Anyone tried online solicitors: Fletcher Longstaff, Threemo, etc?

[Caroline147]

Hi lovelies,

We are (hopefully!) just about to sell our flat and buy a house. We are exploring solicitor / conveyancer options, as weren’t hugely impressed with our solicitor last time around. We really want everything to go through as quick as possible, and have a preference for online interaction (particularly in these Covid times!).

However, we’re obviously nervous about using a fully online solicitor. Does anyone have experience of using one? We’ve been looking at Fletcher Longstaff, Threemo and Bishopsgate Law.

Big thank you in advance for any advice! Would also welcome suggestions for other solicitors you’ve had a good experience with. We’re based in London and selling a leasehold flat, if that makes a difference.

Lot of these online firms are call centres with teams answering the phone with little property knowledge and a solicitor or a conveyancer overseeing the file - which can cause delays from when they look at it and discover missing questions or paperwork - besides being very difficult to get hold of.

Please do some research and phone a few local companies for quotations or find someone who is recommended to you by someone you know.

Don’t do it! As @Thecatisboss says, you’re likely to be far removed from the actual conveyancer, which is the last thing you need if you’re in a hurry. You get what you pay for when it comes to conveyancing, and sales of flats/leasehold properties tend to be more complex than freehold. You need someone who’s proactive to chase up the freeholder/managing agent as required.

If you’re in East London, I’d happily recommend the conveyancer I used last year (I moved mid-pandemic and they were excellent). Send me a DM.

Don't do it. Go for a recommendation, preferably local. No reason why you can't still do almost everything via email.

I had excellent service from Bishopsgate. Professional service, regular updates on progress and when my house purchase fell through they refunded all costs (minus searches) in 24 hours.

We had a shocking experience with online Conveyancers based in Leeds.
As someone else said, they are pretty much call centres . We lost one property and a lot of money on another.
The ‘lead’ conveyancer on our case lost two important pieces of paper.
I ended up leaving our house at 05.30 and drove to Leeds to sort it out.
Our next purchase, we used a local solicitor. It cost us about £100 more but it was completely stress free.

I've honestly only had bad experiences when the other party has used online conveyancers.

It's a nightmare. I wouldn't sell my Property to anyone using an online solicitor. Been there. Done that. (Had a buyer using them because they were super cost conscious - never again!!)
If you think your other experience was bad, wait til you go online only. Useless. Good luck moving though and congratulations.

Hi there,

I'm a newbie to this forum, so apologies for any etiquette error now!

I'm just wondering if there are any other opinions about on-line conveyancers. I'm looking also looking at Fletcher Longstaff. Its not a decision based on cost (they aren't cheap anyway!), but the fact that my sister and are selling a property and neither of us live local to each other or the property, so would prefer an online conveyancer. I've used local solicitors before, and both were pretty useless.
If anyone has actually used the online companies I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts.

Thanks

When we remortgaged last summer our broker put us with Threemo.
They were absolutely brilliant I have to say, really good efficient communication and got everything done more quickly than I expected.
They were quite local to us though so maybe there are different branches and different levels of service?