Task I: Let the client know that you care

Business can be defined as an exchange of values between people. We buy from people that we like. Therefore building confidence and trust with your client is critical and this must be done at the very beginning of the relationship. To do this, you should listen to the client, establish earnestness in your dealing, communicate your relevant competence in the property market in the area and use language that the client can understand. Will this be enough? Nope there are some very elementary things that we have to do, that costs us nothing but will propel us forward whatever business we are in.  These are things that are considered by many as good manners and probably more important than any of the above you have read. The first step is to make sure your business and people are all seen to be smart and approachable. Therefore, remember to look pleasant and smile at potential clients; do not look grumpy even if you are having a hard time. Remember that most of us think we are smiling and pleasant but we are not perceived as such by our clients, so make a positive effort to smile. If a client comes in to see you, make an effort to be friendly by offering something, it can be a cup of tea, cake or just biscuits. For most of us buying and selling properties is not a fulltime job. We are therefore generally squeezing in our property related matters during our lunch hour or during a couple of hours we have been able to take off work. Therefore offering something to drink or light to eat is a genuinely hospitable step you have taken to help the client meet a basic necessity for survival – eating and drinking. This sends a very powerful psychological message to the client that you will protect them and care for them in your dealing with them. This is now creating a very strong relationship that is of value to you and to your client. Once you get the buyer to like you, you extraordinarily increase the chance of success as we all like to work with people we like. Remember well begun is half done.

When you communicate with your client remember to use positive language as language that does not show commitment will make you look weak and the client will not gain confidence in you. Therefore avoid qualifiers like ‘maybe’ ‘possibly’, ‘I might be able to’,   ‘I will try’. Also remember to pass negative messages in positive light. For example, instead of saying ‘don’t forget’ say ‘please remember’. Instead of saying ‘the property is small’ say ‘the property is cute’, instead of saying ‘the property is run down’ say ‘the property has potential’.

We all love to talk about ourselves, therefore if you can get the client onto a topic about themselves and let them do a bit of boasting about themselves.

When you are beginning a topic start with an open question and let the client talk. Then probe further by narrowing your questions and then ending with closed questions.

The next sections talk about selling to buyers as most estate agents are able to get sellers more easily than committed buyers. The principles in general are applicable to both.

HOW TO CREATE BUYERS of CONVEYANCING SERVICES

Clients are willing to pay for quality service

It is important to understand the psyche of the general public today. They are ultimately looking for a luxury service at a good price. Supermarket luxury brands are one example of this. Customers will spend two or three times the price of a standard tin of beans for a luxury product which they perceive will be better for their health and fits in with their image.

Salespeople selling high value products such as conveyancing can follow the same principals. Clients are very happy to pay the full price or even more, for an excellent conveyancing service when they understand what they are getting and how it differs from an inferior conveyancing service.

Build your industry knowledge

The sales sector is a fantastic business to be in. The adrenaline rush when a property is bought or sold is sensational and provides the incentive to keep going. The best estate agents and mortgage brokers know their business inside out. An excellent estate agent will know everything there is to know about their area; its history, demography, transport links, new developments, schools, crime rate and future council investment. Those who build their knowledge capacity in these areas will naturally present them well to clients. Furthermore, by integrating your property knowledge with your area knowledge, you will be able support your clients through the decision making process.

The Consultative Sales Approach

Successful salespeople use the ‘Consultative Sales’ approach; whose aim is to understand in detail the client’s circumstances and need. This requires detailed information on the client so that their needs can be matched closely with a property.

Read the next few sections on sales techniques to help you sell conveyancing services.

HOW TO IDENTIFY GOOD CONVEYANCING FIRMS?

Clients want a conveyancer who is experienced and communicates with them in a proactive and timely manner.

Our research clearly shows that clients would be willing to pay several hundred pounds more for a speedy, efficient transaction by an experienced conveyancer. The disappointment of poor communication, painfully slow transactions and negligent conveyancing is something clients are unable to anticipate. As a result, they often choose a conveyancer on price, without being aware of what they should be looking for. What they really want is a conveyancer who will deal with their transaction in a timely manner, explain issues in plain English and give them the attention they need to become comfortable with the process.

