Cheap solicitor / conveyancing

diggingdude

I used a local solicitor and found them useless so I would ignore anything on here other than "ask friends/family"

leix2012

Yes don't go with one your EA recommends. We have learnt that so far.

DigForVictory

Whichever you go for, as a FTB, you will probably be in touch with them, a lot.

Ask if they have a fixed upper limit or what the costs are per text, email, or letter asking how things are going.
(We paid the standard rate for our solicitor, but spent another £50 on thankyou presents for the staff we had dealt with & who had been so awesomely patient & supportive with our queries. Getting on for 16 years ago...)

Peter_Williams

I used a local solicitor, who had worked for friends and family in the past.
Cost me about £500 for a straightforward freehold purchase (vacant possession).

Being local isn't that important (so long as it's England and Wales). But generally you're going to find more people you know who can recommend local solicitors. Plus you need to visit their office for signing documents etc.

Local solicitors will also know the local estate agents and probably be more aware of any local issues regarding new developments / land issues / flooding risks etc.

Plus, if you've walked past a local solicitor's office every day for the last 10 years, they're probably not that bad or they wouldn't have stayed in business.

Yalpsmol

As previous, go by recommendation. We couldnt afford the company recommended to us. We went with someone we found to have good reviews online in the end as didn't know many people to get personal recommendations from.

I would avoid anywhere where you cant easily phone up or get through during normal hours you would be free. Our costs were basically fixed so no charging per letter or anything like that. Although even as FTB we met the solicitor for about 30 seconds, had a few scattered emails and 2 brief phone calls (over 17 weeks). I dont know if thats typical though, and the expensive recommendation we received did sound worth it as they get a lot more support and unprompted updates from their solicitor.

The recommendation from the EA looked good until you read the small print. Low fixed cost but including hardly any of the inevitable extras so would have been more overall. And they had terrible reviews including multiple people going through the ombudsmen now!

Smodlet

Only thing I have to add is, my one and only experience of online conveyancers left me resolved never to repeat it. We used a "real" solicitor for our purchase and they were not significantly better.

We were in a panic-buy situation, having had a property we had considered for the better part of a year fall through on us at the last minute but I would always, always go with personal recommendation... For any tradesperson; that is all solicitors are.

Surrey_EA

leix2012 wrote: »

Yes don't go with one your EA recommends. We have learnt that so far.

This is quite a sweeping statement.

In part I agree. Frequently the larger, corporate EA firms have links to conveyancing 'factories' and refer in return for a fee.

Plenty of smaller but multi-branch firms have similar arrangements.

However, small, privately owned, independent firms like my own tend to know who is worth using in the area in which they operate, and who to avoid.

There is a small group of firms i point clients toward, perhaps half a dozen or so. I have not sought, nor been offered, any financial incentive for doing so. A lunch perhaps, or maybe a bottle of something at Christmas, but that's about it.

Soot2006

Our buyer went with a cheap conveyancer. They have sent SO many of their inquiries via the estate agent. I always respond via our solicitor to theirs so it's all recorded correctly. Turns out they were paying per email/call rather than a package for the whole purchase, so although they had a million and one questions and wanted a million and ones things and needed their hands holding, they hadn't actually paid for that sort of service. The estate agent is MY agent, so ultimately they haven't had great impartial advice. I too need my hands holding, so I paid a highly recommended solicitor to have my back.

Smodlet

As with pretty much everything, you get what you pay for. Online conveyancers are like mindless sausage factories in my limited experience which is not to say I recommend high street lawyers either. They are all destined for hell imho but, at least with the high street ones, there exists the possibility to go into their office and bang on a desk.

Once upon a time, before online chat and call centres, that was what we did; I have yet to find a substitute I consider satisfactory.

Finchy2018

Not all agents get a bung. I did not, I just recommended a good local firm, whom even after leaving the industry I have recently used for a sale and purchase. I didn't get anything in return for recommending just the knowledge the sale was likely to go through.