Conveyancing

oligopoly

Disclaimer: I'm useless at making decisions...

We've just sold our house (hooray) at a few thousand above asking. Unfortunately our accepted offer on the new place has been gazumped (boo!) and so we're back to looking at properties again.

I need to get cracking with the sale, however, and need to appoint a conveyancer. I like the idea of local, but the prices are so much more than online! I will most likely buy a house soon and so I'm sure it will soon become a sale and purchase convenyancing.

Our local solicitors have quoted £2,000 for both (sell at £253k, buy at £340k) - we're in Hampshire.

Shall I pay the going rate for a local one or do we think the online ones are worth a gamble?

Beamont Legal quote £1,152, RMNJ quote £1,536...

Dan-Dan

I had this conundrum a couple of weeks back, my opinion is that you get what you pay for, i went for a local solicitor, and tomorrow i go and see him for a discussion, that on its own is something you cant do with a conveyancing `factory`

DaftyDuck

If you have any likely complexity ( and a delay in a chain would count...), then a local solicitor in a"bricks and mortar" building is worth the extra. If you have a simple, easy-to-manage sale in a non-chain situation, then an on-line conveyancer may well suffice. I would never use an on-line solicitor to buy a property, however.

A local, friendly solicitor may well have a good relationship with the local estate agents (not too friendly..) and be able to help explain delays/convince of proceedability in a timely (or, if suited, in a not-so-timely) manner.

oligopoly

Cheers guys. OK i'm going all-in on the local one!

dc197

Not only might the local conveyancers have a good relationship with the local EAs, they hopefully also have a good local knowledge.

Example
Me: "what is this in the deeds about mining rights reserved by Lord La-de-Da?"
Him: ".<thorough explanation>...The local conveyancing community do not perceive this to be a potential risk."

You would not get that with a factory.

oligopoly

Just submitted my choice of solicitor via Purplebricks portal and saw that the buyer is using cheapy Beaumont Legal (where's the roll-eyes emoticon?) It will be interesting to see how the other side does...

cjm888

Used RMNJ a few times and had no issues. Its always been the other parties "high street" solicitors that were the issue..

bmthmark

I used a local company, I know it costs more but I was able to easily contact them when I had any questions. My sale and purchase went through very smoothly.

The reason why I went local is because I felt that if there were any issues I could of easily jumped in my car and speak to them directly instead of via email.

TrickyTree83

Probably on the whole local solicitors are better but it's not as straight forward as that even.

What a lot of people who have replied so far have failed to mention is that your local solicitor may be a small operation and may also advertise their services far and wide, they may have a high workload and be unable to work effectively and at an acceptable pace.

I've recently found this when selling my house. The offer was accepted on Dec 22nd, no chain on both sides of the transaction. My solicitor was a larger firm that could be considered a "factory" in a nearby city. That firm was quick to respond and accurate in all the dealings they had with me. The buyers solicitor was a local one/two man band who to be honest made a right hash of things and we only exchanged contracts yesterday.

Local is not always best. A large-ish, local-ish conveyancing firm would be a better option. You need to consider that you're going to want to get in touch with them over the phone or drop in and see someone and not be told that there is no one available to see/talk to. In a larger firm you will usually have a team of solicitor/s, trainees, paralegals, admin staff that you can talk to. Whilst some people will say the online conveyancing factories are faceless, I've generally found the larger firms to be contactable at the least instead of being met with an answerphone and un-answered emails.