In fact, what you want is also an experienced conveyancer with good communication skills who uses state of the art technology to complete transactions quickly.

The sooner a transaction completes, the happier the client is, the quicker you get your commission and the faster you get onto your next transaction. An estate agent dealing with six cases could be dealing with up to 12 solicitors (one for each side). You could save hours per week on chasing conveyancers by choosing a trusted, high quality solicitor and reduce the number of solicitors that you work with.

You can use the following list of questions to help you to identify a top quality law firm:

1. What are your legal fees?

Make sure you get the conveyancing firm’s fee structure to understand the sort of fees your clients will be charged. Also make sure that any referral fees that are paid is paid from those stated fees and clients are not given a different inflated quote to cover referral fees.

2. How large is your firm?

Larger firms will process a higher volume of cases and benefit from economies of scale; this should allow them to pass on larger referral fees to you. However, stay away from factory line processing conveyancing firms. A small firm is likely to have higher overheads per conveyancing case and be less able to manage employee absences and holidays, which could cause disruption to your own business.

3. What other estate agents or mortgage brokers do you work with?

Conveyancers who work with a variety of national, regional and local estate agents and mortgage brokers will be able to work better with you as they are likely to have service level agreements and be better trained. Conveyancers who work with only a few local estate agents or mortgage brokers are likely to be worse at handling your case and you would experience low quality and speed if the conveyancer is on holiday, absent or has too many cases. Larger firms will generally have the resources to manage this. Get references and testimonials.

4. Do you pay referral fees?

You want to make sure you build a link with a firm that are set up to pay referral fees and are able to do so without you chasing them all the time for payment. You also need to make sure you are aware of what, if any, VAT element is on the referral fee. Referral fees vary from £50 to £200, but do not be lured in by this if the other questions are not answered to your satisfaction. Remember your commission is also at stake and that is possibly much larger than this.

5. Do you cover all properties in England and Wales?

Your client does not need to use a conveyancing firm which is geographically close to your client. It is now possible for the entire conveyancing process to be conducted by e-mail, telephone and post. An ‘arms-length’ service can be provided by conveyancing firms which have invested in their process management. Clients generally prefer conveyancing services where they do not need to attend meetings in person.

6. Do your conveyancers specialise in residential conveyancing only?

A conveyancer who deals only with residential conveyancing will be office based and contactable at all times. A conveyancer who covers different areas of law such as family law and immigration may have to visit court regularly, which may compromise the standard of service they provide to you.

7. Can you commit to a Service Level Agreement?

A good conveyancing firm should have a Service Level Agreement that they can commit to. These are generally drafted to set minimum standards and provide a guideline of what to expect. A good conveyancer should be able to exceed the expectations set out in the Service Level Agreement. You should always ask for a copy of their SLA – if they do not have one, alarm bells should start to ring because their service is likely to be unpredictable.

8. How does your firm process a transaction?

Look for a firm where each conveyancer takes responsibility for the conveyancing transactions they take on. Avoid firms with outdated factory line processing, where there are many scantly trained paralegals handling segments of a case and passing it on. This often results in files being passed around the office, everyone blaming each other, post going missing, and you calling half a dozen people before talking to someone that can help.

9. Do you use a Case Management System for moving cases along?

Many conveyancing firms do not have the resource to invest in case management systems and consequently work reactively rather than pro-actively. Thus the conveyancer would not chase other-side solicitor for a reply until you or the client calls to remind him, he wont deal with all the enquiries because he would not be driven by a system which has a comprehensive checklist; he will probably not remember about an exchange until the day arrives and he will at the eleventh hour ask your client to deposit 10% of the purchase price into his client account. A case management system (if used properly) will enable the conveyancer to be pro-active.

10. Do you have an online case tracker with real-time update facility and SMS updates?

This enables you and your client to stay up to date with what is happening on a case at a time that is convenient to you. There are two types of Case Management System: a less advanced system which is updated manually by the conveyancer and a more advanced system which is updated in ‘real-time’ as soon as a conveyancer does any work on a case. The former is less expensive and most commonly used by small high street firms, and is likely to be out of date and of no value to you because the conveyancer may not get around to updating it for a couple of days. Only larger specialist conveyancers are able to make the heavy investment into the more expensive system which can give you real-time updates.

