Six Top Tips for Choosing a Conveyancer

Whether you are buying or selling your home, you will need to identify and appoint a residential conveyancing solicitor. But what exactly does a residential conveyancing solicitor do and what is conveyancing?

When buying a property, the buyer must ensure that he or she has good ‘title’ to the land that the property sits upon; basically that the seller is the actual owner of the property, with their details as the registered owner, with the Land Registry.  This ensures that the seller has the right to sell the property and that there are no factors that would prevent a mortgage being taken out on the property, or a re-sale in the future.

Conveyancing answers all these questions; the process pulls together the transfer of the legal title of the property from one person to another, the granting of a mortgage on the property and conveyancing typically involves two major landmarks in the purchase process; the exchange of contracts where the equitable title passes, and ‘completion’, when the legal title passes from seller to buyer.

Residential conveyancers will ensure that you have good title and will arrange the appropriate contracts upon your behalf, to achieve exchange of contracts and ultimately, completion of the purchase or sale.

What you should look for when choosing a residential conveyancer?

Moving home can be very stressful, whether or not you are a first time buyer, or buying and selling properties at the same time.  Take some of the pressure off by choosing the right legal team of experienced and qualified residential conveyancers to help support and represent you.

Here are our six top tips for choosing a conveyancer:

1. Ensure that the conveyancing solicitor you choose is regulated and insured and has the appropriate indemnity insurance.
2. Ideally the conveyancer will have the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) accreditation.
3. Check they have the experience to undertake a sale or purchase – many solicitors will undertake work but aren’t really conveyancing specialists, whilst many conveyancers are not fully qualified solicitors.
4. Check the conveyancer is conveniently located – if that isn’t an issue, are you happy to communicate with your solicitor via telephone, email or letter?
5. Always shop around to find the solicitors that can offer you the expertise, experience and commitment that you need to support you throughout the process, with all fees and costs highlighted and outlined so that you receive a specialist, friendly and efficient service at all times.
6. Source recommendations from friends and family who have been through the process – they’ll be able to point you in the right direction.

At Keoghs, Nicholls, Lindsell and Harris, we have a high rate of repeat and referral business for our residential conveyancing department. Our team cover the whole of the North West from our offices in Altrincham, Macclesfield and Stockport and we offer jargon free, friendly advice to progress your sale or purchase as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Furthermore, we are registered and regulated by the The Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) and we are accredited with the CQS Standard.

If you would like our help, please get in touch today.