My husband and I are hoping to buy a house in Fakenham and have appointed a Fakenham conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. The Royal Bank of Scotland have this evening contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Fakenham solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
If you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is normal for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent the purchaser's lender. 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 property lawyer 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 and you may continue to use your own Fakenham solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
We are about to exchange contracts for a property in Fakenham. We have hit a snag. Our mortgage offer with Alliance & Leicester runs out on 10/9/2025 but the vendors are suggesting a completion date of 12/9/2025. Can one prolong the mortgage offer?
The best person to address this issue is your conveyancer who will calculate whether he or she is should be discussing with the mortgage company, seller’s conveyancers, property agents or conceivably all three taking into account the history of your transaction to date.
As someone unfamiliar with the Fakenham conveyancing process what is the number one tip you can impart concerning the legal transfer of property in Fakenham
You may not hear this from too many lawyers but conveyancing in Fakenham or throughout England and Wales is an adversarial process. In other words, when it comes to conveyancing there exists an abundance of room for friction between you and other parties involved in the transaction. For example, the vendor, estate agent and sometimes the lender. Selecting a solicitor for your conveyancing in Fakenham should not be taken lightly as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONE person in the process whose interest is to protect your legal interests and to protect you.
We are witnessing a distinct creep of a "blame" culture- someone has to be blamed for the process taking so long. You your first instinct should be to trust your conveyancer above the other players when it comes to the legal assignment of property.
My brother-in-law has suggested I instruct a conveyancing solicitor in Fakenham. I need to find out whether they are accepted on the Skipton Building Society approved list of lawyers. Could you advise?
You should e-mail your solicitor and ask them if they can act for the lender. Alternatively you can call Skipton Building Society who may be able to help.
I used Action Conveyancing a few years past for my conveyancing in Fakenham. I now require my papers but the law firm is no longer operating. What do I do?
You should contact the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to assist in tracing your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Fakenham of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously instructed, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.
Hoping to buy a property located in Fakenham and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about Fakenham. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the Fakenham area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?
Rather than looking online forget looking online you should go and have a look at Fakenham. In the meantime here are some basic statistics that we found