What is the optimum way to check that the solicitor carrying out my conveyancing in Colne is on the mortgage lender’sapproved panel? I am looking to avoid the situation of having one lawyer for me and one for Santander thus paying £175.00 in further conveyancing invoice.

Feel free to take advantage of the find a lender approved solicitor tool on this site. Please choose the lender and type ‘Colne’ or your preferred area and you will be presented with a number of lawyer based in Colne or nearest you.

This question may be naive but I am wet behind the ears as a first time buyer of a ground floor flat in Colne. Do I collect the keys to the house on the completion date from my lawyer? If so, I will find a local conveyancing solicitor in Colne?

There is no need to visit the lawyers office on the day of completion. Your solicitors will transfer the completion advance to the vendor’s solicitors, and shortly after the monies have arrived, you should be able to pick up the keys from the selling Agents and start moving into the property. This tends to happen early afternoon.

We are getting a further advance on our mortgage from Virgin Money as we want to conduct a loft conversion to our home in Colne. Are we obliged to choose a high street Colne solicitor on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel to deal with the legals?

Virgin Money would not normally require a member of their conveyancing panel to handle the formalities. If they do require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel.

Last month we had a mortgage agreed in principle with Santander. Colne conveyancing solicitors were selected. What is the average time that one could expect to receive a mortgage offer from Santander?

There is no definitive answer here. Have Santander done the valuation? Have you advised Santander as to your lawyers' details and checked that your lawyers are on the Santander conveyancing panel? It is not unusual for a mortgage offer to take a month to come through.

I used Wolstenholmes a few years ago for my conveyancing in Colne. I now require my papers however the law firm has closed. What do I do?

You should contact the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to assist in tracing 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 Colne of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously retained, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.

How do I locate a Colne law firm on the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society conveyancing panel? I have wheels and am happy to travel upto 25kilometers to meet the conveyancer.

Feel free to make use of the search on this page. Please choose the mortgage company and your location and you will see a number of Colne conveyancing lawyers located nearest you. We have detailed some Colne conveyancing firms towards the end of this page and you can ring them to verify if they are on the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society panel

What advice can you give us when it comes to finding a Colne conveyancing firm to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

When appointing a solicitor for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Colne conveyancing firm) it is most important that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We recommend that you make enquires with two or three firms including non Colne conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. The following questions could be helpful:

Can they put you in touch with clients in Colne who can give a testimonial? If the firm is not ALEP accredited then why not?

Colne Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Sample of Questions you should ask Prior to Purchasing

The prefered form of lease structure is a share of the freehold. In this situation the lessees enjoy control and even though a managing agent is often employed if the building is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent employed by the leaseholders. Where a Colne lease has less than eighty years it will have adverse implications on the salability of the property. It is worth checking with your lender that they are happy with the length of the lease. Leases with fewer than 80 years remaining means that you will most likely have to extend the lease at some point and it is worth discovering how much this will be. For most Colnelease extensions you would need to own the residence for a couple of years in order to be eligible to extend the lease.