How to Choose your
Conveyancing Solicitor
Lets look quickly at the difference between a good and bad conveyancer.
Good conveyancers will:
- Carry out the work efficiently & accurately.
- Reduce the stress of moving by provide expert guidance & support that's in your best interests throughout the process.
- Take a proactive (not reactive) role and push your deal through.
- Help you to negotiate with other parties successfully.
- Speed up the time it takes you to complete on your transaction
- Have ample common sense and avoid being overly pedantic in an effort to look smart.
- Be technologically advanced enough to provide a modern conveyancing service.
- Carry professional indemnity of at least £1,000,000.
- Be on your lenders panel of approved solicitors. This will enable them to work on your mortgage without you having to pay extra.
- Be regulated and listed with one of the two professional bodies:
- The Law Society
- The Council of Licensed Conveyancers
Poor conveyancers will:
- Put the success of your move at risk.
- Fail to read important documents carefully.
- Ignore your phone calls.
- Fail to answer your questions in plain English.
- Take longer than necessary to complete the work.
- Fail to alert you to potential problems.
- Increase your stress levels ten-fold.
- Ultimately cost you more money.
How to Identify a Good Conveyancing Service
Here is the checklist you should judge any conveyancing against:
1. The firm should specialise in residential conveyancing or at least have a specialist conveyancing department.
When choosing a conveyancing service, experience is the most important thing to look for.
Solicitors that specialise in litigation, divorce, family, employment or even commercial property law seldom provide the best residential conveyancing service.
2. You should be told who will be handling your case. Ideally you should be given their direct line.
Some conveyancing firms operate under a "dedicated team" set-up where all admin tasks are delegated to paralegals or trainee conveyancers.
A qualified professional Solicitor or Licensed Conveyancer then checks everything.
In small - medium sized firms this tends to work well as it's an efficient working style & manageable enough to maintain a personal service.
However, the "dedicated team" system falls apart in the large conveyancing factories.
These cut-priced legal call centres often have "team members" that are little more than glorified computer operators.
This is "conveyor-belt" conveyancing and is often slow and impersonal.
The firms' websites will swear blind that they provide the highest standards of personalised service however, experience tells me otherwise.
Conveyancing factories are fine for simple stuff like the Remortgaging work mortgage lenders generate.
For anything more complicated (especially the sale or purchase of a leasehold property) you'd be wise to stay away!
3. They are technologically advanced enough to employ online case tracking, e-mail & SMS update systems.
These features separate the progressive conveyancing providers from the dinosaurs.
For example, "Online Case Tracking" is especially useful because every step of your transaction will be recorded online via a dedicated website (you're given a password & username).
It gives you the ability to check on the progress of your case at any time and know immediately if you're making progress or what the causes of any hold-ups are.
In short, firms using the latest technology will save you time, money & the stress caused by not knowing what's going on.
4. Operate on a "No move, no fee" basis.
Because 1 in 3 sales fail, choosing a conveyancing firm that operate in this way is a must.
"No move, no fee" is a slightly ambiguous term because in reality, if the solicitor has paid for any disbursements on your behalf, you will be charged for these: it is only the solicitor's basic fee that will be waived.
There are however a handful of firms that operate on an enhanced "No move, no fee" basis: they won't even charge you for disbursements.
5. Operate on a "Fixed Fee Guarantee" basis.
In the past Solicitors have charged for conveyancing work on an hourly basis. Not surprisingly this allows bills to escalate out of control.
A "Fixed-Fee Guarantee" lets you budget accurately. Even if you run into unexpected complications, you're protected.
With a "Fixed Fee Guarantee" firm the fee you're initially quoted will be the fee you pay.
6. Are on all major lenders' "Approved" panels.
This is important if you are buying with a mortgage because there's a certain amount of legal work that needs to be done on your lender's behalf.
If the conveyancing firm you choose is not on your lender's approved panel, your lender will instruct one that is.
This will be an extra cost you have no control over (there are no statutory set fee scales for solicitors).
Having two solicitors working on your behalf will also add to the time it takes to exchange contracts.
7. Operate extended opening hours.
This is not essential but it can make your life easier if you need to act quickly on a legal issue relating to your move outside of the 9am-5pm timeframe.
Whichever firm you choose, check that someone who is familiar with your case can be contacted outside of office hours.
It is possible to find conveyancing services that keep the phones manned until 7-8pm weekday evenings and most of the weekend.
