienced in the past 20-odd years).

But we did as Richard suggests above; phoned the local 3 leading practices to establish
- their price (but also)
- that I could speak directly to the person doing the conveyancing (ie they were accessible by phone or returned calls quickly)
- that they were efficient enough to confirm immediately by email (I made it clear I was happy to deal via email and confirmed that they were, thus saving many days if not weeks on correspondence)

We chose the one who best met these criteria- ie on service and efficiency not on cost. There might have been a few hundred quid difference between their quotes (we live in Blackheath, so not the cheapest manor) and those of the on-line conveyancers, but given the fixed costs (1-3% SDLT, Searches, Land Registry...) this represents a tiny % of the toatl cost of buying a house. So why take a risk with an online cowboy somewhere hundreds of miles away?

Our transactions went well, but when the kids used the same brief more recently, she saved them endless grief by tenaciously pursuing a problematic title problem- while the vendors' cowboy conveyancer refused to answer letters for weeks at a time and nearly caused the collapse of the chain.

So we got what we paid for; and while we used (and were very happy with) Trisha at 'Cunningham Blake', I'd select a solicitor local to you on the basis of some kind of selection process.

RedRuby_2

I'm also on the look out for a good conveyancing solicitor in SE London, so please keep the recommendations coming.

Windsorcastle

Many thanks to Richard and Alexmac for really informative posts. Very sound advice - thankyou.

sarah_2-2

I haven't used them myself, but my colleague had no hesitations recommending Glazer Delmar – she used them just over a year ago for her flat and said it all went very smoothly. She dealt with Nick Averling and when I called for a quote, I was put right through to him (which I think is always a good sign!) and he was very helpful and friendly. They're based in East Dulwich. I ended up going with another solicitor who was a wee bit cheaper and more local to me, but from the little experience I had with them, they sounded great.

Windsorcastle

Thanks - haven't heard of that firm but will look them up. Is it a good idea to instruct a solicitor before I've actually found a buyer? I'm thinking that will speed things up because all my paerwork will be in order already? is this normal?

Sparky79

Currently in the process of moving in SE London/NW Kent and couldn't recommend Martin Tolhurst highly enough. Due to exchange this week and that will be 6 weeks from offer accepted. Okay, the chain has been simple, but MT have worked really hard for me, always answer emails within a couple of hours and always on the end of the phone. I have used the Longfield office.

AlexMac

Co-incidentally, having recommended finding a SE London solicitor (post 3 above) I also used the Longfield branch of Martin Tollhurst very satisfactorily 6 years ago for a leasehold purchase in Kent. So that's another tick!

We like occasional face-to-face contact when dealing with a solicitor, but Longfield's only 20 minutes down the A2... and at that time, their conveyancing solicitor was a woman. Every one of the 8-10 happy transactions we've done in the past 20 years was via a woman conveyancer, whereas the only problems I had (prior to that) was with a bloke. Hardly a scientific survey- but so far its gels -dix points, garcons - nul points!

Ljsum

Windsorcastle wrote: »

Preferably a fixed fee, 'no sale, no fee' basis. But any suggestions would be welcomed.

My property has a third party equity loan on it, which I'll be repying so if anyone has experience of those kind of key worker sales, even better. Thanks in advance!

Hi.. I can recommend a firm in West Sussex for you. You don't need to be close to your solicitor. This firm will work on a no completion no fee basis and also offers a unique buyer protection if you are purchasing as well, allowing you to reclaim lost valuation, mortgage arrangement fees and legal disbursements up to a certain value £1850 in total I believe, subject to terms and conditions should the purchase fall through for a reaso. Outside of your control and covered by them. The company is Gaby Hardwicke and they have a Business development manager you would need to speak to. They are a very good firm with an excellent reputation.

Hope this helps...