If you’re selling your home, you’ll need to engage the services of a conveyancer. Choosing the right one can be a daunting task, so it’s important to do your research so you find someone who meets your needs and who you feel comfortable working with. We are going to go through everything you need to know before choosing your conveyancer.
What is a conveyancer?
A conveyancer is a legal professional who specialises in property transactions. There job is to:
- Give out legal advice
- Prepare and handle the contracts
- Sort out anything to do with the Land Registry
- Do searches of the local council
- Transferring ownership of property
Experience
Make sure to choose a conveyancer who has plenty of experience dealing with property transactions. This will ensure that they’re familiar with all the legal aspects of your sale and can help to smooth the process. Don’t be afraid to ask them about their past experience becuase at the end of the day you want the best conveyancer you can to sell your home.
Reviews
You should look at their reviews to see what others think of their service. Look at Google reviews and how many stars they have. You can also look on Trustpilot and their social media to get an idea and feel for the company.
Credentials
Check that the conveyancer is properly qualified and accredited. This will give you peace of mind that they’re knowledgeable and capable of handling your sale. Look for a conveyancer with a professional qualification from the CLC which is the Council for Licensed Conveyancers.
Communication
Choose a conveyancer who is clear and concise in their communication. This will make it easier to understand what’s going on throughout the sale and avoid any misunderstandings. You want a conveyancer that can answer any questions you have and explain any issue’s to you, to make the sale of your home less stressful.
Before hiring a conveyancer discuss with them how they will communicate with your through the process and how you can get in touch with them if needed.
Fees
You want to check the fees they are offering to ensure there is no hidden costs. Look for conveyancers that say no sale, no fee as this means even if the sale doesn’t go through you won’t have to pay.
Don’t just go for the cheapest one as the cheapest may not be the best one. They should provide you with a breakdown of their fees so you know exactly what you are paying them for. The average cost is around £400 to £1500.
If you would like to read more about the fees involved in selling your home including conveyancer fees then you can read our blog post here.
Comparing
It is best to compare conveyancers to make sure you get the right one for you. You should look at:
- What service each one is offering
- What fees they are charging
- Their experience
- What their communication is like
Recommendations
You can also find a conveyancer through recommendations. Ask your family and friends if they know of or have hired a good conveyancer before. You can also ask your estate agent for a recommendation.
What will a good conveyancer do?
A good conveyancer should:
- Offer you expert guidance and plenty of support through the process
- Make sure they work accurately and as efficient as they can
- Make sure the deal goes through smoothly
- Hopefully speed up the transaction of your home
- Be registered to a regulatory body
- Successfully negotiate
- Have professional indemnity
You don’t want a conveyancer that
- Has bad communication and ignores any calls you make to them
- Is unable to answer your questions
- Is very slow at completing
- Provides you with more stress
- Doesn’t tell you about any potential problems that might happen
- Risks your home sale
- Doesn’t take care with important documents
The best time to hire a conveyancer
You don’t need to wait till you accept an offer to hire a conveyancer. Hiring your conveyancer before means they can get on with getting the contracts ready and any other paperwork needed to transfer your home.
Summary
In summary choosing the right conveyancer can be difficult, but if you follow our advice mentioned above you should be on the right tracks to finding the conveyancer for you, that will help make the process as smooth and stress free as possible. So, you are a step closer to selling your home.
