My fiance and I are planning to acquire a house in Benfleet and have instructed a Benfleet conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Coventry Building Society have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Benfleet conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
If you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is normal for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent the mortgage company. In order to act for a bank or building society a law firm has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the law firm to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the firm has to satisfy and indeed some lenders now require their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your lender and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Benfleet lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
How up to date is your search tool for Benfleet conveyancing solicitors on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel? Do Virgin Money send you an updated list?
Benfleet conveyancing firms themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from Virgin Money directly.
My Solicitor in Benfleet has never been on on the Halifax Conveyancing Panel. Is it possible for me to continue with my prefered solicitor notwithstanding that they are not on the Halifax list of approved lawyers?
The limited options available to you here include:
- Complete the purchase with your preferred Benfleet lawyers but Halifax will need to use a solicitor on their panel. This will result in additional overall legal fees as well as result in frustration.
- Choose an alternative lawyer to to deal with the conveyancing, obviously checking they are Persuade your conveyancer to do everything within their powers to join the Halifax conveyancing panel
three months have elapsed following my purchase conveyancing in Benfleet concluded. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £175,000 when infact I paid £160,000. Why the discrepancy?
The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the residence from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.
How do I search for a Benfleet law firm on the Santander conveyancing panel? I drive a motor bike and am prepared to travel upto 20miles to meet the lawyer.
Feel free to make use of the search on this website. Please pick a lender and your location and you will see a number of Benfleet conveyancing lawyers based on proximity. We have listed some Benfleet conveyancing firms towards the end of this page and you can telephone them to check if they are on the Santander approved list
What type of property do your Benfleet conveyancing quotes apply to?
Our conveyancing quotes are only appropriate to standard domestic property in England & Wales. Should you have any different requirements for instance industrial or agricultural land or commercial conveyancing in Benfleet you should telephone us to consider this further .