11. Can you give me a dedicated conveyancer for a referrer?

A good conveyancing firm should be able to offer you this. Building a relationship with one conveyancer will allow both parties to become accustomed to each other’s working practices. All companies will have some movement between employees and cases; however, this should not be the norm. With a dedicated conveyancer your relationship will become strong and trusting that you would be able to confidently rely on your conveyancer.

12. Can you provide me with mid-week updates?

A good conveyancing firm should offer weekly email (or fax) updates on each conveyancing case. Since clients usually want to know the progress of their case by the weekend (and because most cases complete on a Friday), this gives you enough time to receive the update and deal with any questions from your client.

13. Do you have an online instruction and quote generation system I can use?

This will give you the advantage of being able to tie in a client while they are in the office and save time. Online instructions will speed up your case by as much as two days.

14. How do you comply with the Solicitors Regulatory Authority requirements?

The SRA requirements are strict on referral fees and you must ensure they are in compliance and are openly addressing the issue. The firms that hide from these requirements will not be a long term partner and they may even withhold referral fees from you.

15. Do you provide a monthly management information (MI), activity and forecast report?

This will allow you to monitor the activity of your chosen conveyancer and prepare for the following month more efficiently.  The conveyancer should be able to provide information such as pipeline conversion rate, completions, exchanges, income, average property price of transactions and many other key performance indicator reports.  Good case management systems should be able to auto-generate these reports.

16. Do you provide additional conveyancing services?

For example  home information packs, energy performance certificates, referral fees, account managers and dedicated conveyancers are provided by good conveyancing firms that work with estate agents and mortgage brokers.

UNDERSTAND COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS

The Solicitors Regulation Authority

Solicitors in England and Wales are regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA). The SRA is an independent arm of the Law Society entrusted with the job of regulating the work of solicitors in England and Wales. The SRA has wide ranging powers and are tough on solicitors that do not comply with the rules, codes or guidance set by them. Conveyancing firms have been targeted by the SRA to ensure compliance with referral codes. In some cases certain firms have been taken to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal over non compliance with referral codes, hence solicitors are very concerned to meet the requirements of these codes.

Solicitors Regulation Authority Conveyancing Requirements

Written Agreement

It is essential that before any cases are referred, there is a written Agreement between yourself and the conveyancer, defining the terms and conditions on which referral fees are granted. This does not need to be a lengthy document outlining every aspect of your relationship. A short-form Referral Fee Agreement which meets the minimum SRA requirements will suffice for this purpose.

Client Disclosure

Prior to referring a conveyancing case, you, the referrer must disclose to the client details of any referral fees paid by the conveyancer. From our experience, recipients of a fixed referral fee per case are most receptive to this information in writing, preferably incorporated into a brochure from the conveyancer. Recipients of a fixed monthly ‘Panel Management Fee’ are not obliged to disclose detailed costs information to the client.

When working on a fixed referral fee per case basis, the conveyancer must also disclose details of referral fees in their initial client care letter. Clients are generally happy with this system, provided it is explained to them properly and they receive a good service subsequently from the conveyancing firm. It is generally accepted as being bad practice for the conveyancer to raise their standard fees to meet referral fees and it is better to stay away from firms that do this.

SRA Monitoring

Periodically, your conveyancer will check that you and their other referrerrers are complying with the disclosure provisions, as set out by the SRA. They will also have to evidence the fact that they are independent from you, to prove that advice given to a client is always impartial.

The provisions described above are easily dealt with by law firms who do the majority of their work ‘business-to-business’. However, some of the smaller firms may not have the relevant systems in place and as a result may not be able to deal with the requirements of the SRA. Therefore compliance with the SRA requirements is something you should openly discuss with the conveyancer that you are going to work with. A conveyancer who is reluctant to talk about SRA compliance requirements should raise alarm bells in your mind. It is important to discuss this at the beginning of a long term relationship to avoid issues further down the line when your pipeline is in their hands.

Why Sell Conveyancing?

