My partner and I are looking to acquire a home in Leicester and have appointed a Leicester conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. TSB have this evening contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Leicester lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
Where you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is standard 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 and you may continue to use your own Leicester solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
Finally the sale completed on my house in Leicester last January yet the purchaser is telephoning every few hours to moan that his conveyancer needs to hear from mylawyer. What are the post completion sale legalities following completion?
Following your sale your solicitor should send the transfer deeds and all additional paperwork to the buyer’s conveyancer. Depending on the transaction, your solicitor should also send confirmation that the mortgage has been repaid to the purchasers lawyers. There are no post completion steps just for conveyancing in Leicester.
We're in Leicester, FTBs purchasing with a mortgage (lender is Principality , and our solicitor is on the Principality conveyancing panel). How long should the conveyancing process take?
The fact that your lawyer is on the Principality conveyancing panel is a help. It would almost certainly delay matters if they were not. However, no solicitor should guarantee a timeframe for your conveyancing, due to third parties outside of your control such as delays caused by lenders,conveyancing search providers or by the other side’s solicitors. The time taken is often determined by the number of parties in a chain.
I have todayfound out that Wolstenholmes have closed. They carried out my conveyancing in Leicester for a purchase of a freehold house 9 months ago. How can I be sure that the property is not still registered in the name of the former proprietor?
The quickest method to see if the property is registered to you, you can carry out a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Leicester conveyancing specialists.
My step-father has suggested that I instruct his conveyancers in Leicester. Should I find my own solicitor?
No doubt the ideal way to find a conveyancing lawyer is to get guidance from friends or family who have used the solicitor you're are thinking of instructing.
We have AIP from Birmingham Midshires who have advised we could borrow up to £300k. At what point do we need to appoint a lawyer for conveyancing? Leicester is where we plan to move to.
You can instruct a solicitor now requesting that they generate a file on your behalf. This will trigger: 1) the selling agent to issue a Sales Memorandum to the relevant parties 2) the seller’s conveyancing practitioner to submit the draft paperwork. That being said, do not ask your solicitor to order searches until you have your valuation report via Birmingham Midshires and you are happy to move forward.