Online Conveyancing Solicitors - Advice/Recommendations?

[chipsandgin]

Hi, Apologies as this has probably been done to death - but I can't find any recent threads and really need some current advice/recommendations if anyone has any please?

We are selling our house several hours away from where we currently live - so a local solicitor in either place isn't ideal (apart from the massive benefit of doing it here and being able to go in of course - but they aren't local to either the house or the buyers solicitors so will still be done remotely - just at a much higher price!).

It is a very simple sale - no chain, buyers have mortgage in place and happy/keen to move quickly, we aren't buying and are paying off a straightforward mortgage. No issues with the house etc.

Local solicitors are roughly £1300, the average quote from online solicitors is £600. But I am very wary of most of them - Trustpilot is terrifying as most have terrible reviews. Is there actually a decent online solicitor with a good reputation/that someone has had a good experience with? Thanks!

Don't... usually massively overworked with 1 solicitor overseeing about a thousand transactions.

I'm a non practising solicitor and might just use one for an easy transaction eg completed new build but for anything with history or possible complication not a chance.

I would use a solicitor local to you so if anything unforeseen pops up you can go into the office and sort it out/sign documents.

Enact

Ask your mortgage broker to do a comparison on econveyancer and pick someone there based on price and reviews. Worked perfectly for my mortgage.
If your broker hasn't heard of it, tell them it's free to use and they should get an introducer payment post-completion.

We're using Premier property Lawyers. Also used them last year with our sale & purchase that fell through. They've been pretty good. It just makes the whole process so much easier & quicker in my experience. They even have an online chat now which has real conveyancers on to answer your questions out of hours. I know they're real conveyancers & not just random office staff who know sod all because DH spoke to the lady who we had last year. She was brilliant, had 20 years experience & a real bulldog. Our current one isn't as good as her but he's still getting the job done. Any issues in our chain has involved other solicitors/conveyancers.

I have bought & sold property numerous times over 20 years & pretty much all the solicitors I have dealt with have been crap, so best bet is to assume they're crap & as long as they don't have constant shit reviews then go for the cheapest & at least you saved yourself a few quid!

I know they're real conveyancers

This actually doesn't mean anything. Licensed conveyancers? Legal Executives? Solicitors?

Conveyancer is like lawyer/paralegal/legal assistant. It doesn't indicate any level of exam passed or experience gained, just that they work in conveyancing.

Get quotes from other local solicitors. We charge less than 1k for most sales.

I used an online conveyancer for my last house sale - no complaints at all. He came in at about half what a "normal" solicitor would have cost me. And he was very local so if there had been a need for any face to face stuff if would have been easy enough. Wouldn't hesitate to use him again but maybe I was lucky.

It was, to be fair, a very easy transaction. Cash buyer. No chain.

Blacks in Leeds have been excellent for me - they are on many bank panels. All work done by a conveyancer but you have a named solicitor in case you need them too.

www.lawblacks.com/Conveyancing

I live 100 miles from Leeds and wasn't buying a property there by the way. A chain and mortgages involved both times I used them.

Thank you everyone, I will have a look around at suggestions & I do appreciate all the views, both warning and recommendations!

Solicitor does not need to be local,competence matters most.

Ask some.bleeding obvious questions about basic management :

• What happens if your contact is ill/on holiday?
• How long to reply to emails/ return phone calls?
• Fixed fee agreement?
• What happens if sale falls through?

this should help you filter out their concept of who works for whom. High street old family firms can be as bad as overworked bodyshops.

To clarify, when I said "they're real conveyancers", I was referring to the people running the out of hours online chat, which is invaluable.

Don’t use them. They are slow and very overworked. The chain above me used them and due to slowness they nearly folded the chain to collapse. Pay a proper solicitor where you are going to be living in the future. You get what you pay for and they nearly brought me to my knees even though they weren’t mine.

@chipsandgin

May I PM you?

@Iscreamforbenandjerrys Sorry I missed this (bit of a hectic week!). You are welcome to pm me if still relevant! Apologies :)

I work for an online conveyancers (I'm a solicitor). They are regulated by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers and some of our staff do exams with them.

All sorts of firms have staff without qualifications, some of whom have been doing it for decades.

I second what specialsubject said.

Blacks are a pain in the arse to deal with though.

Smart legal - extremely fast and responsive and were priced competitively and you don't need to go in it can all be done via post or online (based in London)

My solicitor is only £850 and excellent- this is the third time I’ve used them. They can work remotely so I would go for someone similar. Online solicitors are awful and you will be risking the sale falling through. Don’t do it!