urgent - conveyancing advice

[nickEcave]

Hi, just looking for some advice from anyone who's done their conveyancing through their mortgage provider. We are buying and selling for the first time. Mortgage will be through Nationwide and they offer very cheap conveyancing as part of the service. Got a quote from the solicitors we used when we first bought 10 years ago and they were going to charge £2000 and our budget is very tight so decided to go with Nationwide.

Anyway, today my EA phoned up really moaning that we weren't using a "proper" solicitor and warned me that doing it this was will probably hold the process up. We are buying from people who already have a house to move to and we are selling to first time buyers, so it's a small chain and should be a pretty simple process. Is the EA being reasonable or is he just being lazy as he may have to chase up the Nationwide conveyancing team more than he would with a traditional solicitors and may not have a named contact there? I have heard so many people on here moaning about crap solicitors, I don't want to pay £2K and still have a crap experience. Opinions and experiences would be much appreciated

Our solicitor is brilliant if you want a recommendation. And didn't charge us £2k.

I think the lenders who do this can be slow. But so can a solicitor. Look - money is tight and you've got a good deal. Resign yourself to having to be on it like a car bonnet and don't let anything slip. I hounded our solicitor mercilessly to get the sale and purchase done in 7 weeks. Tell the EA to chill out and that you intend to get it done quickly too.

I would ring around and get quotes for buying and selling conveyancing and what is included as some state it is all inclusive and then charge extra for certain types of searches.

£2000 sounds too much to me but it would be worth asking exactly what you get for your money!

Good luck x

You should have a breakdown of costs with a quote, not just a figure.

We've used online conveyancers twice now and it was fine.

There was a website to log on to and email addresses so I was able to chase them myself - I am rubbish at being stern on the phone but quite good at a firm email!

We used Nationwide's panel solicitor on our recent remortgage and they were fine too. No time pressure though as we weren't actually moving house.

I think the EA is lazy and don't forget he is getting a massive fee from someone in the chain - make him earn his flipping money!!

Be careful that the EA is not touting for business and wants you to use solicitors he recommends.

Coincidentally, I have spent the course of today (in between meetings at work) trying to coax my Nationwide-appointed freebie solicitors into getting into a position to exchange contracts. I ended up googling the process and working through the list with them. Overall, I'm glad to have saved a grand, but you do have to commit to a fair amount of involvement in the process. The solicitor I'm using for my house sale and both my selling and buying estate agents have also had to do a fair amount of badgering to keep things moving.

Think about how this works.
Solicitors have fairly high overheads, so 2k for a sale and purchase ( inclusive of VAT?) is probably around the going rate.
If the Lender's solicitors are substantially cheaper, then they are either using less qualified people to do most of the work, or they have a huge caseload to make it pay, and less time available for you. That doesn't necessarily mean that they will do a bad job, but yes,it probably will take longer, and you may have issues in actually speaking to the person with ultimate responsibility for your case.
The Estate agent will have arrangements with solicitors they know well, and may be able to push them to give your matter priority. They may even have a direct line to them. If they have a good relationship, it definitely helps smooth the process along. Is this worth the extra money to you? Only you know the answer to that. You will most likely get a decent job done either way.

conveyancing charges work on a percentage of the property value.

£500 plus stamp duty, search fees, land registry fee and VAT should do it easily with a competent solicitor for a property up to £500k. Not a body shop full of monkeys, not a high street old codger who charges what they like, but a competent firm who get on with the job.

I used Nationwide's free conveyancing/solicitors last year on my purchase. I also used the same firm (paid for privately) in my sale to speed things up. Not a problem talking to them (Midlands) from London where I am. However, I felt they had Nationwide's interest more at heart than mine in the purchase side of things but generally not a problem.

Specialsubject Thats not always the case - yes some firms charge that way, but a significant chunk of conveyancing is done on a fixed fee basis rather than the value of the house. The work involved for example in carrying out a local search is the same whether the house is £50k or £5million.

Maybe its my cynicism coming through Delph but an EA offering to source solicitors is probably doing it to get something in return rather than smooth the process for the potential buyer .

well, a small sample but in my three recent transactions it has been a fixed fee and the first question was 'how much is the house?'. I entirely agree that a more expensive house means no extra work.

but £2k for conveyancing? Rip-off.

and yes, never use anyone recommend by bank, EA or anyone else involved.

My firm works on a fixed fee basis, but it is fixed on the price of the property. £500 is a good price for either a sale or a purchase but not both transactions, and buying tends to be more expensive than a sale and leasehold also is more expensive. In our firm, searches are an additional cost on top of the fixed fee as the local authorities search charges differ from place to place and not everyone chooses to have them (unless mortgage is involved in which case the lender requires it).

Also OP, please re-read this from Delphinium:

If the Lender's solicitors are substantially cheaper, then they are either using less qualified people to do most of the work, or they have a huge caseload to make it pay, and less time available for you. That doesn't necessarily mean that they will do a bad job, but yes,it probably will take longer, and you may have issues in actually speaking to the person with ultimate responsibility for your case.

Thank you all so much for your responses. We are going to stick with Nationwide because we simply can't afford a more expensive solicitor but are expecting to be on the phone to them every day and for it to be extremely painful and stressful as they are taking ages to just approve the mortgage, let alone assign us a solicitor.

Please reassure me no one has actually lost a sale because their solicitors were slow!

Actually i nearly pulled out of a sale recently because the buyers local solicitors were so slow - they actually would only every do anything on a Monday, so if some paperwork arrived on a tuesday it would sit there until the following monday, then they would 'dictate' a letter and it would take 10 days to arrive at my solicitors.

By contract my super cheap estate agent recommended conveyancers were amazing and turned everything round the same day.

FWIW I got quotes to buy and sell last year, from 4 different solicitors, and they varied between 2.5k and 3.5k.

Purchase price 650, sale price 425. So either it is linked to house value or by chance all 4 I contacted were taking the puss with the price.

Oh and my best advice: go with a solicitor where you can pay 'insurance' that if it falls through you have zero fees. I've had 3 sales and 2 purchases fall through so far and saved quite a few K.

In order to find mortgage solicitors who will not exhaust your funds or ask you £2000, you must utilise quote generators on various conveyancing websites. These generators will ask you for a few details about your property. Afterwards, you will quickly receive several quotes from different conveyancers along with their profiles. This way, you can compare all of them and decide which is the best one to hire. Hope this helps!

I used to think it was a bad idea to use the EA's own solicitor, but had to change my mind after a dd bought her first house. From offer being accepted to completion the whole thing was wrapped up in 6 weeks. I was astounded. Presumably that's because it was in their own interests to get it done, and get their money. They didn't charge over the odds, either.

All I'd say is not to go for the cheapest in any particular area.. you do get what you pay for :)

yes you used the EA solicitor, who will be a panel solicitor what you have to concern yourself over is who's interests are being looked after. certainly not yours. Fingers crossed that when you come to sell the other side use a panel because if you meet a brilliant conveyancer they might find problems that should have been dealt with when you purchased. All too common. never use the estate agent recommended solicitor or mortgage broker the EA is getting a backhander 2-300 from solicitor and 300 from broker. Ask your solicitor if they bung the estate agent, they have to tell you the truth or risk SRA penalties.

What are you on about Itmakessense? You've resurrected an old thread in order to promote your pet subject which is not something posters on the board are ignorant of, and the OP used the mortgage provider's conveyancers!