The big e-asy

Traditional conveyancers are most commonly criticised for being difficult to get hold of, expensive and generally slow.

But a new generation of online specialists claim to be using technology to raise service standards and take much of the stress out of buying and selling a property.

“Traditionally, you went to somebody around the corner and you felt that you needed to be near your solicitor and that restricted your choice,” Caroline Havers, partner at legal firm Salans says.

“The reality is these days, that with communication as it is, you don’t need to actually see a solicitor at all for a conveyancing deal.”

The need for speed

Online conveyancers, or direct conveyancers, claim to be more accessible, faster and more accurate while offering better value for money.

Using online conveyancing means that having had your offer of a dream home accepted over the weekend, you can instruct your solicitor on a Sunday evening if you feel like it, rather than waiting for office hours.

There is no need to take time off to see them and you can check how things are moving along just by logging on. Some will even text message you updates and you can keep in regular touch with your solicitor by email or phone.

While full e-conveyancing is still some time away, with the Land Registry and other Government organisations currently working towards making this happen, many components of the process have already been brought online. Companies like SearchFlow offer electronic searches for instance. This helps speed the process up and experts say such changes also narrow the margin for error.

Duncan Samuel, managing director of Convex Conveyancing says there are many providers out there promising an online service, but very few that actually provide the whole service electronically.

Many will offer updates that you can log on and view, giving you a set of milestones about your case, but you are otherwise dealing with the solicitor in a relatively traditional way – by post and by phone, he says.

“What we do is make the entire file electronic, so the client is able to access it on the Internet,” Samuel says.

This means the client has their own inbox and can view correspondence going between solicitors, lenders, local authorities and searches on secure web pages. They can also reply to correspondence electronically.

“The big advantage is that not only is the client more informed and they therefore feel more in control and empowered, but it also speeds things up.”

While documents still need to be signed, the days lost by posting them out are reduced, so theoretically the time between offer acceptance and contract exchange shortens decreasing the risk of gazumping or gazundering (where the seller suddenley raises the property price just before exchange)

Samuel says Convex now gets cases through from instruction to exchange in 28-29 days on average and to completion in around 34 days.

“It’s very fast and it’s very transparent,” he says.

Tips for choosing an online conveyancing service include making sure you can easily speak to the person dealing with your case if you wish to and checking out all the charges and disbursements that their quote includes, as this can vary between providers.

So if online conveyancing can be faster, more accurate and more transparent, how does it compare on value?

The cost of instructing a solicitor in the traditional way varies greatly depending on where you are and whom you see, but the savings can be significant.

Easier2move.com set up its service six years ago.

Sales and marketing director Karen Babington says customers are able to get a competitive fixed price quote from the outset and with services like theirs you know that the lawyers being used are vetted and you are getting a conveyancing expert.

Online conveyancers like Easier2move are also keen to capitalise on the introduction of Home Information Packs, set to become compulsory from June 1, 2007.

Sellers will have to offer potential buyers HIPs upfront including documents like land title, searches and property guarantees which conveyancers currently charge the buyer for at the end of the sale. Babington suggests HIPs will hit the high street solicitors, with more conveyancing work going to firms like Easier2move that use a panel of law firms and with whom better fees can be negotiated.

But David Bridge, legal director at BPL Solicitors, which offers both traditional services and online tracking for brokers and clients, says the move towards full e-conveyancing is a bigger change than the introduction of HIPs.

He suggests the day will come when a central database will bring together all the legal documents needed for a home sale and conveyancers or sellers will “just draw in the bits they want as they need them.”