8. Provide you with a "Client Care Letter" upfront.
When you've chosen a legal adviser the first thing they should send you is a "client care" letter.
The letter must contain a cost breakdown and description of the service they'll provide. If these things are not in the letter, alarm bells should ring!
Remember, you're only committed to using the conveyancing service once you return the letter signed.
A conveyancing quote should consist of two parts:
- The solicitor's basic fee (i.e. what they charge to do the work).
- The disbursements (these are things a conveyancer has to pay other people for on your behalf e.g. Local Authority Searches, Stamp Duty and so on).
The disbursements should roughly be the same from one conveyancing quote to the next (they are fixed charges) however basic fees vary a lot.
Unfortunately you do need to be a little wary when seeking quotes.
Because conveyancing has become such a competitive business, many high profile firms employ tricks to make them look cheaper than they actually are.
A little trick some conveyancing firms like to employ is to invent disbursements.
They take tasks and charges that should be covered within the basic solicitor's fee, call them disbursements or "supplemental fees" and put a hefty price tag on them.
This does 3 things:
- It sneakily creates extra profit for the conveyancing firm.
- It gives the impression their basic fee for doing the work is lower than it actually is (it is the trick behind some of the ultra-low conveyancing quotes you see advertised).
- It turns what at first looks like a cheap conveyancing quote, into something far more expensive.
To protect yourself against this:
- Be wary of any quote that does not fully itemise all the individual costs & disbursements.
- Always scour the small print for hidden charges & supplemental fees. Add these extra costs to your quote so you can see the real cost of the solicitor's service.
When to Instruct Your Conveyancing Solicitor
The short answer is - EARLY!
If there is one thing, above all, this guide should achieve, it is to emphasize the need to instruct your Solicitor well before acceptance of an offer.
Traditionally, buyers and sellers have tended to wait until either they have secured a buyer or found a property to buy before instructing a Solicitor.
In the past this would have been due to the fact that they did not want to incur any costs before knowing the transaction was up and running.
With so many conveyancing firms working on a "no move, no fee" policy there's absolutely no risk in instructing early.
There is, therefore, no reason not to instruct a Solicitor as soon as you begin to think about selling or buying and there are many weeks worth of "faffing around" and paperwork to be saved by doing this.
This is especially true if you are selling a leasehold property.
Your Solicitor will have to obtain information from your Freeholder and/or Managing Agent and this can take considerable time.
If you are selling it's also a good idea to have your solicitor prepare your Home Information Pack (if you need one) before you instruct an estate agent.
Not only will a solicitor probably do a better job of this - it will also make it easier for you to negotiate down the agent's selling fees.
Conclusion & Summary
In short, please bear in mind 4 key points when choosing a solicitor:
1. There is no reason to limit yourself to local solicitors.
2. Don't base your choice purely on price. The cheap online bucket-shop" solicitors that you’ll see advertised are often overworked and can slow the progress of your move (or worse).
3. Don't automatically go with the firm that your estate agent recommends, especially if it's an in-house "Factory conveyancing" operation.
These tend to be staffed by teams of inexperienced "legal executives" making it a miracle to ever get hold of the same person twice.
You'll really benefit if you can find a conveyancer that provides you with the personal service and a single point of contact.
What’s more, estate agents make large referral fees by recommending solicitors. It is not unusual for a whopping £200-£400 of your legal bill to go straight into their pocket.
Is the estate agent’s recommendation the best for you? Or is it (more likely) the best for him?
4. Don't even consider a solicitor that charges by the hour.
Find someone that offers a "fixed-fee" and "no-completion, no-fee" service - this will save you a lot of money.
At Brendan Fleming Solicitors, we pride ourselves in our expertise in this area. Based in Birmingham, our practice extends over the entire Midlands area: Wolverhampton, Coventry; even so far afield as Derby and Nottingham.
Go to our conveyancing page now to find out more and get an online conveyancing quote in seconds.
Our conveyancing team is lead by Brian McGeown, an Associate Legal Executive having more than 35 years experience. An expert in his field, he is considered friendly, approachable and very knowledgeable.
His good advice extends to ensuring clients are fully aware of all the costs and expenses throughout their dealings with Brendan Fleming Solicitors. He has, through his hard work and expertise, earned himself some not-inconsiderable repute in the Midlands’ property world and is proud that, in over three decades of working in the legal profession, he has never had a single negligence claim against him.
Brian's swelling ranks of satisfied clients is a tribute to his professionalism and his conveyancing expertise.
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