Choosing conveyancing solicitors

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Squark

Squark

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How on earth do you do it? :confused:

How do you decide which ones to go with, they seem to vary so much?

I guess I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at the choice, there seems to be so many that I don't have a clue who to go with, it's not an insignificant sum of money and I don't what to make a bad choice.

Obviously I'm a first time buyer so I'm quite clueless.

Help!
 
From experience, and from speaking to everyone I know who has used them, they are all ****.

Assume they are a waste of space and utterly useless and at least you then won't be disappointed with their performance.

So with that in mind, use Money Supermarket or something to look for one that is local to you (so you can hand deliver things and do ID checks in person), well priced, and offers some sort of money back guarantee if things fall through. I would also steer clear of any firm that gets recommended to you by the Estate Agent.

Unless your purchase/sale has complications or is non standard in some way, your just paying someone to push papers through a standard process.
 
We went with the recommendation of the independent mortgage adviser.

From what I gather most are utter bobbins, ours were no exception.
 
It's like asking which **** should you smear on your face... plenty of choice but at the end of the day you'll still have a face covered in poo

good luck
 
Don't use a National firm.

Don't use anywhere that prides themselves on having on-line systems for you to check up on the progress of your matter or similar - you'll never ever get through on the phone.

Doubly don't use either of the above if recommended by an estate agent.


I wouldn't necessarily steer clear of all places recommended by agents, but more so if they have an obvious affiliation (I'd hate to think people steer clear of us because some of the local agents recommend us but I do know that none recommend us exclusively)


Other than that I have really no idea how people choose :p
 
In my experience, don't go for a conveyancing firm, go to a proper solicitor, the service will be completely different class!!

When I was selling my flat and buying a house, I used conveyancing firm for the sale and a solicitor for the buying. Had it not been for the sale dragging along due to morons, I could have had the house bought in a matter of a couple of weeks, the solicitor was amazing!!

For example, when my searches came back, the very next day in the post I had a long letter highlighting one or two areas which should be noted and what they meant etc, everything explained and clear for me. It was such a simple and painless process.

The conveyancing firm however were a complete useless shower of idiots!!
 
One with a local office that you can visit in person. Not a national firm that is nothing more than a glorified call centre.

Out of the local firms with local offices that you can visit, narrow it down to the cheapest.
 
valve90210 said:
In my experience, don't go for a conveyancing firm, go to a proper solicitor, the service will be completely different class!!

When I was selling my flat and buying a house, I used conveyancing firm for the sale and a solicitor for the buying. Had it not been for the sale dragging along due to morons, I could have had the house bought in a matter of a couple of weeks, the solicitor was amazing!!

For example, when my searches came back, the very next day in the post I had a long letter highlighting one or two areas which should be noted and what they meant etc, everything explained and clear for me. It was such a simple and painless process.

The conveyancing firm however were a complete useless shower of idiots!!
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more. Go to a solicitors rather than a conveyancing firm. The service you will get from a solicitors will be leaps and bounds ahead.
 
Agree with both LeeUK and valve90210.

I'm first time buyer, and selected a solicitor(conveyancer) a few weeks ago, just going through legals now, mortgage was approved quick. I've already visited solicitor once last week and due back friday, went through the searches and asset (whats being left) list. Waiting on 2 searches back now should be in by friday.

I did a lot of shopping around both call centres, moneysupermarket, broker etc. and found the local one was just as reasonable priced and felt I could just nip in their if any issues, rather than relying on post.

Also find solicitors offer a bit better advice regarding the legal side should you need it, like we had a disagreement of boundaries, but it was resolved with a quick letter by the solicitor within a day.

anyway, good luck, im going through it aswell!
 
also wanted to add, if your a first time buyer, shop around on quidco tcb etc and comparison sites for building insurance, don't assume the bank or broker offer the best value. Same with life assurance (if you decide you want that).

solicitor can also be useful later in life if you like there service :-)
 
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They're all muppets, so just go for the cheapest one who offer a fixed price. Make sure to phone them up and hassle about keeping things moving on a very regular basis.
 
I've used both solicitors and conveyancers - both locally and nationally and never noticed any difference. All were equally appalling.

I'd go for whoever is the cheapest.



M.
 
Maybe i've been lucky but i've had two good ones - both on personal recommendation.

Never take one recommended by the estate agent or any chains. Personally I prefer a specialist conveyancing solicitor, but one thats attached to a lawyers rather than standalone.

Send them an e-mail and ask some random questions about the process, see if & how they answer. Check you have an internal escalation point on their paperwork and then give them a call and see how easy it is to speak to them, if they call you back etc.

Where are you and maybe someone can recommend one locally?
 
Avoid conveyancers, use a local recommended solicitor.

Also avoid ones that are tied in with the estate agent.
 
I've used a few over the years.
When we moved house last year we used the below (see end of post) and she was excellent. I had to change part way through as my solicitors were holding things up from their own incompetence (quoting their own phone number wrong, having or blaming IT issues etc etc) so based on recommendation we switched to Sarah and she had everything sorted very quickly :)
No need for local these days, lots is done online ( I could see searches requested, searches back etc with dates in a portal)

Sarah Bright
Licensed Conveyancer
Bromets Solicitors (Estd. 1850)
Kirkgate House, Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, LS24 9AD
EXTN: 223
Tel: 01937 832371
www.bromets.com
 
welshboy said:
also wanted to add, if your a first time buyer, shop around on quidco tcb etc and comparison sites for building insurance, assume the bank or broker don't offer the best value. Same with life assurance (if you decide you want that).
Click to expand...

Fixed ;)

We got a much better insurance policy for about 1/4 the price the building society wanted!

When we were buying, I narrowed it down to a few solicitors with the best prices, and then went with the one which sounded the most professional and switched on when I phoned them.

2 other things which made us choose that particular solicitor:

Fixed price.
No sale no fee - e.g. if the seller pulled out, the searches came back with something dodgy and we decided not to go ahead, etc. then we wouldn't have to pay the fee. (Although still have to pay for the searches etc.)

cheesyboy said:
Make sure to phone them up and hassle about keeping things moving on a very regular basis.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately we had to do this quite a bit...
 
Do not use anyone recommended by the estate agent.

As many have said prepare to get frustrated and pick one you can visit and kick and scream when things have not materialised . (i.e local not national)
 
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