Conveyancing decision

JamesN

Hi all

I’ll keep it brief. Got a very simple sale just two parties in the chain. I actually rent the house we are looking to buy. So purchasing with a mortgage from my LL. 

I’ve done loads of searching for conveyancers and some are being honest and saying they are too busy to be confident over a finish before the stamp duty holiday finishes. 

However, I’ve narrowed it down to 2 options. 1 is a local firm and they’ve quoted £1,500. The other is an online one that will be done via an online portal and costs £1,200. The latter also has a no completion no fee policy. Either way both are much more expensive than the quotes I had a while back of around £800! I guess the cheaper ones are fully booked. 

Is there likely to be any tangible benefit of having someone local do it? Only advantage I can think of is they’re more familiar with the local council so searches might be quicker?

Struggling to make a decision so any advice is appreciated. 

Thanks!

MaryNB

It's not just the cheaper ones being booked up. Many have put their prices up. The one I used before Christmas would cost me £100 extra if I started conveyancing now.

Comments on this forum generally note that you'll get better service from a local firm, especially if any issues or complications arise. Although some have had good experiences from online firms.

JamesN

MaryNB said:

It's not just the cheaper ones being booked up. Many have put their prices up. The one I used before Christmas would cost me £100 extra if I started conveyancing now.

Comments on this forum generally note that you'll get better service from a local firm, especially if any issues or complications arise. Although some have had good experiences from online firms.

Thanks Mary. I guess the weird thing I’m finding is that it’s not so much the legal fees that vary. It’s the disbursements that seem to have a big variance. In the quotes are these fixed or can they still vary and are the online team likely to get this wrong by sticking an average in?

hopeitwill

You may also wanna consider the extras. What extras are included/excluded in their fees, and how much they are. Our quote was 1400, and will end up around 2k.

Tiglet2

Disbursements include the cost of searches from the local council.  Most conveyancers will use a Search Agent rather than go direct to the individual councils, so being local will make no difference to the timeframe. 

Disbursements are not part of the solicitor's fee, so on a no-completion, no-fee transaction, disbursement monies (being costs charged by third parties) will be lost if the transaction fails but disbursement monies have already been spent.

Other disbursements are Land Registry fees once you have completed and your solicitor will apply to update the register with you as the new owner, but obviously this would not be needed at the early stages of the transaction.

Weathergirl_76

I read somewhere that a lot of the cheaper conveyancers are overworked and as a result, work a lot slower. I have a no sale no fee local conveyancer ready to deal with the sale of my property. They only deal with conveyancing. I had a look on my local areas Facebook group, and saw some people had asked for recommendations and the same firm came up several times. I don’t think it matters where they are as you don’t need a face to face meeting. 

davidmcn

Weathergirl_76 said:

you don’t need a face to face meeting. 

Which, obviously, nobody is offering at the moment anyway, even by the minority who are working in their office rather than from home.

Ramouth

I found it useful to use a local firm when !!!!!! of address and ID was required.  We were able to go to their office and wait outside while they took official copies of our documents so that we didn’t have to put them in the post.  I was feeling rather paranoid about sending it in the post.  

The other advantage for us was that local firms understand the issues relating to mineral rites which might be less common in other areas.  They certainly were not as cheap as online firms but have been excellent and very responsive.

MaryNB

Ramouth said:

I found it useful to use a local firm when !!!!!! of address and ID was required.  We were able to go to their office and wait outside while they took official copies of our documents so that we didn’t have to put them in the post.  I was feeling rather paranoid about sending it in the post.  

The other advantage for us was that local firms understand the issues relating to mineral rites which might be less common in other areas.  They certainly were not as cheap as online firms but have been excellent and very responsive.

I found that really useful. My solicitors had a branch near my office so I was able to drop in to show my ID.

My solicitor was a quite late sending over my contract to sign and at the time there were postal delays so being able to drop in my signed forms was really handy.

davidmcn

Ramouth said:

The other advantage for us was that local firms understand the issues relating to mineral right which might be less common in other areas.

Yes, local knowledge can often be useful in understanding regional title quirks, how the local councils operate, etc.

JamesN

Thanks all. Really useful information. I’ve just read some reviews on the local one (should’ve done so before asking, apologies) and it doesn’t make great reading. So with that in mind I think I’ll have to go for the online one. The good one is already being used by the seller so can’t use them.