How To Find A Conveyancing Solicitor (And How Not To)
Buying or selling a house is potentially the largest financial transaction most of us will ever make. This makes it important to work out how to find a conveyancing solicitor you can trust to work efficiently and effectively.
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In this article, we will take a quick look at the best ways to approach finding suitable conveyancers and some of the pitfall approaches to avoid.
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What Do Conveyancing Solicitors Do?
As soon as you put in an offer in on a property, you are likely to be immediately asked who your conveyancing solicitor is.
Using a solicitor for conveyancing is a good idea because of the sheer number and importance of the tasks required.
These include:
- Drafting, checking, and handling contracts and documentation
- Carrying out property searches (with your Local Authority, utility companies, and more)
- Understanding the legal boundaries of the property and any other local issues
- Handling the transfer of funds
- Providing expert legal advice as to your rights as an owner
Needless to say, this means that this is a very responsible job. It is important to choose the right conveyancing solicitor with care.
How Not To Look For A Conveyancing Solicitor
There are two ways to find a conveyancing solicitor that often result in a poor or costly experience:
- Using an estate agent’s recommendation – it is usually risky to go with your estate agent’s recommendation unless you know them well and trust them. Many estate agents only recommend conveyancers who they receive a commission from, which doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be the best solicitor for your needs.
- Relying on online conveyancing – this budget option is not normally a good idea as often communication with you will be kept to a minimum to keep their costs down, which is not what you need when dealing with a very important transaction.
How To Find A Conveyancing Solicitor
1) Ask Friends And Family
Asking friends, family, and co-workers for personal recommendations is a tried-and-true strategy for finding conveyancers you can rely on.
Local law firms (like us here at Birch & Co) often rely a great deal on word-of-mouth recommendations. This means we put a lot of work into ensuring that every client goes away happy.
This has resulted in us reaching a 99% customer satisfaction rate of clients who would recommend us to their family and friends.
2) Ask Your Lender Or Mortgage Broker
If you haven’t used a mortgage lender before, you might not be aware that most have their own “panels” of agreed conveyancing solicitors that they work with.
This can mean that even if you are committed to using a particular firm, if your lender won’t agree, you might have to look elsewhere.
At Birch & Co, we are on the panel of most mortgage lenders operating in the North East of England as well as being a member of the Lender Exchange and LMS (which manage mortgage lender panels).
3) Use A Price Comparison Site
Using a price comparison site to find a conveyancer is not always a good idea in terms of guaranteeing quality. But you can potentially use sites like this to get an overview of the market and see what the average conveyancing fees are in your area.
4) Use The Law Society’s “Find A Solicitor” Tool
The Law Society is the organisation that represents all solicitors in England and Wales.
Being registered with The Law Society (and The Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme as in the case of Birch & Co) is a vital prerequisite of a solicitor you can rely on.
The body also provides its own free online search tool. You can use this to check your solicitor is registered or for reliable firms in your local area.
5) Search Online
Searching online is one of the most common ways home buyers and sellers look for conveyancers these days. As well as being able to search locally, this gives you the opportunity to check reviews and quality scores (such as Birch & Co’s 5-star Google rating)
Just be sure to reach out to your chosen solicitor to talk things through first. This way you can ask any questions you have and get a free quote before you commit to anything.
Why not do that today? Birch & Co has been serving local people in Gosforth, Newcastle, the wider North East, and beyond for over 31 years.
Simply call us on 0191 284 5030 or complete a Free Online Enquiry now to get a bespoke fixed price estimate before you get in touch with your estate agent.
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