Conveyancing solicitors in Essex

If you are looking for a conveyancing solicitor in Essex we can help you. Our conveyancing solicitors offer a convenient, efficient, and friendly conveyancing service to clients in Essex, throughout Essex and all over England, Wales and beyond.

If you are buying a detached house in Essex, selling a terraced house in Southend-on-Sea, downsizing to a bungalow in Colchester, or buying to let in Chelmsford, we can help you with your conveyancing.

Why should you use Bird and Co Solicitors for your conveyancing in Essex?

We offer a friendly, modern and efficient service. If you want to deal with proper lawyers who are friendly and approachable, our team can help you.

You will have a direct line straight through to your legal team, and direct email addresses. You can guarantee that your query will reach the right people, whether you want to ask about search fees in Essex, drainage and water fees in Essex or something else.

"The team always provided me with clear, pragmatic and commercially viable advice with efficient and focused communication."

We're a Conveyancing Quality Scheme accredited firm providing conveyancing to clients in Essex. This is a guarantee that our processes and procedures have been approved, that we operate to a certain standard, and is a mark of the excellence of our service approved by the Law Society, the body which represents solicitors throughout England and Wales.

We are on the panel for most major lenders, and many smaller ones too. Whether you want to use your local Building Society in Essex or one of the larger corporates, chances are we have you covered.

In short, you get an excellent conveyancing service at an affordable price. You don't have the risk of going to the cheapest providers, most of whom aren't solicitors; instead you get a great service from proper lawyers.

Why don't you need a conveyancer based in Essex?

In the old days you used your local solicitor. You would visit their office in the centre of Essex, and all documents would be hand-produced and posted or delivered by hand.

That service came at a price, but the truth is that it is no longer needed. With modern technology such as scanning, emailing and even Skype or Facetime video calls there is no need to use your local solicitor. Your conveyancer can be based anywhere and still provide a great service - even if he or she is in an office many miles away from Essex or perhaps not even in Essex.

We have successfully dealt with thousands of conveyancing transactions all over the country, even with clients from the other side of the world. It is not unknown for us to talk to clients outside the UK using Skype, and once we had clients in Thailand talking to us through an interpreter in New Zealand!

There will be no need for you to visit our offices or hand deliver documents. You need never leave Essex - our conveyancers will talk you through the process via phone and email, and everything works just as smoothly as it would if we were just down the road.

Online Conveyancing in Essex

There isn't really any such thing as online conveyancing. Clients come to us for conveyancing in Essex, Southend-on-Sea, Chelmsford and all sorts of other places, having first found us via our website.

After that, the relationship between you and your conveyancer is the same as any other. We have the same professional obligations towards you, and deal with your conveyancing file in the same way.

It might feel like online conveyancing because you can talk to us through email on your computer, but really it is proper conveyancing.

Search Fees in Essex

Every local authority is different. We use an excellent, trusted national search provider, which means we can provide searches to clients in Essex and all over the country, knowing that we will get a product we're happy with and which we know is properly insured and protects your interests.

What is the process to instruct us for your conveyancing?

First, fill in our conveyancing quote form for conveyancing in Essex. You can find the links at the top of this page.

Our helpful conveyancing support team will then guide you through the initial stages, and once your conveyancing file is opened your Essex conveyancing solicitor and their small team will deal with the legal side of the conveyancing transaction. You'll be given direct contact details for your conveyancing lawyers and they'll keep in touch with you every step of the way.

Whether you're moving to Essex or away from Essex to somewhere else, our conveyancing team can help you do so with the minimum of fuss and inconvenience.

Fees for conveyancing in Essex

Our fees are transparent and, so long as the situation does not change (for example so long as your property doesn't turn out to be leasehold when we thought it was freehold) the fee we quote is the fee you will be charged.

We don't add extras on for things like photocopying, postage, or the like. Those are our overheads and we don't pass them on to you.

All our conveyancing fees are dependent on the nature and value of the transaction, so we naturally charge a bit more for more complicated and high value work. However, the fee charged will be the same for a customer in Newcastle as it would be for someone in London, or indeed in Essex.

There are some aspects of our conveyancing fees which we can't change. Fees charged by other bodies such as HM Land Registry, or by HMRC for Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) are out of our control.

Introduction to Essex

Essex is a county in the east of England, Immediately north east of London. It has a population of 1,729,200 as of mid 2014. Much of this population can be found in the notable settlements of Southend-on-Sea, Colchester and Chelmsford, however there are also a number of other towns which are significant in their own right.

