I am acquiring property in Didcot. My property lawyer is not on the bank solicitor panel. Can I still continue with my Didcot conveyancing solicitor notwithstanding that they are not on the mortgage company panel of approved conveyancing solicitors?
Your options include
- Complete the deal with your existing Didcot conveyancer but your lender will need to instruct a lawyer from their approved list. The net result is additional cost together with potential interruption.
- Choose a new property lawyer to act in the purchase, making sure they are on the lender conveyancing panel.
- Appeal to your solicitor to attempt to join the mortgage company panel
I am purchasing a property for cash in Didcot. I have been residing for the last 20 years in Didcot. Conveyancing searches are expensive. Given that I know the area and road intimately should I not bother getting the solicitor to do all the conveyancing searches?
In the absence of a home loan, then the vast majority of the Didcot conveyancing searches are non-obligatory. Your lawyer will try and steer you, no-doubt strongly, that you should have searches completed, but she has a professional duty to take that path of advice. Do consider; if you are going to dispose of the house one day, it may be of importance to your future purchaser what the searches disclose. On occasion properties with no practical issues can still show up unfavourable search results. A competent conveyancing solicitor in Didcot should be able to give you some practical advice here.
Having sold my house in Didcot last November yet the purchaser is e-mailing me to say her lawyer is waiting to hear from mine. What should my lawyer have done now that I have sold?
Following your sale your conveyancer should forward the transfer documentation and all of the paperwork to the purchaser's lawyers. Where appropriate, your conveyancer should also evidence that the legal charge in favour of the lender has been discharged to the buyers solicitors. There are no post completion formalities peculiar conveyancing in Didcot.
My house in Didcot is up for sale and I have a purchaser. Will the conveyancer have to be on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel in order to deal with the discharge of my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their requirements fairly frequently currently.
Am I better off to go with a Didcot conveyancing solicitor who is local to the property I am purchasing? An old friend can handle the legal work however her office is a couple of hundredkilometers drive away.
The primary upside of using a local Didcot conveyancing firm is that you can attend the office to sign paperwork, hand in your identification documents and pester them if necessary. They will also have local insight which is a bonus. That being said it's more important to get someone that will do a good and efficient job. If you know people who used your friend and they were happy that should surpass using an unfamiliar Didcot conveyancing lawyer solely due to them being Didcot based.