Convenyancing solicitors

[ellieaness]

We'll be looking to appoint one very soon - are there any local recommendations?

Are Glazer Delmar any good? Last time we moved we used one based up North based purely on price and it nearly cost us the purchase as they were so slow and dreadful.

It would be good to have one where I can pop in and create some urgency if needed.

[Baggs]

We have found James at Glazer Delmar to be both quick and helpful. Added benefit of knowing you can go and knock on the door should the need arise. So far very impressed.

[Dodo1]

Hi

I would recommend Hepburns. We have used them for a number of years.

Also they are cheaper than Glazer Delmar! Before you go ahead check that whoever you use is 'on the panel' with your mortgage lender as not all Solicitors are and for ease it will be better for you.

[broccola]

I used one local (Brockley) solicitor for conveyancing on the basis that they "knew the area", and they were truly awful - down to getting the purchase price wrong on the sale contract (!) after a three-week delay (!!) and then suggesting I was unreasonable when I asked them to re-do it rather than Tippex out the incorrect details. Since then I have used Gaby Hardwicke in Eastbourne for three purchases (res. & BTL), particularly Amanda Loftus, after a colleague used them. They have always been great, prompt, cheap (about ?700?), responsive and you get the sense that they know what they're doing. My partner also used them for him purchase and was also impressed. Another friend currently in process with them.

If you get over the need for a local conveyancer, I can't recommend them enough. As a solicitor (though not a conveyancer, admittedly), the fact that they are local doesn't add anything beyond the fact that you can see them on the high street - all the Land Reg searches etc are accessed electronically.

[ellieaness]

Broccola - for me it's more that we used one based up in Cheshire when we purchased our current property and I would dearly have loved to go in and refuse to move until it was sorted when we nearly lost the property.

If someone is genuinely good, I would be prepared to work with someone anywhere.

[Sonners]

We used Julia Lowrie at Downs Solicitors for our purchase and sale a few months ago. She was recommended to me by another ED resident.

Julia is by far the best conveyancing solicitor I have come across. She answered e-mails and phone calls quickly, kept me up to date and helped push things through when the other solicitors were dawdling. I would use her again.

She is not local but when I went with her I decided that Surrey was close enough should there be any need to go to her office to sign papers etc. In the end everything was by phone and by e-mail.

Downs were also much cheaper than some of the quotes from firms suggested by Pedder despite being based in a more expensive part of the country!

[JulieDP]

I have used Jonathan Cummins of Wainwright & Cummins in Brixton many times. I can thoroughly recommend him and he is very reasonably priced.

[EarthCitizen]

Hi there,

I wouldn't be taken in by claims of local knowledge by a solicitor: conveyancing is a process-driven process and whereas surveyors have to have local knowledge (stands to reason! soil types, building styles, knowledge of whether subsidence is common in the area etc), conveyancers do not: they can achieve nearly all of it by email and telephone.

What you need is an experienced conveyancing solicitor who responds to your phonecalls and emails and keeps everything running efficiently.

The best I've found online is SAM Conveyancing - www.samconveyancing.co.uk. My mother asked me to handle the conveyancing business for her when she was downsizing. selling the old family home and moving nearby into a cosy flat. They provided pretty much everything: they not only instructed a great solicitor, John Allison, to work for us, I also got a homebuyer's report from them. There was a minor issue about service charges which looked like it was turning ugly but John really stood his ground for us and probably saved mum a lot of money down the line.

If you want your moving handled from start to finish, go with SAM Conveyancing, you won't regret it.