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Conveyancing
If
you spend enough time shopping around you can always find someone
to carry out your conveyancing at a knock down price, so why
pay more? As with most things in life you get what you
pay for. Obviously it is difficult to compare conveyancers when
there is no tangible product to see and inspect. As with
all services you should rely upon recommendations from friends
if possible. But what if a highly recommended conveyancer
is two hundred pounds more expensive than the firm advertised
in Yellow pages or the one recommended by the estate agent?
Ask yourself how does the cheap firm cut costs? Do those
nice lawyers accept a lower salary so that you can save money?
Unlikely!
There
are several ways that costs can be cut:
1.
A firm will take on twice as much work as they can safely handle.
To cope with this workload they rarely use the telephone as
it is far too time consuming, and never talk to clients under
any circumstances! Don't worry too much about searches
etc. as the insurance policy will cover mistakes - probably...
2.
Set up "a team" to manage clients files; employ one lawyer
and several computer operators - straight from school, nice
and cheap. When you ring up for an update on you file
you will get through (after pressing various buttons on your
telephone) to one of these operators who may be able to tell
you what is happening but just try asking about your fences
- who maintains which boundary? - forget it!
3.
Appear to be cheap when you're not - give a cheap quotation
but charge extra for everything - for example, completion in
less than three weeks from exchange of contracts; an extra £100
please! (£200 if you are buying and selling).
Remember
that lawyers' time will usually be charged at between £120
and £150 per hour and if you are quoted £240 for
a complete conveyancing transaction you will get two hours of
his or her time, or maybe one hour of a lawyer's time and two
hours of his secretary's time.
In
a recent conveyancing transaction the sellers instructed a well
known firm of solicitors (...........Direct) who claim to give
an excellent service, but are unable to answer the telephone.
On one occasion we rang them to find out why they had not answered
our letters and the telephone rang for 45 minutes with
no reply. On another occasion it was 35 minutes; subsequently
the seller instructed another firm to the job properly.
Fixed
Fee conveyancing: if you use a firm with a so-called
fixed fee you will find one of two alternatives:
1.
Genuine fixed fee: whatever happens the fee is fixed.
This is rare, but if you pay a fixed fee you will get a fixed
fee service. See the note above regarding lawyers fees.
If you experience problems these will be magnified by the inability
to contact your lawyer, who will not have time to deal with
you. Very few firms offer this service, as it uneconomic
to do so, as many transactions will encounter some problems
on the way.
2.
Qualified fixed fee: most conveyancers will qualify their
quotation by stating that anything out of the ordinary will
be charged for. Since nearly all conveyancing transactions
encounter one or two problems on the way the final bill will
be considerably more than you were quoted.
To
summarise, if you would like your sale or purchase to go thorough
as quickly as possible with the minimum of stress use us.
If you would like to save money at all costs use "Cheap and
Co".
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