The legal process of transferring ownership of a property, including the buildings, the land it sits on, and any rights tied to it, is called conveyancing. It is famously the most stressful part of the moving journey. The timeline from accepting an offer to actually getting the keys can vary wildly. 

The single biggest factor in whether your move takes a smooth three months or stretches into a painful, stressful six months? The quality of your conveyancer.

The difference between a low-cost quote and great service

It can be incredibly tempting to simply search online and pick the absolute cheapest legal quote you can find. However, in property, the old saying usually rings true: the best service is rarely the cheapest.

Some bulk-volume legal providers operate with hundreds of cases per desk. When a single handler is overloaded, it naturally becomes harder for them to give your file the individual attention it needs. The result can be a slower process, where simple enquiries about boundaries or fixtures take weeks to resolve, or important paperwork sits in a queue.

In a property chain, if one link slows down, it doesn't just delay that individual sale; it can put the entire chain at risk of missing deadlines.

What a proactive conveyancer actually does

A highly professional, experienced residential conveyancer approaches your move differently:

Anticipates bottlenecks: They review your paperwork early to spot potential issues with building regulations, titles, or leaseholds before they cause a delay.

Maintains great communication: Instead of relying solely on automated portals or generic email chains, they pick up the phone to the other side's solicitor to resolve questions in five minutes.

Protects your timelines: They move efficiently to ensure everything is lined up before mortgage offers or agreed timescales expire.

A real-life story of two conveyancers: An 6-week move vs. a 14-week wait

To show you exactly how much of a difference this makes, look at a recent example from one of our clients. This homeowner was both selling their current property and purchasing their next home through us. To make things as seamless as possible, they chose to instruct one of our recommended and trusted conveyancers.

Thanks to their proactive approach, our client’s legal paperwork, searches, and enquiries for both their sale and purchase were fully signed off and ready to exchange in just 6 weeks!

Unfortunately, another party further along the chain chose to use an external conveyancer who wasn't quite as proactive. Simple questions took days to answer, and paperwork stalled. Because of that single link, the entire transaction was delayed by weeks, ultimately taking over 14 weeks to finish.

During those extra eight weeks, our recommended conveyancers and our in-house DB Roberts sales progressors worked tirelessly, actively chasing, making phone calls daily, and doing everything possible to push the transaction over the line. It makes you wonder: if our client hadn’t used a proactive team, and both sides of the chain had been using slower conveyancers, how much longer would it have dragged out? On the flip side, imagine if both sides had used a proactive, recommended firm, the entire move would have been smoothly sorted in just 6 weeks!

Why we work with trusted, recommended partners

As estate agents, we see firsthand how frustrating legal delays are for our clients. We don't just wait around for things to happen; our sales progression teams spend a huge amount of time actively chasing solicitors to keep sales alive.

Because we want your move to be as stress-free as possible, we have built close working relationships with brilliant, highly reliable conveyancers. 

We recommend them because they are proactive, accessible, and they communicate with us every step of the way. We can pick up the phone, speak to the person actually handling your file, and solve problems together in real time.

The statistics from one of our trusted conveyancing partners speak for themselves:

8 Weeks Faster: On average, people using our recommended conveyancers move 8 weeks quicker than the national average timeline.

95% Success Rate: While the national industry average sees a 1 in 3 property transactions fail, our conveyancers boast an incredible 95% completion rate.

Ready to get moving?

Before you instruct a conveyancer. ask our team for our recommendations. We provide completely free, no-obligation conveyancing quotes. It could be the difference between moving into your new home on time or being stuck in legal limbo. 

If you're ready to take the first step toward your next move, find out exactly what your property is worth in the current market. Book a Home Visit Valuation with one of our local experts today, or get a quick estimate in under 60 seconds using our Online Instant Valuation tool.