I am progressing with the sale of my apartment in East Bergholt and the estate agent has just text me to say that the purchasers are changing their law firm. The reason given is that the lender will only engage with property lawyers on their conveyancing panel. On what basis would a big named mortgage company only deal with certain solicitors rather the firm that they want to appoint for their conveyancing in East Bergholt ?
UK lenders have always had an approved set of law firms they are content to work with, but in the past few years big names such as Santander, have reviewed and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have worked with them for decades.
Lending institutions justify this action to a rise in fraud as the reason for the cull – criteria have been narrowed as a smaller panel is easier to maintain. No lender will say how many solicitors have been dropped, claiming the information is commercially sensitive, but the Law Society says it is being contacted daily by practices that have been removed from panels. Plenty of firms do not even realise they have been dropped until contacted by a borrower who has instructed them as might be the situation in your buyers' case. Your purchasers are unlikely to have any sway in the decision.
Can I use your services to recommend a Conveyancing solicitor in East Bergholt even where I’m not buying or selling a house, for example if I intend to buy an office in East Bergholt with a loan from Alliance & Leicester ?
Our comparison service is predominantly used to find domestic conveyancing solicitors in East Bergholt but we have recorded at the bottom of this page some East Bergholt commercial conveyancing firms. You will need to enquire with the solicitors directly to check if they can also act for Alliance & Leicester
My property lawyer in East Bergholt is not on the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society Conveyancing Panel. Can I still retain my prefered solicitor even though they are excluded from the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society list of approved lawyers?
Your options are as follows:
- Carry on with your existing East Bergholt lawyers but Norwich and Peterborough Building Society will need to instruct a lawyer on their panel. This will result in additional overall conveyancing fees as well as result in frustration.
- Get an alternative lawyer to act in the conveyancing, not forgetting to check they are Norwich and Peterborough Building Society approved.
- Try to convince your Norwich and Peterborough Building Society based solicitor to try to join the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society panel
My relative recommended that if I am purchasing in East Bergholt I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?
This is a search is usually included in the estimate for your East Bergholt conveyancing searches. It is a large report of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing important information about East Bergholt around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the East Bergholt Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime details, East Bergholt Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data about East Bergholt.
Am I right to be concerned about estate agents that I am dealing with are suggesting a factory type conveyancing firm as opposed to a High Street East Bergholt conveyancing firm?
As is the case with many service providers, often recommendations from relatives can be worth their weight in gold. Yet there are lots of players in a conveyancing deal; estate agents, financial adviser and lenders may suggest lawyers to instruct. On occasion the lawyers might be known to one of the organisations as being good in their field, but sometimes there behind the scenes commercial relationship behind the endorsement. You have the right to appoint your own lawyer. You need to be aware that many banks specify a panel list of lawyers you are obliged to use for the lender aspect of your house move.
Are there any apps to help search for a East Bergholt conveyancing solicitor on the bank conveyancing panel? I have a car and am prepared to travel up to 15kilometers to attend the conveyancer.
You can use the find a conveyancing panel search on this website. Please choose the lender and your location, in this case East Bergholt and you will see a number of lawyer located nearest East Bergholt. Alternatively you can type in the name of your proposed law firm and see if they are listed as being on the lender solicitor panel.