Which solicitor?

Sticky77

Hello we have had an offer accepted by the vedor who is selling with purple bricks. My house is on with a regular agent. Do I use purple bricks solicitors for the purchase on that one and the solicitors that our EA uses (they also use an online company) for the sale of ours?
I asked our estate agent for details and he said I'd have to wait until I had an offer on ours first but I'd like to get things moving now.
Hope that makes sense.
Thanks in advance x

benjus

You can use any conveyancing solicitor you want for both transactions (although if you're getting a mortgage and they are not on the mortgage lender's panel, you would have to pay for a separate solicitor to do the mortgage work).

Personally I'd use the same solicitor for both, and find one that YOU like. Don't let anyone pressure you into using "recommended" solicitors just because they'll get a kickback.

rosie383

benjus wrote: »

You can use any conveyancing solicitor you want for both transactions (although if you're getting a mortgage and they are not on the mortgage lender's panel, you would have to pay for a separate solicitor to do the mortgage work).

Personally I'd use the same solicitor for both, and find one that YOU like. Don't let anyone pressure you into using "recommended" solicitors just because they'll get a kickback.

^^^^ This. Use your own, not theirs. The fee that the EA would get from it is a good whack of what you will pay and despite what the EA will tell you, it does not 'speed things along' to use the one they recommend.
We used DC Law in the summer for one which eventually fell through. No sale, no fee so we didn't pay them anything, but they were very good. This time using RCMJ and so far, so good. Only didn't use DC Law this time as we discovered how much of the fees were going to the EA's pocket.

Annie1960

Use one solicitor for both to ensure they exchange and set completion date the same for both your sale and purchase.

I suspect there would be scope for lots of things to go wrong if you use two solicitors.

Find a local one that you trust. If you use one recommended by either estate agent you may end up paying more as they may pay the estate agent a 'referral fee'.

Malmo

Obtain like-for-like quotes for a number of solicitors that can do the conveyancing tasks for both the property you wish to purchase and the sale of your property. Then choose one that you are comfortable with. Avoid solicitors recommended by your or their estate agent as the agent will receive a commission / referral fee / kickback, which will inflate the cost to you.

Have a look at this article for a breakdown of the solicitor / conveyancing costs that you should review and query when comparing quotes.

bylromarha

Agree again. Choose your own.

Can recommend Fidler and Pepper highly. Used for 3 transactions in the past 2 years. I love their online access - you can see everything they see and all the paperwork that's been scanned in.

http://fidler.co.uk/

They were cheaper than the local people we got quotes from plus they worked far faster than the local solicitor our vendors were using.

benjus

Another point - remember that one of the things you're paying the solicitor for is to spot any issues with the properties and the paperwork that might arise, so you want someone that will do the job diligently. OTOH, the agent is interested in someone that will get the transaction to completion as quickly as possible.