Choosing A Conveyancing Solicitor
The conveyancing process is not as complicated as it may appear to everyday buyers. But what is the difference between a solicitor and a conveyancer?
Firstly, a solicitor’s training is far more extensive than that of a Conveyancing Solicitor, and his or her knowledge of the law and scope in being able to give advice is as comprehensive as can be. A conveyancer, as you may have guessed, deals solely with conveyancing and these specialist property lawyers have to undergo a great deal of training and assessment. Although a solicitor or a company of solicitors can carry out conveyancing work (they may often have a dedicated conveyancer as part of their company) a solicitor may often charge more for his or her services, being better qualified.
While homebuyers or commercial property buyers may choose to employ the services of a local Solicitor to carry out the work involved in buying a lease, a conveyancing Solicitor concentrating solely on this aspect of the law will have no other distractions and will have necessarily gained more focused experience in his or her specialist area.
Do I need a Conveyancing Solicitor?
Conveyancing is simply the buying and selling the freehold or lease of a property, residential or commercial. It is legally possible for buyers to carry out the process themselves, but will take up so much of the buyer’s time to learn the procedure and relevant aspects of the law, and the hold-ups and obstacles that may stand in the way, that their time will be better spent learning to speak Spanish or taking up pottery.
To begin, a draft contract is drawn up between the conveyancing solicitor and the prospective buyer including the Terms of Engagement. If this is agreed, your conveyancer will follow the process through to completion, giving every client dedicated attention. This involves sending documents for their perusal, conducting local environmental and utility searches and checking Land Registry documents and keeping in touch through every step of the way.
Nearly all conveyancing solicitors will work from bricks and mortar offices so that clients can choose to visit, but online conveyancing is becoming more and more common as we spend more of our lives, and conduct more of our daily business using the internet. This has many advantages. One of the greatest of these is that buyers can choose the best deal from a conveyancer who may operate from hundreds of miles away.
While newspapers with space to fill try to terrify their readers with stories of online scams, they are not as prevalent as the scaremongers would have us believe, and the media need to attract readers however they can. There is no reason not to be as trusting with an online conveyancer.
