What questions to ask solicitor when looking for house conveyancy?

I need a solicitor to do house convayency. ( I am buying) I am wondering what questions to ask before I start ringing for quotes. Basically anything more that the obvious, i.e. how much do you charge?

Any ideas?

Its conveyancing

1. Before you call anyone, ask your friends and family for a recommendation. Always the best.
2. When you call, tell the solicitor what you are buying, how much you are paying, how you are financing the purchase and who you are borrowing from, what stage of loan approval you are at, if you are a first time buyer, an investor or an owner occupier ( for stamp duty purposes), when you would like to complete and the vendors' position on that also ( if you are going to be part of a long chain, it will be considerably more work and aggravation), if you have a surveyor organised ( don't get any survey done until contracts issue as there may be planning issues to address), and whether there are any complications - is it an executors sale, are you aware of any major issues, etc.,etc.

3. Ask for a ballpark figure distinguishing between the actual fee, the VAT @21% and likely outlays.

A lot of firms will not quote anymore - if the client is driven by cost alone then they will simply keep ringing around beating people down on price. A lot of firms will give you an approximate fee quote but will make it clear to you that should the matter turn into a major problem, that additional fees will be charged. On that basis, you either go with a price or a person who comes recommended and who you liked dealing with.

Good luck


mf

Thanks for the excellent response. Exactly what I wanted. One thing however. If a solicitor won't quote a ballpark figure does that not mean they can potentially billl me for any amount?

lionstour said:

Thanks for the excellent response. Exactly what I wanted. One thing however. If a solicitor won't quote a ballpark figure does that not mean they can potentially billl me for any amount?

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As far as I know the solicitor is obliged to give you an estimate fee for the work proposed.
BTW we bought a house this year and our usual solicitor was too busy (?!) to do the conveyancing so recommended a colleague in a different practice who we used. In our first call I agreed a price of €900 plus VAT plus land registry fees.

lionstour said:

Thanks for the excellent response. Exactly what I wanted. One thing however. If a solicitor won't quote a ballpark figure does that not mean they can potentially billl me for any amount?

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The solicitor will quote for a client and is obliged to furnish a written estimate once the parties have agreed to work together. Until that happens, no solicitor has to give you a price. There is a difference between an anonymous person looking for a price and a client being advised of likely fees.

mf

Hi there lionstour - i bought during the boom (i know i know) but I got all that work done for 1k all in so nowadays you should easily get it done for 900. that was with a solicitor in dublin city centre so it's not like a friend or anything. One thing that came up for us was that our house deeds had been lost stolen burnt or something! so we had to get sellers to buy an indemnity bond. little things like that - it's straight forward work tho so any reputable solicitor will know exactly what to do.