Is better to use a local solicitor or an online one

folkestonelisa

Thanks for all your input, we've gone with the local one ��

JayZed

The first time we bought we used a cheap online conveyor-belt conveyancer. They were terrible, had to chase them constantly and they held up our sale by many weeks through incompetence and !!!!lessness.

The second time we used a local solicitor, they were great, very responsive and got things done quickly. Unfortunately the transaction was no smoother because our vendors held things up, but I was glad that we had someone competent on our side managing things.

Now we're buying a much more expensive place and the difference in costs between a cheap online conveyancer and a local solicitor are huge. I've really been in two minds about it because of the difference in cost - and it should be a reasonably straightforward sale/purchase. But we want to move before Christmas, and when I think back to the first experience we had, I really don't want to go through that again. So I think I've decided to grit my teeth, suck up the extra cost and go with the local firm, who I know to be efficient and responsive.

thebigstillmeister

We used an online one for our last move,..

Initially I was really impressed, you could login to the website, see progress of everything, easily see what was complete and what was still waiting to be done etc,. I could upload/download documents all on the website, I remember saying to my wife how great it was,..

Then when things started dragging and we had issues (didn't help that our buyers solicitor was even worse) we could not get hold of our solicitor, emails would be ignored, phone calls were all through the main switchboard number and we'd always be told he was unavailable and we'd never get a call back,

If he was local, I would have been able to go in and speak face to face without losing 2 or 3 days trying to speak to them,

Akahotpot

I am using a local firm but not my local branch as the Head Office is across from where i work so i can nip across the road
Its been really handy as the local office would be shut by the time I got there from work

sick_of_being_in_debt

I used an online solicitor as my mortgage provider paid the purchase fees and they were great. Whereas my buyer used a local firm and they were so slow and not very efficient (misplaced documents) so I suppose it depends on the individual firm.

n217970

Mixed experience, last time I moved I used a local one who couldn't get their head around the mortgage porting procedure despite 3 or 4 emails from me, a phone call from the mortage team at Nationwide (who were great) and detailed instructions on the Nationwide redemption statement. They were determined I needed to give them a cheque for the full ERC.

The matter was only resolved when I went in person, speaking slowly and clearly to the solicitor until they finally understood what they needed to do.

An online solictor would have been much harder to visit, but may not have been as intellectually challenged.