My wife and I are looking to acquire a house in Dosthill and are in fact using a Dosthill conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our property lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Godiva Mortgages Ltd have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Dosthill conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?

When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your bank 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Dosthill lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

Why is leasehold purchase conveyancing in Dosthill costs more?

Dosthill leasehold conveyancing transactions usually involve additional investigations than freeholds including investigating the Lease, liaising with the Landlord such as serving appropriate notices on the Landlord or managing agent, obtaining up-to-date service charge and management information, obtaining Landlord’s consents and reviewing management accounts and formation documents.

Is it correct that all Dosthill CQS (Conveyancing Quality Scheme) solicitors are on the Principality conveyancing panel?

A selection of banks and building societies now utilise CQS as the kick off point for Panel approval such as HSBC and Santander. The Law Society’s CQS accreditation however is no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. That being said,the CML have indicated that it is likely to become a pre-requisite for solicitors wishing to join their panels.

Can I be sure that the Dosthill conveyancing solicitor on the Bank of Ireland panel is any good?

When it comes to conveyancing in Dosthill getting recommendations is a good 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 advertising the lowest fees. We would always suggest that you speak with the lawyer carrying out your conveyancing.

We are getting the release of further monies on our home loan from TSB as we intend to conduct renovations to our property in Dosthill. Do we need to select a nearby Dosthill solicitor on the TSB conveyancing panel to deal with the legals?

TSB would not normally instruct a member of their approved list of lawyers to handle such a matter. If they do require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the TSB panel.

Am I better off to choose a Dosthill conveyancing practitioner based in the area that I am buying? An old friend can handle the legal formalities however they are based 200kilometers away.

The primary upside of using a high street Dosthill conveyancing practice is that you can pop in to execute documents, hand in your identification documents and pester them where appropriate. Having local Dosthill know how is a benefit. However nothing is more important than finding someone that will do a good and efficient job. If if people you trust instructed your friend and on the whole were happy that must outweigh using an unknown Dosthill conveyancing solicitor solely due to them being round the corner.

Online reading suggests that Dosthill solicitors are more costly than Dosthill conveyancers in Dosthill to use when buying a property. So is it better if I use a conveyancer or a solicitor if I am purchasing for my home move in Dosthill.

When it comes to conveyancing in Dosthill the costs are unlikely to vary dramatically depending on whether the legal expert is a licenced conveyancer or solicitor.