Online conveyancing

Albermarle

A family member bought a house last year using a 'normal' solicitors office, but one that was 200 miles away.

They came highly recommended and were 25% cheaper ( based in a lower cost area). Also they responded to the initial enquiry for a quote very quickly, ( unlike some local ones) which was a good sign. Everything done on line, but they had a regular contact person and the actual solicitors e mail if needed. They were very good.

Chief_of_Staffy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82033305#Comment_82033305

Online solicitors are themselves online. 'Online' doesn't refer to their services. They have no physical 'high street' presence. In addition, most of them have no relevant qualifications and no local knowledge.

Savvy_Sue

I wouldn't use an online conveyancer, but that's mostly because when we sold my late parents' house I used a solicitor near me who I happen to know personally. Yes, I'm sure I could have done it cheaper, but I wouldn't have been able to check in with him on the train on our way to work … (he would offer any updates he had, or I'd ask if it was OK to talk shop on the train …)

If he wasn't available, I'd try to get another personal recommendation.

mlz1413

I used an online conveyancing company in 2024 and would highly recommend them. (Chadwick Lawrence)

The high street solicitors used by the other two in the chain were no better than ours and we paid half the amount of a local solicitor.

I would say ALL conveyancing regardless of who you use is slow.

It's a highly stressful time and each solicitor/conveyor blames the other so it's hard to know if any are worse than the other.

In my chain the buyer of our house was using a friends company as they thought that would help. I don't think they remained friends as all their instructions were ignored.

The lady I was buying from was using the solicitor I have used the last twice, local company been around over 20 years, and being on the other end of the process was an absolute eye opener and I will never use them again.

Each solicitor blamed my conveyor for everything but my conveyor was very on the ball and every complaint raised he could show emails already sent.

Use who you are comfortable with and just accept it's likely to take longer than you expect and want

Chief_of_Staffy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82034861#Comment_82034861

Chadwick Lawrence is not an online conveyancer. They are a 170 year old firm with eight physical offices.

Gonk1967

Well we went with the estate agent's conveyancer, but they just palmed us on to some firm in London (Taylor Rose) and after a bit of due diligence, we found they'd recently been fined by the SRA over £160K for holding on to clients money.

Needless to say we've now binned them and gone with a local firm of solicitors. Wish we'd done that to start with.