Me and my fiance are purchasing a 3 bedroom flat in Peterlee with a mortgage. We wish to retain our Peterlee lawyer, however the lender says he's not on their "panel". It appears that we have little choice but to use one of the lender panel conveyancing practices or retain our Peterlee solicitor as well as pay for one of their panel lawyers to act for them. This feels very unfair; can we not insist that the lender use our Peterlee solicitor ?
No, not really. The mortgage offered to you is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that lawyers will on the lender’s conveyancing panel. Until recently, most lenders had large numbers of law firms on their panels: a borrower could choose one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. A further alternative is for your Peterlee conveyancing lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel.
At what point will exchange of contracts take place for purchase conveyancing in Peterlee and do I need to attend the lawyers branch?
Where you are local to one of the conveyancing solicitors in Peterlee you are invited in to sign documents. However, the firms we recommend provide a countrywide conveyancing service and give as equally diligent and professional a job for you when communicating with you by post or email. The signing of the contract is not the point of no return. A signed contract is necessary for the firm to officially exchange when the time is right, which will usually be very shortly after signing. The procedure is nowadays normally dealt with by telephone and can be very rapid, although where a long "chain" is in play, since the process requires the relevant party's solicitor (not necessarily a conveyancing solicitor in Peterlee)to be in the office available at the end of the phone to exchange contracts.
After much negotiation I have agreed a price on a house in Peterlee. My mortgage broker recommended their conveyancers. I paid an upfront payment of £175. Not long after, the property lawyer contacted me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Co-operative conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Co-operative panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
Intending to buy a flat in Peterlee. 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 Bank of Ireland 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 Peterlee conveyancing practitioner is on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel.
I had an offer accepted on a property in Peterlee on 9/6/2025, valuation was booked 3 days later, all came back fine. Conveyancer appointed, so all that was missing was my mortgage offer. Having made daily calls to Nationwide and chasing them on my offer, I have now been told that my offer will not be issued unless the lawyer is on the Nationwide conveyancing panel. Can the lender hold off the offer?
Mortgage companies tend not to not issue a mortgage until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Nationwide to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the Nationwide conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
I have justdiscovered that Action Conveyancing have been shut down. They conducted my conveyancing in Peterlee for a purchase of a freehold house 12 months ago. How can I establish that the property is registered correctly in the name of the previous owner?
The easiest method to see if the property is registered to you, you can make 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 Peterlee conveyancing specialists.
I am looking into buying my first house which is in Peterlee and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about Peterlee. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the Peterlee area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?
Rather than looking online forget looking online you should go and have a look at Peterlee. In the meantime here are some basic statistics that we found
What advice can you give us when it comes to finding a Peterlee conveyancing firm to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?
If you are instructing a conveyancer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Peterlee conveyancing practice) it is imperative that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We advise that you make enquires with several firms including non Peterlee conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. The following questions could be useful:
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How familiar is the firm with lease extension legislation?
I invested in buying a studio flat in Peterlee, conveyancing was carried out November 2007. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Comparable properties in Peterlee with an extended lease are worth £190,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 levied per year. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2087
You have 62 years unexpired the likely cost is going to span between £17,100 and £19,800 plus costs.
The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to provide a more accurate figure without more detailed investigations. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional concerns that need to be considered and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward placing reliance on this information without first getting professional advice.