Which conveyancer?

urban469

I think you've convinced me. In the grand scheme of things, when I'm paying hundreds of thousands of pounds, paying an extra £300 isn't going to hurt to get peace of mind.

In the meantime, a friend did come back to me with a recommendation. That quote comes in at £1,450. Also a one-man firm, a solicitor-conveyancer. But based in the Cotswolds (I'm in London).

I've ruled out the two online conveyancers, you've well and truly convinced me! So now I just need to think about whether I go with:
–local person who I found on reallymoving.com and had a good feeling about for £1,720
–not-so-local person who comes with my friend's recommendation and sounds ok by phone for £1,450

Richard_Webster

Searches: local, water, drainage, environmental, chancery

I assume "chancery" means chancel. Since October last year this has ceased to be needed. If the Chancel Rights are not registered at the Land Registry against the title then the buyer acquires the property free of any liability for Chancel Repairs - so why do a Chancel Search when a Land Registry Search gives you the information and is done in any event?

So solicitors that are still charging for such searches are really not up to date with the law - which is worrying....

urban469

Richard_Webster wrote: »

I assume "chancery" means chancel. Since October last year this has ceased to be needed. If the Chancel Rights are not registered at the Land Registry against the title then the buyer acquires the property free of any liability for Chancel Repairs - so why do a Chancel Search when a Land Registry Search gives you the information and is done in any event?

So solicitors that are still charging for such searches are really not up to date with the law - which is worrying....

Chancel, my mistake. No, that was me pushing conveyancers to assure me that their quote covered that.

One of the solicitors that I might go with has told me that he doesn't usually consider chancel insurance (insurance, not search?) necessary, but he can obtain it for £20.

PheoUK

My advice, go local.

Then when things go wrong, you have someone local to sort it with. Also MUCH easier to sort documentation - you can drop it off.

Phone-a-Friend

Premier Property Lawyers are the same as 1st Property Lawyers!

(CaseRef: 289212) I got roped into using this online company because of the promise of late working hours and availability on Saturdays. In addition, my mortgage adviser, London & Country, also referred them. The truth was quite different though - forget late working hours or weekends, the conveyancer is usually incredibly hard to get hold of even during weekday normal working hours over phone, or through e-mail. Keep e-mailing them or leaving voicemail messages, and they call back at only when they fancy. You constantly need to chase them up for them to make any progress in the case, which is a pain when it is so hard to reach them in the first place. During a month and a half of my purchase, they changed my conveyancer thrice - thus introducing more lack of continuity into the equation. Also, to most of my questions (which were as straightforward as reading the title deed and explaining to me what the covenants meant in plain English), their response was that I needed a legal specialist to address that question! News-flash: I did pay these idiots to act in my best interest as my lawyers! My opinion is that with all this project micro-management and lack of any legal expertise, I could have carried the process out myself without having to pay anyone to carry out unintelligent, merely administrative tasks.