Online conveyancing

[Icedlatteplease]

Are any worth looking into? Should be a straight forward-ish purchase

I have heard nothing but bad things about online conveyancers, only nightmare stories. They are cheaper for a reason. I'd go for a local firm with a very good rating and save money elsewhere if you can.

Avoid them! I used them for my first purchase (very straightforward) and was a nightmare. Each time I called I spoke to a different person and nobody really knew anything about my purchase. It’s well worth paying a bit more for a ‘proper’ solicitor.

As someone buying from someone using an online conveyancer.... I can only advise that you just find a good local firm. The firm we are dealing with somehow have the ability to make the simplest requests wildly complicated. It's like they are deliberately obstructive and I cannot fathom why. What you save in conveyancing costs you may end up paying out picking up the pieces of their incompetency.

Well that puts that to bed.😁
There's a couple of local firms I could use so I'll probably go with one of them

Yes local firm every time - try and get one that has a good reputation or recommended. Also ring them up to enquire: you can get a good idea of how they deal with people and the impression they give overall. And try and determine their capacity: how many people are in the department, who is supervising and how much work they've got on.

Dont go necessarily for the one offering the cheapest deal. For our first flat purchase we didnt really think about it and went for the one advertising a cheap deal in the local paper (I think something like £799 whereas others were in the £1000+ range) and whilst we got there in the end it was stressful as it essentially it was a one man company who was very very overworked.

TBH I don't think I'd even accept an offer from a buyer with an online conveyancer, I'm afraid. Ive heard too many bad things about them. Likewise I would be very reluctant to offer on a house listed with an online agent. When I was last lloking I didn't even bother looking at houses with online HAs.

I've made 2 house purchases and on one occasion used a local firm and on the other occasion used an 'online' conveyancing firm (MUVE).

Honestly for me the online one was miles better. Had a direct contact and named person. Would get quick responses. They were efficient with the paperwork. Things could be scanned by me and sent online. Purchase completed in 9 weeks.

My local conveyancing firm were so backwards and wanted everything done in person (even sending over documents they wouldn't accept emails had to be paper) which is difficult when you work full time and they're open 9-5. They were so slow and inefficient my sale nearly fell through.

I also read lots of bad things about online conveyancing firms. But I just wanted to buck the trend and say I had a positive experience with one and a negative one with the local recommended firm.

Most people only leave reviews when they've had a bad experience. Those companies will have thousands of happy customers who don't leave reviews as most of us only leave reviews when we want to vent about our bad experiences.

Good luck with your purchase.

We've used MJP Conveyancing twice and they were brilliant and got our purchase through in 8 weeks last May when everything was still crazy.

Just to add, we’re with MJP Conveyancing and they have been great so far!