There are unfortunately many conveyancing 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 when you are looking to find a good conveyancing firm turn to your estate agent as they are industry experts on good and bad conveyancing firms and practices. Estate agents would have dealt with dozens of conveyancers and know the good ones from the bad. Hence it is important to hear their recommendation for good conveyancing solicitors. They 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 conveyancing solicitor.

It is easy to identify and recommend the top conveyancing firms. Some estate agents and mortgage brokers choose not to promote a conveyancing solicitor for fear of being blamed if the conveyancing solicitor provides an inferior service. It takes little time however, for them to distinguish the excellent from the mediocre providers and establish a relationship with the best and so if your estate agent is not willing to recommend a firm perhaps you should check with another agent.

Clients want a conveyancing solicitor 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 conveyancing solicitor. 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 conveyancing firm on price, without being aware of what they should be looking for. What they really want is a conveyancing solicitor 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.

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

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

Conveyancing firms that work with a variety of national, regional and local estate agent and mortgage brokers will be able to work better with you as they are likely to have service level agreements and be better trained. Conveyancing firms that 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 conveyancing solicitor working on your case takes leave or is absent.

2. 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 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.

3. Do you have an online case tracker with real-time update facility and SMS updates? This enables you 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 conveyancing solicitor and a more advanced system which is updated in ‘real-time’ as soon as the conveyancing solicitor does any work on a case. The former is less expensive and most commonly used by small high street conveyancing firms, and is likely to be out of date and of no value to you because the conveyancing solicitor may not gets around to updating it for a couple of days. Only larger specialist conveyancing firms are able to make the heavy investment into the more expensive system which can give you real-time updates. ELC Solicitors for example, invested in close to £1 million in developing a state of the art case management system that will provide referrers with all the information and support they will need to expedite your conveyancing transaction.