You have spent your time, money and effort on putting together a deal. You now risk your bonus, wages, targets, commission and reputation by allowing your client to choose the conveyancer on his own. What is a client likely to do? A buyer, if first time, will probably go for the cheapest conveyancer who would not be interested in talking to you or working with you as you are just an annoyance to him. By selling conveyancing, your case is likely to proceed quickly and smoothly, you retain control over the transaction; you make money from the referral and enhance your reputation.

I have met with several estate agents and mortgage brokers that outright refuse to refer a client to a conveyancer even if they think that conveyancer is good. Now, would you allow any bloke off the street run your business for you? This is what you do when you allow you client to go out and find a conveyancer without your recommendation. Now conveyancing is done in the main by solicitors that are not the sharpest of tools in the box.

There are unfortunately many solicitors and licensed conveyancers, that do not communicate, have poor customer service, slow in responding, and do not even know the law, but providing conveyancing services when they should not even be allowed near an office.

Now you are probably an industry expert on conveyancers, dealt with dozens of conveyancers and know the good ones from the bad. Hence it is your duty to recommend a good conveyancer to your client.  You should be able to use their industry knowledge and experience to benefit their clients and prevent the vulnerable client from choosing an unsuitable or unqualified conveyancer.

It is easy to identify and recommend the top conveyancing firms.

Many estate agents and mortgage brokers choose not to sell conveyancing for fear of being blamed if the conveyancer provides an inferior service. It takes little time however, for you to distinguish the excellent from the mediocre providers and establish a relationship with the best. By doing your research beforehand, you can choose a provider with a good track record who works hard to integrate themselves with your way of doing business.

An estate agent or mortgage broker can improve their own efficiency by establishing a good relationship with a conveyancing firm.

By allowing a client to use their limited knowledge to choose a poor quality firm, you are making your own job harder. By working selectively with only the best conveyancing firms, you can take advantage of those offering the latest infrastructure (such as real-time online case trackers). By thinking ahead, you can improve the efficiency of your own business.

Referral fees per conveyancing case can be substantial.

Conveyancers offer between £50 and £300 per conveyancing case that is referred. This will depend on the size of the firm and the number of cases you refer to them per month. The better conveyancing firms will provide a dedicated relationship manager.

Incentivise your chosen conveyancer to treat you as a priority client.

By establishing a close relationship with a high quality conveyancing firm, you provide an incentive for them to give your transactions business priority and treat your calls as top priority! It has been proven that transactions given a higher priority are completed in a shorter period of time and clients are more likely to be satisfied and return to your business time and time again.

Conveyancing Explained

What is Conveyancing?

Conveyancing is the process by which the legal title is transferred from the seller to the buyer. This is generally a straight forward process but sloppy conveyancing practice makes the process unnecessarily cumbersome and protracted. This document explains the process from a client’s perspective.

The Conveyancing Process

1. Pre–exchange of contracts

2. Exchange of contracts

3. Pre-completion

4. Completion

5. Registration

1. Pre-exchange of contracts

Initial letters sent on instructions

Once we are instructed to proceed on your behalf we generally do the following:-

Open a file in your name

Write to the estate agent and financial advisor (where applicable) to confirm our instructions on your behalf.

Write to the seller’s solicitors with a list of pre-contract enquiries, to confirm our instructions and request them to send the draft contract papers to us. Pre-contract enquiries are a set of standard questions aimed at obtaining more information about the property in question, such as: what furniture (if any) is being left behind, the boundaries of the property, who owns and is responsible for any hedges or fences. If it is a leasehold property, we obtain details of the managing agents, and discover whether the current owner is up to date with things like service charge bills and ground rent.

Local Searches

We usually have to carry out searches regarding the property you propose to purchase.  These will almost always include a local authority search and an environmental search.

Local authority searches usually take around six to nine working days to complete depending on the efficiency of the local authority, time of year and work backlog.

A local authority search will establish the following: proposals for any public works such as a new motorway, waterworks or alterations to road systems; whether any new developments are planned in the vicinity of the property; any problems with water drainage systems; and any planning restrictions that may affect your plans to renovate or alter the property.

The local authority search may not reveal everything you would like to know about the property and its surrounding area, such as any parking restrictions affecting the area in which you are buying. 

