Tips To Find Excellent Conveyancing Solicitors

Alma Griffin
3 min readApr 21, 2021

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Buying or selling a property, as you can imagine, can be quite a challenging process. For this reason, you need to consider hiring conveyancing solicitors for the job. You can expect these professionals to deal with the things you might not have secured, such as a requirement for an additional legal document. They will make sure that you go through the process with little to no hassle to reach your objective.

If you’re planning to hire a conveyancing solicitor soon, listed below are some of the things that you need to consider.

Online conveyancers

While a local conveyancer may have been the first choice several years ago due to their extra knowledge of surrounding areas, nowadays the internet allows for most conveyancing cases to be organised remotely, and non-local conveyancing solicitors can do just as good a job as a local one. The majority of customers will search for a solicitor or conveyancer online, then correspond via email and telephone. If you need to pick up and drop off paperwork or sign documents, many firms will have an office nearby. Generally speaking though, the conveyancing solicitors will be out doing the actual work, which is definitely a good thing.

Recommendations from mortgage lenders

When buying a house with a mortgage, your lender will usually only work with certain approved conveyancers and solicitors who are on the mortgage lender’s “panel”. If you choose to work with a conveyancer that’s not on this list, you’ll have to pay the lender’s representation, which could be expensive and complicated. You can accomplish this task much easier by looking at conveyancing solicitors online. This will give you the details of conveyancers and solicitors that your mortgage lender is prepared to work with.

Mortgage lender’s approval

If you are getting a mortgage, be aware that certain mortgage lenders will only deal with certain law firms. Remember to check with any firm which lender panels they are on as if they are not members, the lender will likely charge you for their legal work on top of your own. In this situation, don’t be surprised to find the fees balloon quickly.

Local professional

It may seem that dealing with bargain-basement factory firms is a good way to cut costs when choosing among conveyancing solicitors online. However, dealing with faceless call centres rather than with a qualified local professional can mean never speaking to the same person twice. A qualified professional will also be able to deal with complex legal issues should they arise. If a factory firm misses an important detail or make a significant error, it could end up costing you a lot more than what you saved by opting for a cheaper alternative.

A full breakdown of fees

Before deciding on which online conveyancing solicitors to hire, request a full breakdown of costs, including disbursements. Disbursements are all the fees that the solicitor will have to pay out to third parties as part of the legal process such as search fees and stamp duty. If a conveyancing firm won’t tell you their fees upfront, find one that will. Also, remember that if a quote seems suspiciously low the firm may not be being upfront with all the charges you will incur.

Accreditations

One way to ensure that you’re dealing with professional online conveyancing solicitors is by determining whether or not their firm is accredited. For solicitors, this is the Quality Conveyancing Scheme, run by the SRA (Solicitors Regulation Authority) and for licensed conveyancers, it’s the CLC (Council for Licensed Conveyancers). Suppose you’re finding your conveyancing firm from a reputable conveyancing solicitor. In that case, you can be confident that they will only work with fully accredited firms and operate on most lenders’ panels. You can also look at how they check their partners, as they should be very strict in choosing who to work with.

If you’re dealing with a project that involves buying or selling property or land, remortgaging, transfer of equity, buying at auctions, and shared ownership schemes, you’d best achieve your purpose by hiring conveyancing solicitors for the job. They will provide you with timely information and direction as to the legal process involving the work that you need assistance with. To ensure the success of your objectives, make sure to note all of the things listed in this guide.

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