I have just been advised by my broker that my Romford property lawyer is not on the mortgage company Solicitor panel. What can I do to be sure whether this is correct?
Your first step should be to call your Romford lawyer directly. You lawyer should inform you what has happened. If they are not on the panel they could put your in touch with solicitors on the conveyancing panel for your lender.
What is the optimum way to check that the solicitor conducting my conveyancing in Romford is on the lender’sconveyancing panel? I am looking to avoid the situation of having one lawyer for me and one for Alliance & Leicester thus spending £187.00 plus VAT in another set of legal costs.
You should take advantage of the find a lender approved solicitor tool on this web page. Please choose the lender and type ‘Romford’ or your preferred area and you will discover a number of lawyer located in Romford or nearest you.
I used Wolstenholmes several years ago for my conveyancing in Romford. Now, I need the documents but the law firm has closed. What do I do?
Do call the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to help locate 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 Romford of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously used, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.
How does conveyancing in Romford differ for newly converted properties?
Most buyers of new build residence in Romford approach us having been asked by the builder to exchange contracts and commit to the purchase even before the property is built. This is because new home sellers in Romford typically acquire the land, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct conveyancing solicitors as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are used to new build conveyancing in Romford or who has acted in the same development.
I have been pointed in your direction by a number of estate agents in Romford to find a conveyancer using your seach tool. What’s the financial incentive for Estate Agents to offer your site rather than a competitor’s?
We don’t offer any financial incentive for directing people our way. We found it would be just too difficult a fee because a client could think, ‘Why is the agent getting a kickback? Why aren’t I receiving any benefit too?’ So we decided to step away from that.
My partner and I are purchasing a 2 bedroom flat in Romford. At the point of instructing our solicitor, they assured us that they were on all major UK lender panels. The financial adviser contacted us yesterday to say that they are not on the Coventry BS approved list. If it turns out to be true, what should we do? Do we simply find a new conveyancing practitioner that is on their approved list or should we cover the costs for dual representation, with Coventry BS selecting their own approved conveyancing practitioner.
Where you are purchasing a property needing a mortgage it is usual for the buyer’s solicitors to also act for the mortgage company. In order to act for a bank or building society a conveyancer has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the conveyancer to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict conditions which the solicitor has to meet. Some lenders now insist their panel firms to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Accreditation Scheme. Your conveyancing practitioner should call Coventry BS 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 don't have to instruct a firm on Coventry BS's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Romford solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.