If you require such information, it would be as well for you to contact the local authority directly, or advise us so that we can raise such matters with the authority at the start of the transaction.

There may be other searches required, depending on the location of the property, such as a coal-mining search or a search from a local railway network. We will inform you of any such requirement at the earliest.

Mortgage offer

If you are dependant on a mortgage to complete the transaction we may be required to act for both you and your mortgage lender. This mean there may be specific requirements and conditions that need to be satisfied before mortgage monies are released by your mortgage lender.  Your interests broadly coincide with the mortgage lender’s in seeing that there are no problems with the condition of the property or any legal concerns. If however, a conflict of interest arise between you and your mortgage lender we will be required to stop acting for you and the mortgage lender.

Once your mortgage offer has been issued your mortgage lender will normally send us a copy in the post.

Survey

The usual building society or bank valuation is not a full survey.  The level of inspection varies between each building society/bank surveyor.

Your mortgage lender or the person arranging your mortgage should advise you as to the type of valuations and surveys available.  For your own protection, we must advise you to arrange a full structural survey or at the very least a Home Buyers Valuation Report.

It might be possible, when making initial contact with your mortgage company for them to arrange for their surveyor to carry out a House Buyers’ Report or full survey so that only one surveyor need be engaged.

If the surveyor only prepares a valuation for the mortgage company the contract may only be between the surveyor and the mortgage company.  In that case, you may not have any right to sue the surveyor should any negligence on his part be proven. If the surveyor also prepares a report or survey for you then, if he is negligent, you would be able to sue him.

If you have a copy of your survey/valuation report, please kindly forward a copy to us.

If the property is leasehold it is advised the surveyor is instructed to survey the whole building and common areas.

Draft Contracts

Upon receiving the draft contract from the seller’s solicitors, we will check the documentation and raise any specific queries that arise

The contract is then amended by mutual agreement between us and the seller’s solicitors. The contract is a legal document drawn up by the seller’s solicitors that sets out the terms of the sale process. The contract will reflect details of the following:- property being sold; names of both the buyer and seller; the property price and details of anything else that has been negotiated to be included with the sale; the date on which the transaction will take place; and the completion date once all parties have agreed on this.

Once we are satisfied with all the legal documents and replies to enquiries in connection with the property, the contract is approved and sent to both parties for signature

2. Exchange of contracts

Deposit

On exchange of contracts of a purchase it is usual to pay to the sellers’ solicitors a deposit of up to 10% of the purchase price, but it is sometimes possible to agree to a 5% deposit.

Once we have your deposit in cleared funds, signed contract and authorisation, we can proceed to the exchange of contracts with the seller and agree a completion date. The deposit will be forwarded to the seller’s solicitors on exchange of contracts, as security in case you do not proceed with the purchase. (Please read the section below on Money Matters)

Exchanging contracts

Until the exchange of contracts, there is no legal liability on either the purchaser or seller to proceed and either party may withdraw from the transaction at any time.

Once contracts have been exchanged (usually by a telephone call between solicitors) both parties become legally bound by the terms and conditions of the contract and will be required to complete the contract.

The agreed completion date will be included in the contract; you will not be able to change the completion date once contracts have been exchanged. If you cannot complete on the contractual completion date your  deposit may be forfeited and you may be sued for breach of contract.

Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT)

The completion of the SDLT form is your responsibility and you may complete this form on your own.  However, when we act as your agent in completing the SDLT form we may make a reasonable charge. In which case our charge would be reflected in the estimate of costs provided.

Please note that there are strict time limits that must be followed. In the event the SDLT form is not received by the Inland Revenue within 30 days of the date of completion, you will be charged penalties.

3. Pre-completion

Between exchange and completion the following takes place:-

Transfer

The seller will sign the transfer document. This is the document that we lodge with the Land Registry to prove the existing owner agrees to the transfer of ownership of the property to you.

Mortgage funds

If there is a mortgage lender involved, we will contact them to release your mortgage funds in time for completion. Please note, to avoid late completion we request for mortgage funds two days prior to completion. This may mean that you will be charged interest by the bank for 2 additional days.

