Advantages: You can have your cake and eat it!
Disadvantages: The solicitor you find may not be local

...Are you selling your home? Are you buying a house? Do you want the cheapest solicitor? Do you want the best solicitor? Do you want to have your cake and eat it? Well, thanks to the internet you can search for solicitors to help you in your house sale/purchase. Try http://www.conveyancing-cms.co.uk and you will be asked a few questions. When you have answered the questions they will search from their huge database to give you a list of the best and cheapest solicitors. You start off by dealing with a lady called Teresa who will contact the solicitor on your behalf and she is ever so friendly. After that the solicitor will contact you and from then on it is between you and the solicitor. I found a really good deal - £275 + VAT to sell my flat and £220 + VAT to buy my new home. I think you will agree that is a good deal. Also... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: move without moving
Disadvantages: nice to get out and abvout looking

.... The search results bring up a brief summary of the property but clicking on a hyper link brings up very detailed information about the property, much more than any newspaper or estate agent. Fish4 has a very handy move planner on its site, which includes a jargon buster so you can actually understand your estate agent and solicitor. A list of things you need to organise that would otherwise be overlooked such as water, gas and who to inform you have moved. Advertising on the site is very relevant, includes mortgages financial advice and insurance and looking around you can get some good deals from this site.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Location
Disadvantages: Lack of professionalism, knowledge and incorrect relaying of information

...I have recently gone through the, as expected, stressful process of selling my house. We chose C James & Co in Colliers Wood, primarily due to their location which is right by the tube, BIG mistake. It began with their inability to take half decent photographs of the property, so we provided these ourselves. I had to request three times for the fact we had no ongoing chain to be added to the details. Agents who accompanied prospective buyers had no knowledge of the property or any features that differentiated it from others, despite these having been supplied, their excuse was that it was the first time they themselves had visited the property. Information passed to both myself and my solicitor was incorrect and at times could have had financial implications for myself. Their excuse was that they could only pass information... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Hardy fairly easy to grow reasonably priced
Disadvantages: fairly common not striking

...The Money Plant is a succulent so it stores water in its leaves, this means it will withstand a little neglect. They are quite an easy plant to cultivate and also propogate. They are quite fast growing and can in time grow quite big and eventually have small white blooms on them. They are the plants you sometimes see in the front offices of those posh solicitors. The leaves on them are varying shades of green and quite glossy and if given full sunlight can have an attractive red tinge round the edges. They are a very popular plant and you will see them at all good nurseries and garden centres. If you are not a plant expert the Money Plant is a good plant for starters. The only thing they dont like is frost. Providing they have adequate light and water they are quite hardy. I dont know why they are called Money Plants does... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Making a will means your wishes are carried out
Disadvantages: absolutely none

...someone from your will that you ought to make provision for and provided they fall into one of the folliowing catagories of claimant they may be able to claim against your estste under the Inheritance(Provision for Family & Dependants) Act 1975. 1. Spouse 2. Ex-spouse 3. Co-habitee 4. Child of the family (or anyone you treat as a child od your family) 5. Dependant The court may award them what it thinks is "reasonable financial provision from your estate." The moral is that cheaper does not necessarily equate to better. Shop around for a good solicitor and look out for "legacy offers." this is where a charity pays a competent firm of solicitors a lump sum to pay for, say, 100 wills free of charge. There's no catch, the charity only asks that you "consider" leaving a legacy to them in your will (no obligation) and it will pay for your... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Understand what steps need to be completed
Disadvantages: May make you realise you can't afford to purchase.

...to launch mortgages with rates attached to the Bank Of England base rate which is set each month by the Bank Of England's monetary policy committee and if its increased or reduced the interest rate on a tracker mortgage will rise or fall by the same amount. ****The Solicitor**** It is a good idea to have a solicitor lined up ready to act for you when you do find the home you want to purchase. Ask around and get advice from family and friends who have purchased properties in the area and get recommendations, pop in to see them or give them a call to find out what their charges would be if they were to act on your behalf. Most solicitors charge £400 for their services plus VAT, some do include VAT but beware there will also be numerous other charges on top so make sure you plan this into your budget. The average cost for a solicitor to conduct... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Safe for kids and animals after application, a little seems to go a long way.
Disadvantages: Takes between 2 and 3 weeks to get results

...gets a drenching, once soaked they only have a week or so to put their house in order, make a will and say goodbye to their loved ones, death by Roundup is a slow and painful one! Just 20ml mixed with a 5ltr watering can of water can cover an area of 20 square metres of a weeds neighbourhood. Bill and Ben had apparently saved up for years to commit this atrocious crime, a small bottle of Roundup retails for around £15 but even that is enough to wipe out an entire garden of weeds many times over! The flowerpot men released their own statement through their solicitor. Ben said “Fluba-dub it wisnae me!” whilst Bill retorted “oooh fubdub-adub-a-dub we wur framed!” They were remanded in custody and thrown into the potting shed until police could ascertain just how many more victims there may be in the coming days. Weeeed will be laid to rest... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Very good claims proceedure
Disadvantages: not easily contactable

...a close encounter with a Taxi - he drove straight into my rear end!!!  So my very first claim procedure began - I called CIS and they promptly sent out the claim form. On completion of this there was a delay but not due to the insurance company but due to the taxi driver not reporting the accident to his insurance company. On hounding the taxi firm they finally reported it and CIS went into action on the compensation claim. The damage to my car was completed within a week and I received a courtesy car for the time I was without mine (as I have fully comprehensive insurance). I only had to pay an excess of £50 which was fabulous, not sure of many companies that offer this any more! Once they receive all the details from the other insurer, and a solicitor was assigned the claim began. I received my compensation a year later... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Attractive mortgage deals, initial contact via the web, reasonable fees/cost
Disadvantages: Extremely slow progress from application to mortgage, needs a lot of cajoling

...in the post because in the end they had to be faxed to us. * We had to remind them that we had opted for one of their affiliated conveyancing firms. The solicitors would only act after contact from Charcol online. Those just are some of the 'highlights', my wife could rant about it for a good deal longer at the moment. I have to add that we've also had screw-ups at the mortgate company and the solicitor. I know that you get what you pay for. If you pay a broker a lot of money to arrange the whole deal it is often a nice straigtforward process. Using somebody like 'Charcol Online' there isn't much in the way of service fees and I would expect a hiccup or two but not an almost complete breakdown in communication. They have attractive deals on offer: you just have to be prepared to battle hard to get your mortgage ceal completed.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: None
Disadvantages: They dont know their arse from their elbow

..., ME: Hello Cellular ops: Hello, Mr. Caldwell? Me: Yes? CO: We were given your name by BT Cellnet as someone who may be looking for a new Mobile..... Me: but.... CO: .....Phone, we are doing a promotion on the new Ericsson phone and if you order one now it will be with you the day after tomorrow........ Me: but......... CO:......the good thing about this deal is that the first three months are free (except for calls made).......... And so it went on until, finally, they wore me down and convinced me that my life would be fulfilled when I received my phone. Three months later....... It dawned on me that my life was less than fulfilled, my mobile phone was ugly and costing me a small fortune, so I exercised my right to cancel the contract and sent the damned phone back and cancelled the direct debit after... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful