Nationwide, use free conveyancing or my own?

miss_sparkle

We have just reserved a newbuild house, our mortgage broker has got us a mortgage with Nationwide and after looking on their website I noticed they do 'free valuation & legal fees' for flex account holders which we are.
When we reserved our house they asked who we were using for solicitor and I mentioned nationwide and they said 'don't do it', it's more trouble than anything and that they are generally call centres and if anything goes wrong you can never get it resolved.
The sales woman had 2 local recommendations that she gave us or told us to find our own.

So is this generally right? We would be better off not going with their 'free' deal and paying for one ourselves? Obviously financially we would prefer the nationwide deal but we don't want anything going wrong

boss7

I have used their free service in the past, and worked well. So wouldn't discount it. I suppose depends who you are allocated. Note: the deal I had through Nationwide, no other broker could get near it. And I went direct to Nationwide. Had it three times now and it is a great deal. With the latest offer, you can use your own solicitor if you wish, and they offer you £250 cashback if you don't use their free one, so gives you a little flexibility should you wish to not use their allocated one.

Noctu

Hi,
Quite weird to be reading this as we were in exactly the same conundrum a week or so ago, and we're buying a new build too with m'gage with Nationwide! :-)

I haven't had experience of using Nationwide's conveyancing myself but I have heard mostly bad things about it unfortunately. Also they don't pay for everything conveyancing wise, there's quite a bit of it they don't cover e.g. searches etc (and stamp duty obviously) which is a good few
hundred quid.

We decided to go for a local solicitor recommended by both the builder and our family - they have a 10% off offer for those buying thru the builder. Then get the £250 cashback which comes within a month of completion.

TBagpuss

Nationwide don't pay much to the conveyancers in this scheme so they are generally going to be big volume conveyancing factories. That isn't necessarily an issue if the transaction is simple and assuming nothing goes wrong.

Unfortunately, you don't know in advance if that is the case.
You will most likely get he sort of service you would get with any other rock-bottom conveyancing - slow responses, no continuity of worker, problems if there are any issues.

I would not go down that route myself. I would go with a local solicitor you trust, for the peace of mind, and then take the £250 cashback as a nice bonus.

It's a few years back but a friend of mine who is a conveyancing solicitor looked into it for her firm. I think at that time Nationwide were prepared to pay £150 per transaction when normal costs would be around £450. The numbers have no doubt changed but I don't suppose the difference between what the conveyancers get from Nationwide and what it costs to have a professional job done has altered much.

miss_sparkle

Thanks, yeah I thought it would be like that so I think we are just going to go for a local firm and then at least if anything needs sorting we can go in.

pinkpiglit

We're looking to remortgage through Nationwide at the moment. We've used London and Country as the broker and they've suggested that we don't use Nationwide's free legal services, but instead use a legal firm L&C recommend which will cost us an extra £50 (over and above the £250 that Nationwide will give us if we decide against using their services)

I'm not bothered about the £50 as it's such a minimal amount, it's more about whether L&C only want us to use their firm because it means extra commission for them.

I've remortgaged three times so far and always used the free service and never had a problem. This will be the first remortgage in a new property though so not quite sure what to do.

Elfbert

If the ones L&C are advising to use is Beaumont Legal then I would definitely avoid! I used them when I re-mortgaged to Nationwide, and, frankly, they were !!!!.

Chasing them became impossible and in the end I just had to put a rocket up L&C, who in turn chased Beaumont, and finally got things done. I will definitely not use them again!

Mollie90132

I agree with 'TBagpuss'


I have just used Nationwide 'Free' Conveyancing. The offer didn't allow me to use my own.


I felt they were slow to respond but pushed too much for Power of Attorney (Big Mistake!). The house purchase became complicated including a Woodworm issue and boundary dispute


Anything above the standard conveyancing was chargeable and the Conveyancing Firm used said it would be too expensive for me to use them for anything other than standard conveyancing. Unfortunately, they had concluded and the whole deal became a mess. I am being charged for withdrawing, and need to start the whole process again.

dustywarrior

The Conveyancing side of getting a house is by far the most stresful part of the process so I highly advise you use a conveyancer who is local, has a good reputation and who will respond quickly.

Whilst the free conveyancing sure looks attractive, it could be the difference between moving into your house in a couple months, and moving into your house in 6 months.

Thrugelmir

Mollie90132 wrote: »

I
I have just used Nationwide 'Free' Conveyancing. The offer didn't allow me to use my own.

Who ever is used has to be on the lenders panel. As the conveyancer isn't just yours but the lenders as well.

alchemist.1

Take the 250 cashback and use your own solicitor recommended by family or friends. It may cost more but will save hassle in the long run.

London and Country will only be recommending someone they are getting a recommendation fee from rather than any other reason.