Choosing conveyancing colicitor - selling

Lifes_Grand_Plan

Hi folks,

We have our house on the market at the moment and I have a few questions about solicitors if anyone can help please?

1. When do we need to choose / instruct a solicitor by?
2. Is if cheaper to choose one solicitor to buy and sell with at the same time, and what happens if we end up not buying and rent for a while instead?
3. I have just used MoneySupermarket to do a price comparison and that site also includes reviews of the solicitors. Is it safe / advisable to use such a site to choose one?
4. Is there likely to be any hidden costs / T&C's to look out for?

Thanks in advance for any advice offered.

G_M

Lifes_Grand_Plan wrote: »

Hi folks,

We have our house on the market at the moment and I have a few questions about solicitors if anyone can help please?

1. When do we need to choose / instruct a solicitor by?You don't. You could do the conveyancing yourself
2. Is if cheaper to choose one solicitor to buy and sell with at the same time,
probably cheaper. Certainly easier
and what happens if we end up not buying and rent for a while instead?
Then you just pay the selling fees not the buying
3. I have just used MoneySupermarket to do a price comparison and that site also includes reviews of the solicitors. Is it safe / advisable to use such a site to choose one?
Fine as a starting point. but check the quotes carefully and make sure you understand the pros/cons of : online conveyancing firms; local solicitors;
4. Is there likely to be any hidden costs / T&C's to look out for?
Yes. Read the small print.

Thanks in advance for any advice offered.

http://www.theadvisory.co.uk/conveyancing-quote.php

Lifes_Grand_Plan

Do the conveyancing myself.... really? Do you have any good links to what is involved with that please?

Thanks

G_M

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Which-Guide-Conveyancing-Consumer-Guides/dp/085202813X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1436995291&sr=1-1&keywords=diy+conveyancing

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bradshaws-Guide-Buying-Selling-Conveyancing/dp/B001KSX616/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1436995291&sr=1-3&keywords=diy+conveyancing

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Process-Conveyancing-Residential-Property-Straightforward/dp/1847163947/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1436995365&sr=8-3&keywords=conveyancing

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Conveyancing-Residential-Property-Easyway-Guides/dp/1847163769/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1436995365&sr=8-11&keywords=conveyancing

Do you have a mortgage?

TBagpuss

If you are buying with a mortgage you won't be able to do the conveyancing yourself.

It would be sensible for you to start thinking about solicitors but you would not normally instruct one until you have accepted an offer - at that point, the agents will need your solicitor's details to provide to the buyer.

It is likely to be much simpler to use the same solicitor for selling and buying, particualrly if you are doing both at the same time. It will be slightly cheaper as if you used different solicitors you will pay extra fees to send the money from your sale to the solicitor dealing with your purchases - you effectively add an extra link in the chain which could also slightly slow things down on completion day. If you sell then rent then the purchase will be a completely separate transaction and it is up to you.

Moneysupermarket will only give you details of big 'conveyancing farm' style conveyancers; it won't include smaller, local solicitors.
The best thing to do is to ask friends and colleagues for personal recommendations, and then ring round and get a few quotes.

bear in mind that the big conveyancing companies, and online firms have a tendency to quote a low headline figure to reel you in and then add lots of extras, so make sure you get a detailed quote and make sure that you are comparing like for like.

Bear in mind that if your estate agents push you to use 'their' conveyancer this often means that they are being paid a referral fee (not always: my solicitors do not pay referral fees but they get recommended by local agents because they are very good!) - but if the agents are very pushy or try to tell you that you 'have to' use their recommended conveyancers then that is a red flag!

Small print / hidden charges - solcitors are very tightly regulated and there are strict rules about costs information, check whether the firm you are using are actually solicitors or whether they are simply conveyancers.