Lawyer or just Conveyancer?

badger09

Tiglet2 said:

Licensed Conveyancers have spent a few years training in conveyancing law before qualifying.  Solicitors have spent a few years training in lots of different aspects of the law before qualifying.  While a Solicitor is senior in the pecking order to a Licensed Conveyancer, it is not sensible to instruct a Solicitor who is not an expert in conveyancing, but is an expert in, say, family law for example.  Whoever you decide to go with, look at reviews on Trustpilot and get recommendations from friends.  Personally, I would go with a local Solicitor/Licensed Conveyancer that you can pop into to drop papers off etc.  Many of the conveyancing factories offer cheap fees but take on a large volume of work in order to make a profit, but that also means minimal contact time with you as their client.

Oh Tiglet2, you have just shattered my faith in you😰. I really respect your posts, not to mention your inside information. 

But, Trust Pilot? Seriously?????

OP 

My recommendation as a (fairly) old lady who has just completed the process, would be to go by personal recommendation if possible. If not, choose a local firm of solicitors who have a reputation to uphold. Your transactions will probably be handled by a licensed conveyancer, with solicitor backup/overview. Ours was great. 

I would steer clear of the conveyancer factory set up. Impossible to pin anyone down. A few £00 extra is money well spent.  

Good luck. 

Tiglet2

badger09 said:

Tiglet2 said:

Licensed Conveyancers have spent a few years training in conveyancing law before qualifying.  Solicitors have spent a few years training in lots of different aspects of the law before qualifying.  While a Solicitor is senior in the pecking order to a Licensed Conveyancer, it is not sensible to instruct a Solicitor who is not an expert in conveyancing, but is an expert in, say, family law for example.  Whoever you decide to go with, look at reviews on Trustpilot and get recommendations from friends.  Personally, I would go with a local Solicitor/Licensed Conveyancer that you can pop into to drop papers off etc.  Many of the conveyancing factories offer cheap fees but take on a large volume of work in order to make a profit, but that also means minimal contact time with you as their client.

Oh Tiglet2, you have just shattered my faith in you😰. I really respect your posts, not to mention your inside information. 

But, Trust Pilot? Seriously?????

OP 

My recommendation as a (fairly) old lady who has just completed the process, would be to go by personal recommendation if possible. If not, choose a local firm of solicitors who have a reputation to uphold. Your transactions will probably be handled by a licensed conveyancer, with solicitor backup/overview. Ours was great. 

I would steer clear of the conveyancer factory set up. Impossible to pin anyone down. A few £00 extra is money well spent.  

Good luck. 

Oh no, I am so sorry!!  What can I do to restore your faith??!!

OP, I mentioned Trustpilot purely because most people do look at it, however I must state that the vast majority of people who leave reviews are the ones who were not happy with the service.   When clients are happy with their solicitor or conveyancer, they tend not to leave reviews, but just disappear into the night.

badger09

@Tiglet2
You're forgiven. 

TBagpuss

OP, I would agree with those saying use a local firm of solicitors, based if possible on personal recommendation. 
The individual who deals with your matter might be a solicitor, a licensed conveyancer or a paralegal, but if you use a high street firm local to you it will be a specific, named individual, and there will be someone more senior you will be able to contact if there were to be any issues.

Call to or three and speak to them, see how quickly they are able to come back to you and provide a quote. 

Don't go with a cheap online conveyancer - they tend to be people sitting in cube farms working from a set script and while that works if everything is very straightforward, it tends to fall apart if throe is anything remotely out of the ordinary or which does not fit neatly into their standard set of tick-boxes. I had terrible trouble when I sold my last house as the buyer was using a factory covenyancer and they could not grasp the fact that my conservatory was both far too small, and much too old, to require any planning consent/permission. The sale fell through for other reasons but it was looking as though I was going to end up having to pay for a totally unnecessary indemnity policy simply because the conveyers didn't understand what they were doing and couldn't or wouldn't refer up to someone who had the authority and knowledge to move it on. In my case it was only some stress and a possible £20 policy which I would have been prepared to pay to break the deadlock, but it could be much worse. (My solicitor, who is also a personal friend, has confirmed that he and his colleagues routinely end up doing a lot of extra work  to pick up the slack of what these factories can't / won't do, as it is often the only way to get a transaction completed. 
He mentioned he has one at the moment which is stalled as they cannot or will not understand that his client cannot include in the sale of her flat the freehold title a cupboard in the common area which does not belong to her . . . 

Pennylane

Never heard of a factory conveyancer but have used a local conveyancer several times and never had a problem.  First time I got quotes from a couple of solicitors and the licensed conveyancer and the price difference was massive.  I asked one solicitor why this was so and what he could offer me that a licensed conveyancer couldn’t.  He told me I would get his “personal service”.  that was it!    I went with the LC and was able to drop paperwork into her office and collect stuff and that was “personal” enough for me.  

I will also add that my friend was a secretary working in the conveyancing dept of a solicitors some years ago and she told me she did all the work for her boss (the qualified solicitor) all he did was sign it off.  So you could be paying solicitors rates when the work is actually being done by an unqualified secretary.