When buying or selling a home, how do you choose your conveyancer? Stephen Ward, director of strategy at the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) has these top tips.
We all know that moving house can be stressful. But some simple actions can make it easier. Conveyancing, the legal work undertaken during a property purchase, is a specialist area of the law, and by choosing a conveyancer best suited to your specific purchase, you can help to ease some of the stress involved.
Check the conveyancer’s regulatory status
Check that the firm you are considering using is regulated by one of the legal sector regulators. Only regulated lawyers and firms are able to do your conveyancing for you (especially if there is a mortgage involved).
Regulation ensures that, should something go wrong, you will be protected and have a clear way to seek redress. The CLC regulates specialist property lawyers and details of all of them can be found on our website. CLC-regulated firms also have a secure badge on their website that you can use to check the status of that website and the firm behind it.
Consider different kinds of conveyancers
It’s worth thinking about whether the way the firm works with clients suits your needs and also what experience they have in dealing with transactions like yours.
Do think about how you want the service delivered. Will you find it easier to deal with someone mostly over email, or would you value being able to pop in for face-to-face conversations?
It can be more convenient to deal with people online, but some people prefer the ability to see their conveyancer face-to-face. Make sure you choose a firm that works the way that suits you best.
Consider quality, not just price
While it is important to ensure you receive a full and clear quote of costs from conveyancers you are considering using, price shouldn’t be the only factor in your decision on who to appoint.
Recommendations from family and friends are a good indicator of a quality service, as are reviews on sites such as Trustpilot and Feefo. The quality of the service you will receive will be far more important to your peace of mind than cost.
Check what’s included in the price
The CLC expects the firms we regulate to be very clear and transparent about costs. Check if the quote you have received is a fixed fee or not and ask for a detailed breakdown of exactly what it includes.
For example, does it include charges for searches, Land Registry fees and Stamp Duty? If not, you will need to factor these costs in on top of the quote for the legal work.
Also, if your purchase is non-standard, (for example, if you are buying a leasehold property or using Help to Buy) there may be additional legal costs involved.
When you’re shopping around, let conveyancers know if anything might be out of the ordinary sooner rather than later. That way the quote will be more accurate.
Look beyond your agent’s recommended conveyancer
Once a price has been agreed for a house sale, estate agents will often recommend a conveyancer for you to use. If you don’t know who you will be appointing this can be a useful starting point in looking for a firm, but you should still shop around.
Your estate agent should tell you if they are receiving a fee for the recommendation, and your conveyancer is also required to do so. If they don’t mention it, make sure you ask them so that you understand exactly where your money is going.
The CLC is the regulator of specialist property lawyers. For more information visit www.conveyancer.org.uk
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The solicitor handling the conveyancing of my son’s house purchase neglected to inform him of the impact of being a second time buyer on Stamp Duty.
The mortgage was arranged in October 2015 and details passed to the solicitor.
The solicitor rang him on April 5 2016 to say the company didnt realise he was a 2nd time buyer and as a consequence the Stamp Duty would be £4750.0 and not £400.0.The same company had conducted the remortgaging of his Buy to let property in 2008.
I’m glad that you mentioned that we should consider other conveyancers aside from those recommended by our agents. I always thought that I was required to work with one of them! I’m planning to buy a new house this year, and I’ll consider acquiring the services of other conveyancers too. Perhaps, I’ll try using this comparison website of conveyancing solicitors that I discovered through one of the bloggers I’m following. Thanks for that very informative tip!
This is an insightful article. Thanks for sharing.