Final searches and enquiries

By this stage, Land Registry searches would have been completed. These searches disclose any mortgages that are on the property and any disputes concerning the property.

Financial Statement

We will send you a financial statement showing the amount required to complete the transaction. This statement will detail all expenses incurred on your behalf or about to incur and includes our fees. It also states the stamp duty payable.

Building Insurance

From the point that contracts have been exchanged, you may become responsible for the property, which means you should obtain suitable building insurance to cover the property. Buildings insurance should be for the full reinstatement value (as specified in your valuation report) and your lenders interest should be noted on it.

4. Completion

On the day of completion, we will send to the seller’s solicitors via telegraphic transfer the purchase monies. The seller’s solicitors will then confirm receipt once they have received the money, and will then authorise the seller to release the keys to you.

Unless you state otherwise all correspondence from the day of completion will be sent to your new address.

After completion the following happens :

• The seller’s solicitors will forward the transfer and title deeds to us.

• We make an application to the Inland Revenue to pay the stamp duty on the property.

• We make an application to the Land Registry to register the property in your name.

Exception to the rules:  simultaneous exchange & completion

If the property is vacant and all parties are in agreement with this method of completion, we can arrange for contracts to be exchanged and the transaction to be completed on the same day.

5. Registration

Once the property has been registered in your name, we will send the title deeds to your mortgage lender, who will hold on to these as security until the mortgage has been paid off. You will receive a letter confirming registration of the property in your name with a certified copy of the registration documents showing your ownership of the property.

How to Find a Good Conveyancer?

You need a conveyancing solicitor who is experienced, efficient and communicates with you in a proactive and timely manner. Your conveyancer can make or break the deal so it is imperative that you have a solid conveyancer on your side.

WHY AVOID CHEAP CONVEYANCERS?

You should be willing to pay for the quality that you need. If you choose to proceed with cheap conveyancing solicitors you will most likely experience disappointment, poor communication, a painfully slow transaction and possibly negligent conveyancing. For most people buying or selling a house is one of the largest transactions in their lives; which should not be compromised with cheap conveyancing services. In fact if a conveyancer is cheap this should be a warning for the following reasons:

1. If you are selling a house, a cheap conveyancing solicitor  may be so slow that you face paying an extra two or three months of interest to your mortgage company which can add up to several thousand pounds.  You could also be looking at losing the buyer which would be a double blow as you lose the sale and face many more months of interest payment to your mortgage company.
2. Delays could cause the other party to gazunder or gazump you depending on the market forces.
3. Damage your health. You may find the conveyancer does not write to you, call you, return your calls and generally very poor causing you anxiety, stress and adding to the pressure of buying or selling a house.
4. Take time out of work further adding to your work pressure. Most cheap conveyancers will not deal with your case professionally and thus you will most likely have to take time off work to meet with your conveyancer on several occasions. You may even have to go to the conveyancer’s office as this is the only way you will get a response from him/her.
5. Cheap conveyancers may not know how to complete on a sale and purchase case and so you may be left with selling your house but not buying one thus you will be left homeless until your conveyancer can undo the problem s/he has caused.
6. Cost you thousands of pounds. Cheap conveyancers are generally not well trained and they are more likely to be negligent. Negligence can cost you thousands of pounds when you least expect it but it could in a worst-case scenario cost you your house.

1. Cheap conveyancers generally have hidden costs that you will not be told about at the outset but will spring it on you the day before completion.

There are so many cases of negligence and complaints that the Solicitors Regulation Authority deals with on a daily basis; most of which are from conveyancers who provide a cheap conveyancing service by cutting corners.

ANY OTHER TYPES OF CONVEYANCERS I SHOULD AVOID?

