I've used both, and I've heard stories of both conveyancers and solicitors mishandling things and failing to look after the client's interest properly.
On my last move, 20 years ago now, we bought a bungalow whose plot bordered an (unused) field access strip on one side. The vendor told me that he had, and I would have, right of access through it into the side of my back garden.
As the transaction was in progress, I asked the solicitor whether I did indeed have this right. She said yes.
19 years later I was to demolish to bungalow and build a new house, so I got the papers out and paid for a copy of the title record. It includes a note that in 1996 the then owner (before the one who sold it to me) asserted that he had this right of access. This didn't seem to me to be the same as saying the the title holder of the bungalow has right of access over the strip.
I consulted a local solicitor (not the one who did the purchase transaction) who said "You have a good case", meaning essentially that I don't have it. He suggested a couple of ways of approaching it, one requiring the cooperation of the land owner (why would they? I wouldn't) the other using adverse possession, which I am not prepared to do - not least because I would have to claim that I had had exclusive use of it for 10 years, which isn't true.
Because I want to have access for a vehicle / machine / caravan to the back garden, I have therefore ensured in the design that I have 3m. between the house and the boundary on that side. Good thing I checked. Fortunately that works very well for the street scene, the new house is actually about 6m. from each of the neighbouring houses.
Point being, the conveyancer let me down even though I used a solicitor. Rely on no-one and check everything yourself.
|
