We've finally accepted an offer! - Online conveyancing??

lisahobden

Hello everyone

We have an offer on the house, now I need to instruct a solicitor, I've had a quick scan of the web and we could save £500 odd by using an online conveyancer - is this a wise decision?

Can anyone recommend a cheap but effective online conveyancer or do you guys think the local solicitor route is worth the extra money in terms of better service and reduced stress?!?!?!

Lisa x

si-mate

Our sale is going through with Legalmove who (so far) seem to be very efficient.

Gillibobs

I haven't used an online conveyancer so can't comment on that, however we found that on advantage to using a local solicitor was that we could just pop any paperwork back through the door rather than having to re-post everything back and therefore lengthening the process (plus I am useless at remembering to post things!)

lisahobden

si-mate wrote: »

Our sale is going through with Legalmove who (so far) seem to be very efficient.

Thank you the site looks good. On the site it asks for a promotion code - I don't suppose you have a "recommend a friend" code or anything?

Lisa

si-mate

Sorry, no. Although I ought to ask for a referral fee!

lisahobden

ok thanks anyway! I think I will use them

si-mate

Don't blame me if they are useless

chappers

No problem using an on-line conveyancer for a simple transaction but where a decent solicitor comes into his own is if any problems arise, and here lies the crux of the matter an online conveyancer just wants to get the deal pushed through and out of the way and won't go looking for problems ,which if left under the carpet might actually come back to bite you in the future or may not actually be resolvable and might be reason for you to pull out.

To give you an example my brother-in-law tried to buy a house, in the deeds it stated that a grass area in front of the property(necessary to get to the property) belonged to the house. However it turned out that when a piece of land next to this house was divided up and sold that the piece of land in question had been missed off and in later transaction of the house in question was registered to his house. This had been missed for several sales of his house resulting in people paying money for land which they actually had no right to buy. His solicitor(actually a conveyancing solicitor in his own practice) spotted this though 4 before him had missed it.They tried for 6 months to resolve this with money changing hands between previous purchasers and vendors of both properties, eventually as the dispute seemed to have no forseeable end my BIL pulled out of the sale and bought another house in the villiage. This house is still unsold and as far as I know the ownership of the land is resolved but the access to the property is not.

Obviously there are good and bad solicitors and conveyancers out there, but I would far rather put my trust in a local solicitor who you can then use to resolve any further disputes that may come up as aresult of the conveyancing process.

unclebuck_2

I use only online conveyancers. Why? becasue they a miles cheaper then the local lot.
My broker tells me who is the cheapest from a panel of 150 firms who have to keep a rating higher than 75% or something.
Track the status all online whenever I want. What more can I ask.

dweeby

Check this bunch:

http://www.abodeconveyancing.co.uk/home.htm

Cheesy website, but come recommended on these forums. Online instant quotes, usually very cheap. We're currently using them for the second time, and they're no worse than any other solicitors - but are cheaper. You get direct dial and email address for your solicitor, and they're also quite quick.

PasturesNew

I used lawcomm for online conveyancing. I was only selling.

I found that I had NO idea what was going on - and couldn't even get an answer to the question of when we might exchange. I needed 2 weeks between exchange and completion and in the end just went with the flow of "whatever!" just to get it over and done with, ended up with 2 days between the two.

They also failed to pay my estate agent from the funds. So I had to go along and write a cheque out myself the next morning.

I'd not use them to buy as buying is so much more important for the long-term to get right.