Conveyancing Quotes - Always Be On The Lookout For Dodgy Ones

There's no denying that apart from the money you need to have to buy a property, you'll also have to spend hundreds to probably a thousand pounds on conveyancing.

These fees differ from one firm and location to another - depending on the complexity of the transaction and the issues involved in it. However, it is important that you get a fair and transparent pricing structure for the conveyancing services you're about to avail.

To keep you away from the dodgy firms out there who are less likely to be after your best interest, here's a simple guide that you can refer to.

First and foremost, you'll need to know that a conveyancing price quote should generally be divided into two sections:

1. Basic Fees - This includes the compensation of the firm/solicitor for their expertise and the time they spend on your case and for communicating with you. These also include the basic stuff like photocopying documents.

2. Disbursements - These are the items and/or services paid by your conveyancer to third party individuals and organisations to get things like surveys, searches, land registration, and stamp duty sorted on your behalf. They will then include these payments in the final invoice or at any given (and agreed) time in the process.

Although it is likely that the disbursements may have similar costs in some areas are they are fixed charges, some items may vary depending on a set scale.

As conveyancing is becoming a very competitive service in the market, there are firms that have a few dodgy schemes in place to advertise cheaper services in print that in reality. Some of these include making up disbursements that should actually be already part of their basic fees.

What do they get from making up these "supplemental" disbursements?

1. It adds a "suspicious" extra income for them, increasing their profits by the hundreds.

2. It makes them look like their fees are very cheap, thus enticing potential clients.

3. It puts clients under the impression that the entire price quote is cheap, only to be surprised that they are billed even higher in the end.

To keep yourself from becoming a victim of these dodgy firms' conveyancing quotes, you can do the following:

• Carefully check the conveyancing quotes you receive for properly itemised disbursements.

• Inspect the fine print for any supplemental charges that are not supposed to be there. Add them to the quoted price to find out what you're likely going to pay for.

• Get in touch with the firm or conveyancer to further discuss their fees and clarify anything that's confusing you. It always helps to get a hold of someone who can explain these fees.

As soon as it's all clear to you and you're ready to hire your chosen conveyancer, you can then instruct them to get the ball rolling.

More so, you might want to hire a conveyancer ahead of time - before you make an offer for a property you'd like to buy. In the previous years, buyers and sellers wait until they agree on an offer before instructing their conveyancers. But having a conveyancer with you before making an offer puts you in an advantage as they can offer sound advice in terms of how you can continue with the purchase of not.

What's best about today's conveyancers is that most of them offer a fixed-fee and no-exchange-no-fee scheme; hence, you won't pay their basic fees if the transaction is not completed. Of course, any disbursements already paid for will still be billed to you in the end. It's only a matter of shopping around and asking for conveyancing quotes to compare and choose from, so you can get started.