Why your estate agent's recommended conveyancer might not be the right choice

Soon after you have an offer accepted, your estate agent will almost certainly point you at a conveyancer they work with. In most cases the agent gets paid for that referral — usually £150–£400 every time a buyer they sent actually instructs the firm. It's legal, it has to be disclosed, but it's worth knowing how it shapes the recommendation.

The disclosure rules

Under the Estate Agents Act 1979, an estate agent has to tell you if they get paid for referring you to any service. If they recommend a conveyancer and earn a fee for it, they have to say so, and they have to tell you how much.

Just ask, in plain English: “Do you get paid if I use this conveyancer, and how much?” If the answer's yes, file that away when you're weighing up the recommendation.

What the incentive actually does

Referral fees aren't automatically a problem, and plenty of referred firms are perfectly good. But the incentive is worth being honest about: your agent gets paid for sending you to that firm regardless of whether the firm's any good. The agent wants the deal closed quickly because their commission depends on it — speed sometimes lines up with quality, but not always.

Panel firms that take a lot of agent referrals tend to run very high caseloads. That usually shows up as patchier communication and longer email response times.

How to check for yourself

HM Land Registry publishes avoidable requisition rates for every conveyancing firm that submits at least 10 applications in a six-month window. That number measures how often a firm's paperwork comes back with errors. It's the only public, independent quality signal we have for conveyancers in England and Wales.

We surface it on Cleerd for every firm we've been able to verify against the SRA or CLC register. You can search any firm by name or browse a town and see who's actually local to you, with their numbers next to them.

You don't have to use the agent's firm

You can instruct any regulated conveyancer you want. An agent can't make using their firm a condition of the sale, and they can't pull an accepted offer if you choose your own. If anyone tries that on, the Property Ombudsman and Trading Standards both take these complaints.