Is this enough red flags to change conveyancing firm?

Deanlangdon14

Hi everyone,

I'm a first time buyer so I don't know exactly what to expect from the conveyancing process.

We had an offer accepted, our broker is about to apply for our mortgage and we've instructed a conveyancing firm.

They're a big firm with generally good reviews. Around 4.2 / 5 on trustpilot out of thousands of reviews.

I chose them because their prices are reasonable (not the lowest on the market either), and I did some research on what makes a good conveyancer and what makes a good quote, and it seemed like they were very transparent and itemised all expected fees at reasonable prices, and they had their T&Cs included with the quote so nothing seemed hidden.

Red flag #1 is that the person handling my case (and it's this way for every case) is not actually a licensed conveyancer. They might be a paralegal or trainee conveyancer, they work together with their own team and then a licensed conveyancer checks their work. And I read that this is not a great system to go for as a customer.

Red flag #2 is that their online portal doesn't work very well. It bugs out all the time, I can't read documents on it and I can't make any bookings.

Red flag #3 is that it's hard to get a hold of people. I called the appointment booking line a few times and been on hold for 5+ minutes at a time with no answer. I called my conveyancer a couple of times yesterday with no answer, and today he answered and he booked my first appointment for 3 weeks from now.

It makes sense that it would be a very busy time right now, and I have nothing to compare this experience to, so I was wondering if this is normal and it's to be expected from pretty much every non-premium firm.

I haven't signed anything or paid them anything yet, I just completed my starter form and agreed to their T&Cs. So I imagine it would be easy to switch. But I would love to hear other people's experiences with conveyancing. If your experience started like this but then ended up all good, or it started like this and it was bad and these are signs to switch. If you think a 3-week wait time for a first appointment is normal around this time of year. All experiences will be great to hear about.

Thank you all!

Dean

powerful_Rogue

Deanlangdon14 said:

Hi everyone,

I'm a first time buyer so I don't know exactly what to expect from the conveyancing process.

We had an offer accepted, our broker is about to apply for our mortgage and we've instructed a conveyancing firm.

They're a big firm with generally good reviews. Around 4.2 / 5 on trustpilot out of thousands of reviews.

I chose them because their prices are reasonable (not the lowest on the market either), and I did some research on what makes a good conveyancer and what makes a good quote, and it seemed like they were very transparent and itemised all expected fees at reasonable prices, and they had their T&Cs included with the quote so nothing seemed hidden.

Red flag #1 is that the person handling my case (and it's this way for every case) is not actually a licensed conveyancer. They might be a paralegal or trainee conveyancer, they work together with their own team and then a licensed conveyancer checks their work. And I read that this is not a great system to go for as a customer.

Red flag #2 is that their online portal doesn't work very well. It bugs out all the time, I can't read documents on it and I can't make any bookings.

Red flag #3 is that it's hard to get a hold of people. I called the appointment booking line a few times and been on hold for 5+ minutes at a time with no answer. I called my conveyancer a couple of times yesterday with no answer, and today he answered and he booked my first appointment for 3 weeks from now.

It makes sense that it would be a very busy time right now, and I have nothing to compare this experience to, so I was wondering if this is normal and it's to be expected from pretty much every non-premium firm.

I haven't signed anything or paid them anything yet, I just completed my starter form and agreed to their T&Cs. So I imagine it would be easy to switch. But I would love to hear other people's experiences with conveyancing. If your experience started like this but then ended up all good, or it started like this and it was bad and these are signs to switch. If you think a 3-week wait time for a first appointment is normal around this time of year. All experiences will be great to hear about.

Thank you all!

Dean

First appointment for what? I've never had any appointments with any conveyancer before.

user1977

Pretty normal for things to be handled by paralegals without formal qualifications - doesn't mean they're bad at their job or don't know when to seek further advice. So that at least isn't a red flag, or any sort of flag.

robatwork

All your flags are a washed-out pink at most. Like when you wash your best Calvins in with the wife's red hoodie. 

All those "bucket shop" conveyancers are a bit pants, but I've used one and it worked out OK in the end.

Deanlangdon14

I'm glad to hear that I don't have to switch, means less work for me. But I find it funny how you read a bunch of articles on this stuff and you form an opinion, then you come to this forum and everyone's like "yeahhh it's fine, whatever"

There must be some less laid back people like me around here  

lika_86

No idea why you need an appointment, everything can be done remotely. I'd give up on the idea of an online portal. Get them to email you everything you need to look at, otherwise it's just another way of stressing you out.

Paralegals might be people with many many years of experience in conveyancing but who aren't licensed or formally trained, alternatively they might be people straight out of university. It's hard to know but not unusual for firms in conveyancing because the margins are so tight.

More important to me is how easy it is to get hold of your primary contact and how responsive they are.

Deanlangdon14

lika_86 said:

No idea why you need an appointment, everything can be done remotely. I'd give up on the idea of an online portal. Get them to email you everything you need to look at, otherwise it's just another way of stressing you out.

Paralegals might be people with many many years of experience in conveyancing but who aren't licensed or formally trained, alternatively they might be people straight out of university. It's hard to know but not unusual for firms in conveyancing because the margins are so tight.

More important to me is how easy it is to get hold of your primary contact and how responsive they are.

That all sounds fair! My dedicated conveyancer seemed nice and responsive, it's just the fact that they talk about an "initial phone appointment" that you have to book that makes me think they don't have much time on their hands.

user1977

lika_86 said:

More important to me is how easy it is to get hold of your primary contact and how responsive they are.

Indeed. You could have a highly-qualified solicitor handling your case, able to deal with all sorts of obscure problems which might crop up - but whose skills are probably going to be irrelevant for your transaction. And who never answers the phone.

Deanlangdon14

powerful_Rogue said:

First appointment for what? I've never had any appointments with any conveyancer before.

I don't know. I think they have a bit more experience than me with this, so when they asked me to book an appointment I booked it.

anselld

There would be two red flags for me ..
  (1). You did not get a personal recommendation from someone you trust
  (2).  It does not sound like a local firm with an office you can walk into 

... at least it wasn't recommended by the Estate Agent!

ManuelG

Deanlangdon14 said:

I'm glad to hear that I don't have to switch, means less work for me. But I find it funny how you read a bunch of articles on this stuff and you form an opinion, then you come to this forum and everyone's like "yeahhh it's fine, whatever"

There must be some less laid back people like me around here  

I'm not laid back but...!

My conveyancer is a paralegal. The company was recommended by family who used them and also had a paralegal, they were very pleased with the results. My opinion is meh, but things do at least move.

I haven't met them, don't expect to,, and am not sure I ever will.

My experience of solicitors, mortgage brokers etc is they're often not very tech savvy. My mortgage broker goes into meltdown when I encrypt documents I send him via email and expect him to understand how to open them. While it's not great if the portal is clunky, I'd put that down to generally being specialists in law rather than IT, and not prioritising the IT as a result, or not fully understanding the system they're buying. As long as it's secure it's a could do better, but not a deal breaker.