Purchasing and selling property requires a lengthy and detailed legal process. When hiring a conveyancing lawyer, one must always be careful to choose a lawyer who is well versed and someone who could attend to your needs to purchase or sell your property.
We have previously discussed the reasons why you should hire a conveyancing lawyer, and being able to choose the right lawyer also plays a huge part in the conveyancing process. Let’s find out the top 4 tips and tricks when hiring a conveyancing lawyer.
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Fees
Before hiring a conveyancing lawyer, you need to set out a budget of how much you are willing to spend on a solicitor. When consulting a lawyer, ensure that you also request a breakdown of their fees. Usually, law firms allow potential clients to send an inquiry through their website. You may also contact them through their phone number and e-mail.
It is highly recommended to have a face-to-face consultation before hiring a conveyancing lawyer. This way, you would be able to get to ask the necessary questions and allow the conveyancer to give a brief run-through of the conveyancing process before moving on to hiring a conveyancing lawyer.
Different lawyers and firms have different ways of charging their conveyancing fees. Some lawyers might charge based on an hourly rate. Other law firms might also have a fixed rate that they charge for conveyancing, or maybe even charge at a certain percentage of the property value.
Ensure that the lawyer that you are considering matches well with the budget that you have set out before hiring a conveyancing lawyer. Make sure that the lawyer or firms have transparent pricing so that you would not end up with a surprising mountain of bills after the conveyancing process.
Payment methods should also be taken into consideration when hiring a conveyancing lawyer. The fees to hire a conveyancing lawyer might not be a small amount, and to avoid any fraud, it might be best to consider paying a deposit on the agreement and the rest on credit until the process of conveyancing has finished. This method might help both parties to liaise without any worries or suspicions about payment later on.
Credibility
It is essential to check the background of the law firm or the lawyer that you are considering to hire. You should understand their credibility as a lawyer, whether or not they have been engaged by previous clients for conveyancing and how their case turned out. Research for trustworthy conveyancing lawyers who are knowledgeable in their field. You may also check if a particular lawyer or law firm is registered with the Malaysian Bar Council to understand if they are a real registered business or lawyer.
If you are looking for practicality, you can also ask for recommendations from your friends and family who have hired a conveyancing lawyer before. They might also be able to give you a quick run through how they found their appointed lawyers or law firms.
Although asking acquaintances would be practical, make sure that you know who to ask and who to trust. If you are speaking to an estate agent you would have to reconsider by yourself and not be easily persuaded by their words because sometimes estate agents might have a financial agreement between the conveyancer and they would be rewarded whenever they are able to refer someone to the conveyancer. Hence, it is important to not simply trust people’s words but also research for the lawyer’s or firm’s background before hiring a conveyancing lawyer.
Ensuring the credibility of the lawyer before hiring a conveyancing lawyer would be able to help you to get to your necessary needs for the conveyancing process. Not only that but it would also help you to avoid any fraud made by fake law firms or people trying to imitate a lawyer.
Communication and Negotiation
After finding a few choices of lawyers or firms that you are going to contact, ensure that you communicate with the conveyancer about what you need when selling property or purchasing property, your expectations and if you have any conditions for the property.
Even if you are unsure of which conveyancer to hire, make sure to keep the lawyer’s contact so that you have a few choices before coming to a conclusion. Prepare the questions that you would like to ask and be involved in every step of the conveyancing process. Ensure that the conveyancing lawyer would be able to explain thoroughly all the details of the progress and be alert. Hiring a conveyancing lawyer is an investment that you should take seriously as it would affect the whole experience of the conveyancing process.
Before hiring a conveyancing lawyer, be open to negotiating with the conveyancing lawyer for their terms and conditions after hire. With communication, you would be able to understand better how the conveyancing lawyer will work on your case. This would be able to help you to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings or confusion with the conveyancer and conveyancing process in the future.
Check Your Mortgage Lender Panel
If you are ever stuck in trying to find the right conveyancer well you can always check your mortgage lender panel and see the list of conveyancers that is recommended. This method might be helpful if you are using a mortgage to purchase a property.
If you are using a mortgage to purchase a property, be sure to check the mortgage lender panel for the list of conveyancers. Some mortgage lenders would only work with their own approved list of conveyancers. This would limit your list of possible conveyancers but at least ensure that you are hiring trustworthy conveyancers.
Conveyancing involves a huge sum of money and any legal processes require detail and a lot of effort to ensure that there are no missing details during the process. Hiring a conveyancing lawyer plays an important part in the conveyancing process. With the few tips and tricks of hiring a conveyancing lawyer, you should be able to better evaluate the suitable conveyancer for your needs.
