How to choose a Conveyancing Solicitor?

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I've had good and bad experiences with conveyancing solicitors in the past. My main criteria has generally been that they're local, so I don't have to post documents, though these days I suppose its mostly dine online.

How do you choose if you don't have a recommendation?

You can look at reviews of legal firms online, but it’s difficult to know exactly what the reviews are based on.

We chose one that had good reviews, but we weren’t convinced. It’s a bit of a lottery really. The only thing I’d say is to avoid online conveyancers.

In my experience, and that of the many people I have shared my experiences with, nobody is ever happy with their conveyancing solicitor. Sorry.

It's been 20 years since I found a good one.

Can you ask your estate agent who they like dealing with? We had a good recommendation from ours.

Some EAs are tied in with conveyancers though, so be careful.

Yep, I want a conveyancing solicitor that is independent of the EA.

We used this company https://onpsolicitors.co.uk/get-a-quote/

I get that people say the bigger companies are rubbish etc but we had a great experience. We found things moved quickly because the guy doing our conveyancing told us he was targeted to keep files moving so end to end was done in 10 weeks for us and they used an app which we could contact the conveyancer on etc.

All done online now, including signing docs. I’m buying a new build and they recommended 3 who know their processes (as exchange very quickly with a new build) and so I just got a qoute from them all and chose one. Waiting on searches to come back now, but should be exchanging in next couple of weeks. All seems to be going ok, but not there yet.

Just use someone you’ve found to be good before. They really don’t have to be local. We found a great solicitor many years ago when planning to buy a house in Oxfordshire (ended up not happening for other reasons) and as a family have now used them on 8 different deals across the whole country.

We used one that work colleagues recommended and that was over 20 years ago so they were local. We've stuck with the same firm for a house move and also when we decided to split ownership of my old flat that we rent out so we were paying half the tax each. The same firm does our wills.

Its not all done online. I've just been sent a batch of documents for signing. Though I previously used a solicitor several counties away because she was recommended. Made no difference as I have never met my conveyancer and have sold & bought 3 properties.

I will PM you a very good conveyancing firm I've used several times over the year. Not the cheapest but they are very responsive and careful.

I was very happy with the one we used for my parents' sale / purchase last year. She was brilliant.

I’m buying a house at the moment, and everything has been done online so far (and I believe this will continue through the whole process).

I think it’s worth asking them at the outset what other companies you will have to use as part of their process, e.g. for ID verification, bank account checks etc.

We are/have always been delighted with our Solicitor and have used him 3 times over the last 28 or so years. He has always given a very personal service, including when he phoned me at 10.30 on a Saturday morning informing us of a problem with the gas boiler identified in the survey we had overlooked. We have been on first name terms for a number of years. He started at this particular company when he left University, and is probably now retirement age.