My partner and I are planning to acquire a house in Bowthorpe and have appointed a Bowthorpe conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Leeds Building Society have this morning contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Bowthorpe lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
If you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your property lawyer should contact your mortgage company and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Bowthorpe solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
It is is a decade since I acquired my house in Bowthorpe. Conveyancing solicitors have recently been retained on the sale but I can't locate my title documents. Will this cause complications?
Don’t worry too much. First there is a chance that the deeds will be kept by the lender or they could be archived with the lawyers who acted in your purchase. Secondly the chances are that the title will be recorded at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you are the registered owner by your conveyancing solicitors procuring up to date copy of the land registers. Most conveyancing in Bowthorpe involves registered property but in the rare situation where your property is unregistered it adds to the complexity but is resolvable.
Do I choose a Licenced Conveyancer or Solicitor for conveyancing in Bowthorpe?
There are many registered licenced Conveyancers in Bowthorpe and Solicitor partnerships in Bowthorpe who provide Conveyancing services We would stress that both are supervised by regulatory bodies with both specialising in the legal aspects of the home buying process. The two can conduct associated property related work such as remortgage conveyancing, enfranchisement and transfer of equity conveyancing.
This question may be naive but I am wet behind the ears as FTB of a garden flat in Bowthorpe. Do I collect the keys to the property on completion from my conveyancer? If so, I will find a local conveyancing solicitor in Bowthorpe?
There is no need to visit the lawyers office on the day of completion. Your solicitors will electronically transfer the completion advance to the vendor’s lawyers, and once they have received this, you will be called to receive the keys from the selling Agents and start moving into the property. Usually this occurs early afternoon.
My offer was accepted on a property in Bowthorpe on 4/11/2025, valuation was booked 3 days later, received a clean bill of health. Conveyancer retained, so the only thing outstanding was my mortgage offer. Having made daily calls to Bank of Ireland and chasing them on my offer, I have now been told that my offer will not be issued unless the lawyer is on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel. Are Bank of Ireland entitled to hold back the Mortgage pending the lawyer being on the approved list?
A lender would not issue an offer until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Bank of Ireland to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
What can a local search reveal regarding the property my wife and I buying in Bowthorpe?
Bowthorpe conveyancing often starts with the applying for local authority searches directly from your local Authority or through a personal search company for example Onsearch The local search plays an important role in many a Bowthorpe conveyancing purchase; that is if you don’t want any nasty once you have moved into your new home. The search will provide information on, amongst other things, details on planning applications applicable to the premises (whether granted or refused), building control history, any enforcement action, restrictions on permitted development, nearby road schemes, contaminated land and radon gas; in all a total of 13 subject sections.
I got the keys to my flat on 8 April and the transaction details is yet to be on the land registry website. Should I be concerned? My conveyancing solicitor in Bowthorpe said it would be recorded in less than a month. Are transfers in Bowthorpe particularly slow to register?
There is nothing unique about conveyancing in Bowthorpe registration formalities. As opposed to being determined by geographic area, timescales can differ according to who lodges the application, whether there are errors and if the Land registry need to notify any 3rd parties. At present in the region of three quarters of submission are completed in less than three weeks but occasionally there can be extensive hold-ups. Historically registration takes place after the new owner is living at the property therefore registration formalities is not usually primary concern but where it is urgent that the the registration takes place urgently then you or your solicitor could contact the land registry and explain the circumstances.
Do I need to be wary by brokers that I am dealing with are encouraging me to use an online conveyancing firm as opposed to a local Bowthorpe conveyancing firm?
As with many service providers, often referrals from connections can be extremely useful or valuable. Yet there are numerous parties with a vested interest in a conveyancing matter; estate agents, mortgage brokers and banks may recommend lawyers to select. Sometimes the lawyers might be known to one of the organisations as being good in their field, but sometimes there might be a commercial relationship behind the recommendation. You are free to choose your own conveyancer. You need to be aware that some banks operate an approved list of conveyancers you are obliged to use for the mortgage aspect of your transaction.