How to choose a good conveyancer when buying a house

How to choose a good conveyancer when buying a house

We asked Holden Smith co-founder, James Smith, to answer these quick-fire questions about how to choose a good conveyancer when buying a house.

Q: Top three traits of a good conveyancing firm to look out for?

Communication – how do you want to be communicated with? Would you prefer telephone conversations regularly with your conveyancer? Maybe you’d like some email updates or push notifications on your if you’re too busy during the day for telephone calls? Ask how you’ll be communicated with.

Lender panels – is the firm you choose on these? Your solicitor will act for you as the client, but they will also act for your chosen mortgage lender. If your solicitor is not on your chosen lender panel this can invariably increase cost and take longer as there will be a third-party solicitor involved.

Recommendations – as with any trade or service, you are often best being recommended a solicitor by a local estate agent, broker or friend who has worked with the firm before.

Q: Three questions to ask before deciding on a conveyancing firm?

1)  Who specifically will be dealing with my file and how much capacity do they have?

2)  Are there any additional fees I can expect other than the headline quotation?

3)  Are you on the lender panel of my chosen lender?

Q: Use a specialist or generalist firm?

All firms are regulated and should be able to ‘do the job’. People tend not to ‘dabble’ in all areas of law these days as there’s a need to specialise in a chosen area -like a doctor who generally specialises in one area of medicine. You need to feel comfortable the firm you instruct has the correct experience and this is a question you should ask at the start. Generalist firms do have some fantastic solicitors in them but be sure check that they have a big enough department to cover in the event of holidays or illness, as this can sometimes be an issue with the general firms.

Q: Tech to look out for that will make the client’s life easier?

Firms nowadays should have technology as a given, but it shouldn’t be at the detriment of face time with you as the client during your transaction. We us apps and email notifications to keep clients updated and it also helps our fee earners to be more efficient for our clients through more streamlined processes, so it’s a win-win. This invariably improves the service the you receive as a client and speeds up communication.

Q: Use a no completion, no fee firm? If not, why not?

Be wary about choosing a firm purely on a no completion, no fee basis. Many firms offer this but, very few files fall through. If they do, it is generally in the cases infancy when there would rarely be a fee to pay anyway. Conveyancing firms are businesses and to ensure they can provide the service clients demand; they need to be able to staff the work accordingly. To me it only seems fair that if a firm has worked 3 / 4 hours on a file and then a client pulls out, they should be paid for the work undertaken to that point.

Q: Licensed Conveyancer or Solicitor – which is better?

It shouldn’t matter. Both are regulated by the CLC or SRA respectively and while there are differences, as the client, you should never need to worry about these. I wouldn’t say this is a big consideration when choosing a firm to act for you.

Q: Warning signs to look out for?

A low headline fee. Generally, firms with low headline fees tend to take on a greater volume of work and service is more likely to suffer as a result. Communication is often difficult, and it would often be a junior member of staff dealing with the day to day running of the file rather that a suitably qualified / experienced team member. In the end, the fee tends to be a lot higher as there are often a number of additional fees that are added to your final bill.

We hope you found this article about how to choose a good conveyancer when buying a house useful. You can contact Holden Smith here, email hello@holdensmith.co.uk or call us on 01484 55 66 77.