How we chose
We started from the five conveyancing practices Google Maps shows in the Telford area. Regulation was sourced from the solicitor and licensed-conveyancer registers, each firm's own website and the review platforms [1] [2] [3]. Each business must first meet our basic checks: it is who it says it is, it is trading today and can be reached, and it appears on the solicitor or licensed-conveyancer register. All five met all three. We looked first at what customers say, then qualifications, then whether the firm has traded two years or more and whether its cover is stated, then pricing clarity and website detail. All evidence is dated September 2026.
How to hire
Start with the right professional. Both solicitors and licensed conveyancers can handle your sale or purchase in England and Wales. Solicitors appear on the Solicitors Regulation Authority register, which also records firms that have been closed and people barred from practice [1]. Licensed conveyancers are property specialists listed on the Council for Licensed Conveyancers search [2]. Either route is legitimate; what matters is that the name you hire is the name on the register.
Then look for the Law Society's Conveyancing Quality Scheme, the recognised quality standard for regulated firms doing residential conveyancing [3]. The mark is voluntary, but most major mortgage lenders require it before a firm can join their approved panels, and you can check any firm's status free on the Law Society's Find a Solicitor directory [9]. If you are buying with a mortgage, confirm your lender will accept the firm before you instruct.
Check the record yourself. Search the register for the exact business name and confirm the office address and phone number match what the firm advertises [1] [2]. A logo on a website proves nothing on its own. The name on your quote and client paperwork must match the registered name too, so ask why if it differs. If the name does not appear, or the firm cannot explain why, take your business elsewhere.
Know what the quote must show. Firms that advertise residential conveyancing must publish costs information: the total, average or range of costs, the basis of charges, likely disbursements, the VAT position, and the key stages with likely timescales [4]. Your written quote should break out the fixed legal fee, each disbursement such as searches, Land Registry registration and bank transfer, and anything excluded such as leasehold extras or lender charges. Compare totals including disbursements, not the headline fee alone.
Once you accept a quote, expect a clear sequence. The firm takes your details and the property address, runs the identity and source-of-funds checks the law requires, then sends a client-care letter setting out the scope, the fee, who holds your file and how to complain. Read that letter before you sign anything: it is the first document the Legal Ombudsman will ask for if the service later falls short [13]. Only then does the firm order searches and open enquiries with the seller's side, so quick replies from you at this stage set the pace for everything after.
The Telford searches come from the borough council: the LLC1 register search plus Con29 enquiries covering roads, planning history and enforcement, with a published fee for each part [10]. Take both parts rather than the register check alone, since the Con29 answers carry the planning detail your lender will rely on. If the property sits in one of the borough's eight conservation areas — Wellington and the Severn Gorge among them — extra controls can apply, and inside the Gorge an Article 4 direction means minor works may need permission [11] [12]. Mention a conservation area, a listed building or the World Heritage Site on the first call so the right enquiries go in from the start.
Local stock shapes the questions. Leasehold flats need lease checks, management packs and notices to freeholders, which is why every guide prices them above freehold [5]. Lawley Village is a large new development still growing toward thousands of homes, so buyers there will usually find estate charges and unadopted roads in the paperwork [14]. In Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale and the Gorge villages, age brings listed status and the World Heritage Site residents' guidance on even small alterations [12]. Whatever the postcode, send the full address with the first enquiry so the firm prices the right job.
Expect the process to take months, not weeks. Government guidance puts the average sale at around five months, longer still inside a chain [6]. Your solicitor orders searches, raises enquiries, checks the mortgage offer and the title, then moves to exchange and completion. Ask who will hold your file and how often you will hear from them; a named contact with a direct line beats a general inbox. Money is the fraud risk: always confirm you are speaking to the right person and sending funds to the correct account before you transfer, and query any emailed change of details first [6].
Keep the end paperwork together. After completion you should receive a completion statement, and where stamp duty applies your solicitor will usually file the return and pay the tax on completion day, adding it to your bill [8]. Ownership itself must be registered with HM Land Registry [7]. File the statement, the title documents and the tax confirmation with your house papers; you will need them at sale or remortgage.
Pricing
As of autumn 2026, industry research across one hundred firms puts average conveyancing fees for a freehold sale at around £1,317 and for a freehold purchase at around £1,390, both including VAT [5]. Leasehold averages run higher at roughly £1,629 to sell and £1,743 to buy, while the average remortgage costs about £783 including VAT [5]. Treat these as planning figures; your own quote depends on the property and the firm.
Tenure moves the price most: leasehold flats need extra lease checks, management packs and notices to freeholders, which is why every guide prices them above freehold [5]. Higher price bands, chains, new-build plots and shared-ownership paperwork all add legal time. A licensed conveyancer often quotes less than a solicitor-led firm, and online outfits tend to undercut high-street offices, though researchers note service levels can differ [5].
Ask for the VAT position on every line. The regulator requires firms to publish whether each fee and disbursement attracts VAT [4], and the published averages above include it [5]. Search money is usually collected up front before the work starts, with the legal fee itself payable on completion [5].
Get the scope in writing before you instruct: exactly which fee is fixed, each disbursement itemised, what counts as an extra, and when each part is due. Firms in this round all publish fixed fees or fee tables on their own sites, so use those pages to compare like with like. Keep every quote, invoice and completion statement together.
For a sale, the solicitor compiles the title pack, answers the buyer's enquiries and redeems any mortgage on completion, so a tangled title or missing paperwork moves the price. Leasehold sales add the management pack and notices to the freeholder, which is why they cost more in every guide [5].
For a purchase, most published tables set the fee by price band, so the value of the property is the first driver. Lender conditions add a second layer of checks, and the disbursement bill for searches, registration and transfer makes up a larger share than buyers expect [5].
Remortgages and transfers of equity are usually the simplest jobs in the guides, with the fee moving mainly with leasehold status, the number of borrowers and whether money changes hands. They still need searches and identity checks, so compare the full table rather than the headline figure.
Red flags
No record of the firm or person on the solicitor or licensed-conveyancer register when you search the name [1] [2].
Advertises residential conveyancing but publishes no price information despite the regulator's rules [4].
Quotes a single headline fee with no breakdown of disbursements such as searches and registration.
Asks for a large payment on account before any work starts, beyond the search money most firms collect up front [5].
Will not say who will handle your file or how you will reach them during the move.
Presses you to transfer completion money to new bank details sent by email, without a check you trust [6].
Promises a fixed completion date before the chain, searches and mortgage offer are in place.
Presses you to exchange contracts before searches and enquiries are complete.
Will not show you its complaints procedure when you ask how to raise a problem [13].
The bottom line
For most Telford movers, start with mfg Solicitors: a large regional firm with a Telford office, regulation on record, stated conveyancing accreditation and the round's most detailed fixed-fee tables. Its published totals let you budget the whole legal bill, not just the headline fee, before you instruct.
Match the firm to the move: Fodens for property-only work with a local firm, MSD Law for a named conveyancer with round-the-clock portal updates, and Martin Kaye or Lanyon Bowdler for full-service firms with their fees published up front.
Then get two or three itemised quotes on the same written scope, check each firm on the solicitor or licensed-conveyancer register, and confirm disbursements and the VAT position in writing before you agree anything.
Corrections and business responses
Tell us what needs checking, or ask to claim a listing and reply to an assessment.