How to Get an Accurate Conveyancing Online Quote

Moving home is an exciting but often stressful process. Once your offer has been accepted, you will then need to appoint a conveyancer who will carry out the legal aspects of your property transaction. More and more home movers look to do so by looking online and one of the key steps of the process is getting a conveyancing online quote. With so many services available, it can be hard to decide which one is best for you. This guide will provide you with an overview of what to look for when searching for a reliable and accurate online conveyancing quote.

Why Conveyancing Online Would Be a Better Option For You?

An online conveyancing service usually brings a hassle-free experience compared to a more traditional route. Since a majority (if not all) the necessary documents are available electronically, there’s remains limited need for face-to-face meetings with your conveyancer nowadays. Furthermore, the speed of completing transactions is much faster with online services, offering you peace of mind that your property sale or purchase will be completed efficiently and quickly.

Additionally, one of the biggest advantages of using an online conveyancing service is that it allows for a significant reduction in costs compared to traditional methods. This is as a result of conveyancing firms offering online services tend to be setup in a way which operates far more efficiently than their high street counterparts. These cost savings a Firm make are then passed down to the clients by way of reduced legal fees.

With that in mind, lets take a closer look at what you must consider to narrow down your quest for a conveyancer.

Choose the right Conveyancing Service Provider.

 Finding the right conveyancing service provider is key. It is worth considering your circumstances when it comes to deciding who best to instruct. What we mean by this is, can be expanded as follows –

• Is the property Freehold or Leasehold?
• Is it a New Build Property which hasn’t yet been built?
• Are there commercial elements to the transaction such as shops

The above should then be a good starting point as to the type of expertise from a conveyancer you should expect. When sourcing a conveyancing quote, you should then make sure you read reviews and explore the service provider in details to ensure they offer the type of service they say, they can deliver. Assuming they do, you should then look to obtain your conveyancing quote. Reputable providers usually offer free quotes with no commitment, providing an accurate estimate of legal costs associated with the property transfer process.

 Ask Relevant Questions About the Quote.

 When requesting a conveyancing quote, it’s important to ask the right questions and understand exactly what is included. You should be able to ask questions such as if the fees include property searches, land registration fees, stamp duty etc; is the quote time sensitive and will expire if you do not instruct the conveyancer within a certain time frame; and how long does completion typically take? Asking specific questions can help ensure you get an accurate estimation of conveyancing services.

Online conveyancing quotes are designed to provide you with a fair estimate of the cost for legal services. However, it’s important to keep in mind that most quotes don’t include things additional costs associated with the process. Looking at an example, let’s assume you are purchasing a leasehold property. As part of the purchase, you may have agreed with your seller that they are to carry out a lease extension in addition to the sale. Although an online conveyancing quote calculator would be able to capture the relevant details with regards to the purchase element, it may not be where the lease extension element of the transaction is concerned.

It is also important to disclose exactly how you are financing the purchase to ensure everything is captured accurately in your quote. For example, if you are purchasing with a mortgage, or bridging finance, your conveyancer must simultaneously act for you and your mortgage lender when handling the transaction. A conveyancer must give certain assurances to your lender that the title is a good title, and suitable for your lender to secure their charge against. For this reason, it is common for there to be additional charges for handling a mortgage or bridging finance than there would be in cash sale. Other sources of funding can add charges to a quote, for example a gifted deposit or international funds. If you are purchasing a property with a partner and intend on holding the property in unequal shares, you may be necessary to have a Deed of Trust formally confirming the amount of equity each partner has contributed to the property.

Therefore, to ensure that the quote you have obtained is reflective of your particular circumstances, you must speak to the service provider to ensure they can produce a revised quote where necessary.

Get Clarity About What Are The Legal Fees and What Are Disbursements.

When getting a conveyancing quote, it’s essential to understand the difference between legal fees and disbursements. All conveyancing quotes should list out what Legal Fees and Disbursements separately and clearly.

Legal fees, although changed interchangeable in dialogue, are profit costs a legal professional charge for carrying out a task. Disbursements on the other hand, are third party costs incurred in the general process of a particular transaction. For instance, search costs, land registry fees for documents and registration, bank transfer fees etc are all disbursements. Usually, disbursements are fixed regardless of which conveyancing firm handles a particular transaction.

Therefore, when comparing conveyancing online quotes, you should focus on the legal fees between various providers.

Check If The Conveyancing Quote Is Offered On a No-Completion No-Fee Basis.

Buying or selling a property is a costly affair. In England and Wales, currently there is no system in place where you are able to recover legal costs if your transaction aborts as a result of another parties default. If this happens to you, you will still have to cover your own legal costs, even if the reason for the transaction collapsing wasn’t your fault.

This is where conveyancing firms offering a no-completion, no-fee service would save you thousands of pounds. Not all online conveyancing firms offer this by default unlike the service we offer. It is therefore important for you to establish with the company before you commit by instructing, the conditions their conveyancing quote is subject to so that you know what to expect and can make an informed decision.

Dive Deeper Into Additional Fees and Charges.

 Take the time to properly read through your conveyancing quote and look for any additional fees or charges you may have missed or do not understand. For instance, some firms may charge additional fees for file storage, archiving, case management fees etc which are all fees a reputable conveyancing firm will not otherwise charge. Knowing what fees and charges you’ll need to cover is essential to making sure your quote is accurate and to ensuring that you have the resources needed to complete your conveyancing transaction.

What fees might not be included in a quote?

 All reputable firms should include all fees and disbursements in a conveyancing online quote that they can account for. There are certain transaction specific fees that cannot be included in a quote before they are specific to the property you are looking to purchase, or are a third party disbursement subject to change. Some common examples include leasehold information packs, service charge apportionments and new build engrossment fees.

For the majority of leasehold properties, service charge is payable. The amount varies greatly depending on location, type of property, size, insurance premiums, planned works, property facilities and for this reason property specific. Often when purchasing a leasehold property, you will be expected to pay for the proportion of the year between the date you complete the purchase and the start of the next year. This all needs to be calculated and negotiated by your conveyancer and the seller’s conveyancer throughout the course of the transaction.

Similarly, with a leasehold property, often a freeholder  or management company will need to produce a management company pack, or leasehold information pack which confirms all insurance, fees, service charge, budgets, forecasted works etc. The freeholder or management company will charge for this and this fee is passed to the seller. Again this is property specific and so if you plan to sell a leasehold property, it is worth contacting the management company to ask what the fees here are, as your conveyancer cannot speculate on what this may be at the time of quoting.

If you plan to purchase a new build, there are often new build fees associated with it. It may be estate management fees, similar to leasehold service charge, which pays for the common parts of the estate, for example communal green spaces or parking areas. There can often be engrossment fees written into the sellers contract. All of which will only be established as the purchase progresses.

Some disbursements are subject to change. For example, stamp duty is based upon your individual circumstances. Once reviewed by the conveyancing team, if something has not been disclosed, such as an additional property, at the time of quoting, then this disbursement will be calculated by the HMRC as higher. The same goes for Land Registry fees, if it a brand new registration, then the HM Land Registry charge higher than if it is registration of a property already registered with them

How do I go about getting a quote?

If you are looking for a reputable conveyancing online quote with years of experience helping thousands of home movers each year, use our online calculator to obtain a quote instantly or contact us to discuss your property needs over the telephone or email.