Best Solicitors on the Market

Kad_Williams

I have dreams when it comes to buying property in the future. Not to become a mogul or anything. But I'm determined to live in a period house in South London (yup that's gonna be expensive) at some point in the next 5-10 years.


The next dream is to have a great solicitor! Y'know - one that you can talk to and feel like they have the time to listen to your queries? One that you feel confident isn't so busy that they can pull a case together when you're in a pinch? One that will liase with the different people who have a vested interest in the case's success? And one that is transparent about the style/reach/limitations of their communication?



I know they exist because I've had one as a private client (for non property matters) for 6 years. But in conveyancing it seems difficult to find this level of service even at elevated price points - particularly where a mortgage lender and lender panel solicitor is required. This is me going off of reviews and reading people's relevant experiences on MSE.


Why does finding a solicitor/firm that is truly great in terms of service and skill/efficiency seem so elusive? It almost seems like you just 'get lucky' when you find one? Maybe I'm wrong and there's actually a God tier level of conveyancing that I haven't found yet - Where should I be looking?!


I'm telling you I'd pay a high price for that service, for sure.



What are your experiences?

Slithery

I've just used the same person at the same local firm that's done all of the conveyancing for my family for the last 30 years. She's always been fantastic, even when I needed to complete on an auction property with a few days notice.

Nothing difficult about it

Kad_Williams

Amazing! And what area was that in, Slithery?

Slithery

Norfolk.

You couldn't pay me to move to London, I can't imagine a worse place to live in the UK.

eddddy

Most people decide to go for a fixed fee deal for conveyancing - and when calculating the fixed fee, solicitors don't allow for much time for talking and listening.

It's probably because lots of people get multiple quotes for conveyancing and tend to go for one of the cheaper quotes.


If you tell a solicitor that you want to pay them their hourly rate, instead of a fixed fee, I suspect they'll talk and listen as much as you want.

(As you probably know, a senior solicitor might charge as much as £400 per hour, and a paralegal might charge as little as £100 per hour.)

G_M

I use a local guy who works in a small partnership of 3.


I found him by simply visiting 3 or 4 firms in my local high street. No appointment I just went in and asked - he came down, spent time chatting, listening to what I planned, explained his costs and seemed really approachable.


On one (eventually aborted) purchase that was really complex (lots of covenants, really old maps associated with fishing rights etc) it was helpful to be able to go in, look at the maps/documents with him, and discuss the problems. No clock-watching, it was all within his original quote.


I know online conveyancing can work fine when things go smoothly, but you can't beat the personal touch when something crops up.



Sorry - he's not in London though!

Kad_Williams

How interesting! I think that’s the ticket really : someone who can make things work, not when things are smooth sailing, but when things go wrong.

I’ve used the same online conveyancer for a right to buy purchase and later another, ‘traditional’ purchase. Both similar in that the sellers solicitors took forever to respond to enquiries and mortgage offer expired once. But none of that mattered when I was already living in the flat I was buying! Even the fact that I had no updates from solicitors (3 emails throughout the whole right to buy process)

That hasn’t worked for me in the traditional scenario.


An hourly rate, I’d happily pay if it meant that when time was of the essence my solicitor would keep on top of things and give others involved in the purchase (broker/estate agent/me) information that might advance the process.

London firms seem to be coming up short so far! Surely that’s not a trend?!

Murphybear

When OH and I bought a property together we used a solicitor he had played bridge with for years, don’t suppose that helps :rotfl:

When I sold the last property I owned I was going to use online conveyancing but I couldn’t because I wasn’t living in the property, it was 200 miles away. So I used a little 2 man band a few hundred yards from my office, they did a brilliant job.

I think the moral may be use a small local firm rather than a large impersonal one