Approved: rules to make it easier for consumers to ch...

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03 September 2018

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Approved: rules to make it easier for consumers to choose conveyancers

New rules set out by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC), which aim to support consumer choice, have been approved by the Legal Services Board (LSB).

The CLC will now amend its rules in December this year which will require its licensed conveyancers to improve the information they provide to consumers.

CLC practices will need to make cost information, including whether they have referral arrangements, readily accessible on their website and in alternative formats on request.

The organisation hopes the changes will 'empower consumers to make better informed decisions about their choice of legal service provider'.

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- Matt Faizey
- 03 September 2018 08:25 AM
And once again, no attempt at any sort of performance measures.

Isn't it about time we had a 'checkatrade' I for Conveyancing?

Or maybe it is time actually define what proper, good service from a conveyancer is and have it written. Then the public can benchmark, and publicly too hopefully.

'Making it easier to choose' - should be being able to sort the god-awful, from the bad, from the good.

Not simply concentrating on cost.

- Chris JaiBahadur
- 03 September 2018 09:41 AM
Totally agree with Matt. referral fees are nice but not when the conveyancing firm fails to perform.
Fortunately most of our clients take our recommendation as to who is performing well although we do get the clients more than one quote.

- Tim Higham
- 03 September 2018 23:10 PM
As a conveyancer, I always warn friends - who I will never act for - that price is a complete red herring. NEVER choose a conveyancer based on price. We are generalising, obviously, but cheapos are cheap for a reason, expensive ones are wanting to do less for more.

Instead, ALWAYS look for signs of quality...ALWAYS:

1. seek out Lexcel accreditation for the law firm - and yes, I would tell friends and family to only use Solicitor firms, sorry CLC, but I am entitled to feel that
2. don't assume your friends are right when they say they used a good conveyancer, as they will only know that for sure when they sell (and no mistakes are discovered)
3. avoid a conveyancer who does not promote their conveyancing team photos and personal contact details on their website
4. review them on Google
5. test the quality of a conveyancer by asking:
a. will they offer a named lawyer with a law degree or at least 10 years experience
b. do they close for lunch or dead at 5pm
c. do they use locums or will their own Team step up instead and seamlessly cover holidays
d. do they promise NOT to wait for money on account before starting to work
e. do they use personal conveyancing searches, or will they promise to use Official ones
f. will they send out the legal contract pack to the buyers on the same day as the Estate Agent Memo arrives or will they come up with an excuse to days longer?
g. do they promote themselves as prompt (e.g do they target a 4 week exchange in all transactions)
h. do they mainly talk about being fast, or cheap, rather than explaining their own quality
i. will they promise not to allocate you to a trainee solicitor
j. do they promise not to fob you off to an online 'case tracking' site, but instead do they offer to personally update you in detail by phone or email, at least once a week.
Alan Murray

05 September 2018 15:41 PM
As usual from this poster pompous bs!

Would be too easy to pull apart most of which this Conveyancing Oracle is saying, suffice to say most of which he says is utterly irrelevant when it comes to choosing a Lawyer. And I can say this as someone with in excess of thirty five years experience as a Conveyancer who is now self employed with no axe to grind or agenda to promote.
I would suggest you would be taking pot luck with any Solicitor based on this criteria, and would be as likely to find a bad one as a good one.
For what it is worth in my considerable experience CLC's are as good, in some cases better than Solicitors. Unqualified staff employed by Solicitors are usually much better than people with qualifications, and usually have less chips on their shoulders, whilst it is impossible to "seamlessly" cover holidays within a team so anyone that boasts like that is talking nonsense.
Lexcel accreditation is irrelevant as it is easy to obtain judging by some firms who have it. Another red herring, and as for people being on a website what self promoting claptrap, there may be very good reasons why individuals are not on a Company website,and conveyancing/legal expertise is likely to be the last of them.
Beware false prophets!!
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- Simon Brown
- 04 September 2018 17:01 PM
I agree with all the above comments. It seems to me that conveyancers need to be better at promoting the quality service they provide and explain the pitfalls of making a decision based on price. The ESTAS Group we highlight those conveyancing firms who are going the extra mile for their clients. Lookout for the 2018 shortlist at 12 noon tomorrow https://conveyancer.theestas.com/2018-shortlist-coming-soon/