online conveyancing ?

Hedgehog99

As a seller whose buyer used a no sale no fee solicitor, it was a nightmare. Their solicitor left everything to the last minute (because they didn't want to do work they might not get paid for) and jeopardised the chain. I could have lost out on my purchase because of the months of delays.

davidmcn

Davesnave wrote: »

Bearing in mind that they will know the law, I think it might be wise to avoid the latter, unless you have their consent, preferably in writing.

I charge extra for that sort of stuff.

G_M

Originally Posted by Mrs CP
go with someone you can actually see, touch and feel!!

Davesnave wrote: »

Bearing in mind that they will know the law, I think it might be wise to avoid the latter, unless you have their consent, preferably in writing.

In which case, like one lucky poster here, you might get a happy ending.

gld73

I used an online conveyancer when I purchased my current home 2 years ago - all went fine. It's in Scotland though, so if you're in England or Wales it wouldn't be of much use as a recommendation.

I'm now about to sell my house in England and am likely to go with an online one once I've done a bit of looking around - I'm hundreds of miles away so not going to be popping into the solicitor's office for regular updates anyway, I'll have to do everything by phone/email/post. As I'm not around to do viewings etc I'm paying a lot for a local estate agent rather than using a much cheaper flat fee online one, but I don't need a local conveyancer.

And I don't think it's as clear cut as online ones are unreliable, local ones are infallible - my local solicitor when I bought the house in England missed out some key stuff which subsequently came back to bite me with a bill for a few hundred pounds which should have been paid by the previous owner. All I got from the solicitor was a verbal apology for their error.

davidmcn

gld73 wrote: »

And I don't think it's as clear cut as online ones are unreliable, local ones are infallible

Indeed, and calling the high-volume places "online" hardly distinguishes them these days when much of the work is going to be done online (and/or by phone/post) no matter how far away your conveyancer is based.

A smaller firm can be just as likely to delegate the work to someone who is out of their depth, might not have the resources to cope with increases in workload/employee absences, larger firms might be run like production lines but tend to be better with enforcing more consistent quality control, training, etc - I don't think it's helpful to over-generalise about what each type of firm is like.

Dollymix12

I thought I had made a mistake choosing the EA's online conveyancer Countywide. I had sleepless nights after I read loads of horror stories about them! Turns out I was worrying for nothing, we were assigned a Lawyer by name who generally gets back to me within an hour, I have a direct line and email address for her, she has completed my sale and hopefully we will complete on our purchase in the next few weeks. We have the added bonus of tracing in line exactly where everything is up to and always being able to contact someone about our case any day of the week. Fees for the sale where also exactly as quoted but watch this space for purchase fees!

samspam

Do not use an online conveyancer, you need a local firm where you can drop documents in when you need to. Just shop around and get their fee's. They will work on a fee scale dependant on property value and disbursements. Fees for selling are normally lower than buying and more disbursements on buying. I sell new build houses and having also bought and sold many houses myself I would never consider an online conveyancer as you need someone you can get hold of easily and quickly.

samspam

Dollymix12 wrote: »

I thought I had made a mistake choosing the EA's online conveyancer Countywide. I had sleepless nights after I read loads of horror stories about them! Turns out I was worrying for nothing, we were assigned a Lawyer by name who generally gets back to me within an hour, I have a direct line and email address for her, she has completed my sale and hopefully we will complete on our purchase in the next few weeks. We have the added bonus of tracing in line exactly where everything is up to and always being able to contact someone about our case any day of the week. Fees for the sale where also exactly as quoted but watch this space for purchase fees!

Glad to hear this, I used to work for Countrywide as a valuer, I hated selling their conveyancing services as they were terrible.