My wife and I are looking to purchase a home in Twickenham and have instructed a Twickenham conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Bank of Scotland have this morning contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Twickenham conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is standard 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 Quality Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your lender 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Twickenham lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
We were just about to sign contracts for a property in Twickenham. We have hit a problem. Our mortgage offer with Bank of Scotland runs out on 7/1/2025 but the sellers are suggesting a completion date of 9/1/2025. Can one prolong the loan offer?
The person best placed to address this question is your conveyancer who is in a position to assess whether he or she is corresponding with the mortgage company, vendor’s lawyers, selling agents or indeed all three given the history of your transaction as of today.
My aunt passed away last year and as sole heir and executor I was left the property in Twickenham. The house had a relatively small loan remaining of approximately £5k. I want to have the title changed into my name whilst I re-mortgage to Santander, pay off the mortgage. Is this possible?
Where you plan to re-mortgage then Santander will require that you use a conveyancer on the Santander conveyancing panel. Here is link to the Land Registry online guidance around what to do when a property owner dies. This will help you to understand the registration process behind changing the details re the registered title. in your case it would appear that you are effectively purchasing the property from the estate. Your Santander conveyancing panel solicitor pays the new mortgage money into the estate, the estate pays off the old mortgage, the charge is released and you become the owner and the Santander mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.
I used Stirling Law a few years ago for my conveyancing in Twickenham. I now require my papers but the law firm is no longer operating. What do I do?
You should contact the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to help locate 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 Twickenham of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously hired, 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 search for a Twickenham solicitor on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel? I am a keen cyclist and am willing to travel upto 10kilometers to meet the conveyancer.
You can use the tool on this page. Please choose the mortgage company and your location and you will see a number of Twickenham conveyancing lawyers locally. We have listed some Twickenham conveyancing firms at the bottom of this page and you can ring them to verify whether they are on the Clydesdale member panel