I would also recommend you avoid conveyancers that fall into the below categories:

1. Bulk conveyancing firms.  If a firm brands itself as a volume conveyancer or bulk conveyancer I would avoid them as your case would be just another file on the desk and you will most probably have to deal with a dozen different people before your case completed.
2. Conveyancers recommended by large estate agency chains. These large chains of estate agencies funnel hundreds of cases every month to conveyancers that are very, very cheap. Most often the conveyancer would probably only make 15% of the total fee you are being charged. The agencies sell the conveyancing very aggressively and tie you into using their conveyancing service with a non-refundable deposit.  The problem is the poor negotiator that sold you the conveyancing service would have been given orders by the head office to sell the service and someone in the head office would select the actual conveyancer from a panel of cheap conveyancers. The negotiator would not even know how much the conveyancing firm is being paid or how good the firm is until it is too late.  Why? These panels change regularly and the cheap panel conveyancing firms very quickly receive eight or nine hundred cases (within three or four weeks)  and the cheap conveyancer would not have had the infrastructure or the resources to know the problems they are about to face until it is too late. Now who is facing the brunt of this mess – YOU. I am not against estate agents receiving a referral fees and I am also not blaming estate agencies for this mess. The fault lies squarely with the conveyancing firms. These firms do not try to win cases on their merit, quality, experience, knowledge, skill, technology, speed, communication, customer service, or even their location. They look to grab as much cases as they can by offering their services below what they can afford and this is where the problem lies. These cheap conveyancing firms take on cases with almost no profit to them but these firms do not have financial directors that can cost their services. Just to stay afloat they have to cut corners, employ poorly trained staff, poorly engineered operations, poor supervision of cases and before long the problem is spiraling out of control as clients start to complain and demand compensation. Now a client may have paid £899 for the conveyancing service and the conveyancing solicitor may only be receiving £125 and the referring agent will take £744. Now the cheap conveyancer has no money to pay compensation and the matter is likely to be referred to the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the cheap conveyancer is more often than not in the wrong and ends up paying a lot of money in compensation.  There are unfortunately many such cheap conveyancers that are being fed cases by large chains of estate agency and since the system for this is not right it is better to avoid conveyancing frms that are recommended by large chains of estate agencies. The same goes for panels of conveyancers who also work on the same method.
3. No-Completion-No-Fee. These conveyancers are not valuing their work and so I do not know why you will receive any value from their service. A solicitor is meant to carry out legal work on the transaction and if the case does not proceed to completion he should not suffer the consequence, he should still be paid something for the work he has done albeit it should be capped at a reasonable and fair amount.  No-completion-no-fee is generally used by cheap conveyancing firms.  BUT conveyancers should offer to deduct this payment on completion if you return to the conveyancer with another case.

Of course even when you find a good solicitor that you would like to work with, negotiate their fees if you think it is too expensive. Most good solicitors are open to negotiations.  What you really want is a conveyancing solicitor who will deal with your transaction in a timely manner, explain issues in plain English and give your case the attention it deserves.

Below are some useful questions to ask when identifying a good quality conveyancing firm for your conveyancing case:

1. Does the conveyancing solicitor specialise in residential conveyancing only? A conveyancing solicitor who deals only with residential conveyancing will be office based and contactable at all times. A conveyancing solicitor that covers different areas of law such as family law and immigration may have to visit court regularly, which may compromise the standard of service they provide to you.
2. Speak to your estate agent and mortgage advisor about any good conveyancers that they know. However do not let them push a conveyancer down your throat.
3. When looking around for a conveyancing firm avoid firms that use call centres to deal with your queries. Call Centres do not work for conveyancing cases as the matter is too complicated to understand when explained by anyone other than your conveyancer.
4. Do not use conveyancers that pass your case from conveyancer to conveyancer as the transaction progresses. This is factory line processing that some conveyancing firms use; which may mean they can get unskilled labourers to do certain aspects of the case but the customer service you receive will kill you.  You will be left pulling your hair out as every time you call you are likely to be talking to a new conveyancer who will not have any idea about the previous conveyancer’s work on the file.
5. Check that you will receive direct line access to your conveyancer. The last thing you need is to be talking to secretaries when you are about to be completing on the biggest transaction of your life.
6. Check that your conveyancer has an online case tracker. This is a useful tool that some good conveyancers have.  You will be able to monitor the progress of your case from anywhere at anytime and communicate with your conveyancer via the system too.  This will save you time.
7. Check how the conveyancer will keep you updated during the transaction. A good conveyancing firm would keep you updated by SMS text messages and email updates on a regular basis and of course be speaking to you as well.