Choosing a conveyancer is the least glamorous decision in buying a home and one of the most consequential. This is the professional who checks the title, raises the enquiries, holds the money and drives the legal process to exchange and completion. A good one quietly prevents disasters and answers the phone. A bad one becomes the reason your chain takes six months and your completion date collapses twice.
This guide explains how to choose a conveyancer with confidence: what they should cost, the questions that reveal quality before you instruct, how online and local firms genuinely differ, and the red flags that should send you elsewhere.
Conveyancer or Solicitor — Is There a Difference?
Both can legally handle your house purchase or sale. A licensed conveyancer is a specialist regulated by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) who does property law all day, every day. A solicitor is a broader legal professional regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) who may specialise in conveyancing or do it alongside other work. In practice, what matters is not the title but the individual: their experience with your type of transaction (leasehold, new-build, shared ownership and auction purchases all have specialist corners), their caseload, and how they communicate. Specialist volume firms and small local practices both contain excellent and terrible practitioners.
What Should Conveyancing Cost?
For a straightforward purchase, total conveyancing costs commonly land somewhere in the region of £1,000–£2,500, made of two parts: the firm’s legal fee for their work, and disbursements — third-party costs they pay on your behalf, such as searches (typically a few hundred pounds), Land Registry fees, bank transfer fees and ID checks. Leasehold purchases cost more than freehold (there is extra leasehold paperwork and often a management pack to buy), new-builds more than resales. When comparing quotes, demand the full itemised total, and ask specifically about the extras that inflate cheap headline quotes: fees for acting for your lender, completing the stamp duty return, dealing with gifted deposits, unregistered titles or indemnity policies. The cheapest quote, padded with add-ons and staffed by an overloaded team, is frequently the most expensive choice by completion day.
Online Conveyancer or Local Firm?
Online and national firms often quote lower fees, offer slick case-tracking portals and long opening hours — and assign your file to a team rather than a named person. They suit straightforward transactions and confident buyers who are happy chasing through an app. Local firms cost a little more but give you a named conveyancer who knows the area’s quirks (the estate with the odd management company, the council whose searches crawl), and whose office door you can physically knock on when a chain wobbles. Estate agents’ recommended conveyancers sit in between — some are genuinely good partnerships; remember the agent may earn a referral fee, so treat the recommendation as a lead, never as proof. The honest rule: for a simple purchase, a well-reviewed online firm is fine; for leasehold, new-build, or anything unusual, pay for experience and a human who knows your file.
Questions to Ask Before You Instruct
- Who exactly will handle my case, and what is their experience with purchases like mine?
- How many files are they currently handling? (A conveyancer carrying 100+ live files cannot chase yours daily.)
- How will we communicate — named contact, email, phone, portal — and how quickly do they reply?
- Is the quote fixed, and what exactly could increase it?
- Are they on my mortgage lender’s approved panel? (If not, the lender will need its own solicitor — at your cost — or refuse.)
- What are their current average timescales to exchange, and are they taking holidays mid-transaction?
- Do they offer ‘no move, no fee’, and what would I still owe if the purchase falls through?
Red Flags to Walk Away From
- A quote that is dramatically cheaper than everyone else’s with a vague breakdown — the difference will reappear as ‘extras’.
- No named case handler, or a call-centre wall between you and anyone who knows your file.
- Pressure to instruct immediately via the estate agent, before you have seen a written quote.
- Poor or patterned reviews — one bad review is life; twenty saying ‘never answers, exchange delayed for weeks’ is a business model.
- They are not on your lender’s panel and shrug about it. That is your problem to solve at your expense, and they know it.
The Bottom Line
Choose a conveyancer the way you would choose anyone who holds your money and your deadline: on experience with your kind of transaction, a realistic and itemised fixed quote, a named human who communicates, and a caseload that leaves room for your file. Paying £200 more for a conveyancer who exchanges two weeks sooner and catches the lease problem a volume firm would have skimmed is the best-value money in the whole purchase.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should I instruct a conveyancer?
As soon as your offer is accepted (or, for sellers, when you accept an offer). Instructing early — and returning their welcome pack and ID checks immediately — removes days from the front of the process, when momentum matters most.
What is the difference between a conveyancer and a solicitor?
A licensed conveyancer specialises only in property law and is regulated by the CLC; a solicitor has broader legal training and is regulated by the SRA. Both are fully qualified to handle your move — choose on experience and service, not title.
Can I use the same conveyancer as the seller?
Usually not for both sides of the same transaction — it creates a conflict of interest, and firms will decline. Buyer and seller each instruct their own. (The same firm can sometimes act for both with separate handlers, but most buyers prefer complete independence.)
What does ‘no move, no fee’ actually cover?
It normally waives the firm’s legal fee if the transaction falls through, but disbursements already paid out — searches, for example — are usually still owed. Always check the small print of any such promise before relying on it.
