Find a Law Firm
approved by Habito

The most common options here are as follows:

1. Complete the purchase with your existing solicitors but Habito will need to instruct a lawyer on the Habito conveyancing panel. This will result in additional cost and potential delay.
2. Get a new solicitor to act in the purchase, obviously checking they are on the Habito conveyancing panel.
3. Convince your lawyer to do everything within their powers to join the Habito conveyancing panel

You have limited options available to you. As you are taking a mortgage with Habito your lawyer has to comply with their conditions as set out in their version of the CML Conveyancing Handbook. Your lawyer would have previously signed the Terms and Conditions of Habito’s conveyancing panel appointment which obliges them to follow the CML Handbook requirements last updated Habito. even if you were a cash buyer you would be ill advised not to carry out a local authority search.

We are a listing service only for law firms wishing to communicate if they are on the Habito conveyancing panel or other lender panels. We do not charge referral fees to the any conveyancer that you subsequently appoint.

Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Habito 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 at the moment.

seeking recommendations is a sensible start. Before you go ahead check if they offer a no sale no fee offer. Also you often get what you pay for - a firm which quotes more will often provide a better service than one which is cheap as chips. We would always advocate that you speak with the lawyer carrying out your conveyancing

Habito will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Habito will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. You may wish to consider appointing your own surveyor to carry out a survey or prepare a home buyers report on the property. It is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey or report reveals that building work is needed, you should tell your solicitor. You may wish to renegotiate with the seller. or Your lawyer will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Habito you could contact your them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors.

It is usual to have concerns where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to be too out of pocket too early (mortgage application is approx £1k, then survey/valuation, conveyancing search costs, etc). First you should check that your solicitor is on the Habito conveyancing panel. As to the next stages this very much depends on the circumstances of your case, desire for this property and on the state of the market. In a hot mortgage some buyers would pally for the mortgage with Habito and pay for the valuation and only if it comes back ok would they pay their solicitor to press on with searches.