Southend-On-Sea, more colloquially know as just Southend, is a seaside town and borough on the north side of the Thames, being just 40 miles east of central London. It has a population of 177,931 according to the 2011 census.

The town is particularly renown for its pier, being the longest leisure pier in the world, at around 2 kilometres long. Because of this, the town can benefit massively from tourism. The town went into decline in the 1960s as a holiday destination, and has since then developed as a centre for commerce and retail. Despite this, facilities such as the pier still allow for a high influx of tourism, and around 6.4 million visit Southend every year, generating around £200 million.

Tourists may also attend many other attractions in the town, such as the Focal Point Gallery, which is South Essex's gallery for contemporary visual art, The Palace Theatre and the Cliffs Pavilion are popular theatrical venues also.

Roots Hall, the home of Southend United, the towns only professional football team, is also a popular destination amongst both residents and visitors, with a capacity of around 12,000. The team were recently promoted through play offs in the 2014/15 season and now play in the Football League One. Essex County Cricket Club also play in Southend for one week each season.

Aside tourism, the town generates revenue through commerce, with the shopping hubs being Southend High Street, as well as the two shopping centres; The Victoria, and The Royals. There is also a farmers' market on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month, and regular vintage fairs and markets, held at locations such as The Kursaal.

In terms of education, there are six co-educational secondary schools, four grammar schools, and two Roman Catholic Schools. The University of Essex established a campus in Southend, which accommodates around 10,000 students.

Two A-roads connect Southend with London and the rest of England; the A127 and the A13, which runs through Tilbury and The London Docklands. The town is also served by two National Rail Lines; the Liverpool Street Line which runs from Southend Victoria and offers services to areas such as London Liverpool Street and Stratford.

There is also an airport, London Southend, which was originally built as a military airport but now offers flights across Europe, as well as corporate and recreational flights.

Chelmsford is the primary settlement within the City of Chelmsford, as well as the county town of Essex. As of 2011, it has a population of 111,511, whilst the district has a population of 168,310.

It is located just 32 miles northeast or Charing Cross in London, and for that reason acts as a popular commuting town, and is located on the famous London commuter belt. Because of this, transport in the area is exceptional.

Chelmsford railway station provides frequent access to London Liverpool Street, and an estimated 14,000 commuters supposedly use this service each day. Aside from London, there are hourly trains to Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester Town and Braintree.

On top of this, there are many A roads connecting the city to the rest of the country, including the A12 trunk road which connects Chelmsford to London, another alternative for commuters.

Via the A130/A120, motorists can also reach London Stansted Airport in around 25-30 minutes, and Gatwick, Luton and Southend are all also in reach.

Chelmsford transport facilities are also being improved; a new railway station is set to be completed by 2020, and is set to be built near the Boreham Interchange. A second new Park and Ride scheme is also being constructed on the A130 at a price of £7.9m.

Originally, Chelmsford showed importance primarily as an agricultural and market town, however nowadays it has developed as a commercial centre. Being the head of the Essex County and Chelmsford City Councils, it now accommodates a range of national and international companies. The most notable of these include M&G Group, e2v Technologies and ebm-papst UK Ltd. Its commercial importance is outlined by the fact that the number of commuters coming in from other parts of Essex nearly equals the amount commuting to London.

There are two relatively large shopping centres; High Chelmer and The Meadows, as well as three retail parks; Riverside, Chelmer Village and the Homelands Retail Park. In total, Chelmsford, as a city, employs around 80,000 people.

Aside its retail, Chelmsford also has a vibrant nightlife scene, hosting an array of pubs, wine bars and nightclubs. It also offers a diverse range of restaurants: from independent family-run restaurants serving locally sourced cuisine to popular chain restaurants dotted throughout the area.

A diverse list of tourist attractions exist in Essex, from wildlife parks, aquariums and zoos to castles and cathedrals. Adventure Island in Southend-On-Sea, Leisure Island on Canvey Island and Clacton Pier in Clacton-On-Sea are all popular amusement parks in Essex, attracting thousands of tourists each year.

As well as food and drink, you will find a vast selection of health, sports and leisure clubs located throughout the county. Essex is also home to a long list of golf courses, ranging in price and size. Chelmsford in Essex is also known for its horse racing. Chelmsford Racecourse, the city's original racecourse, closed in 1935, however in 2008 a new racecourse was established at Great Leighs, and eventually changed its name to Chelmsford City Racecourse. Essex County Cricket Club are also based in Chelmsford. They are one of the 18 major clubs in England and Wales.