My wife and I are looking to acquire a home in West Hill and have appointed a West Hill conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Aldermore have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our West Hill lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
If you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' solicitors to also act for 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your bank 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 the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred West Hill lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
I am told that my conveyancing solicitors will need to check that the building insurance for my purchase of a house in West Hill. My lender is Platform
Platform have specific requirements as set out in the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook. As of 28/5/2025, the requirements read as follows :
My wife and I buying a 4 bedroom semi-detached house in West Hill. We would like to an extension at the rear at the property.Will legal due diligence on the property include checks to determine if these works were previously refused?
Your property lawyer should check the registered title as conveyancing in West Hill will on occasion identify restrictions in the title documents which prevent categories of alterations or need the permission of a 3rd party. Certain extensions need local authority planning permissions and approval under the building regulations. Some areas are designated conservation areas and special planning restrictions apply which often prevent or impact extensions. You should check these issues with a surveyor ahead of any purchase.
It is not clear whether my lender requires a lease extension. I have called into my local West Hill bank branch on numerous occasions and was told they are content with the situation and they will lend. My West Hill conveyancing solicitor - who is on the mortgage company conveyancing panel- called to say that they will not lend in accordance with their published requirements. I simply don't know who is right.
Your conveyancer has to follow the CML Handbook section two provisions for your bank. Unless your lawyer obtains specific confirmation in writing that the bank will go ahead, your lawyer has no choice but to refrain from exchanging contract and committing you to the purchase. We would suggest that you ask the mortgage company to contact your lawyer in writing confirming that they will accept the number of years left on the lease.
Planning on purchasing a maisonette in West Hill. I have received an online quote from a licenced conveyancer, which states: "There will be no charge for dealing with the Building Society if you are obtaining a mortgage". I take this to mean that there will be no additional fee if the solicitor is on the Principality conveyancing panel. I wanted to make sure it means there will be no additional fees for dealing with the mortgage.
They are simply saying that the cost for acting for the lender is included in the fee being quoted. It is worth you checking that the West Hill conveyancer is on the Principality conveyancing panel.
four months have gone by since my purchase conveyancing in West Hill completed. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £200,000 when infact I paid £215,000. 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 property 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.
Hoping to buy a property located in West Hill and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about West Hill. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the West Hill area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?
Rather than looking online forget looking online you should go and have a look at West Hill. In the meantime here are some basic statistics that we found
What advice can you give us when it comes to finding a West Hill conveyancing practice to deal with our lease extension?
When appointing a property lawyer for your lease extension (regardless if they are a West Hill conveyancing practice) it is most important that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We suggest that you speak with two or three firms including non West Hill conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then so much the better. The following questions might be of use:
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What are the legal fees for lease extension work?
Having spent years of dialogue we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in West Hill. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?
Where there is a absentee landlord or if there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation you can apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to make a decision on the premium.
An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision for a West Hill property is 158 West Hill in November 2010. the Tribunal held that the premium to be paid for the freehold reversion should be £99,650 This case related to 7 flats. The number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 75.88 years.