My husband and I are looking to purchase a home in Leven and are in fact using a Leven conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Yorkshire Building Society have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Leven lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is normal for the purchasers' solicitors to also act for the mortgage company. 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Leven lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
We see that you have a search directory listing law firms on the HSBC conveyancing panel. Do firms pay you a commission if I retain them for our conveyancing in Leven?
We are a listing service only for law firms wishing to communicate if they are on the HSBC conveyancing panel or other lender panels. We do not charge referral fees to any conveyancer that you subsequently appoint for your conveyancing in Leven.
My wife and I have recently appointed a conveyancing solicitor in Leven. I need to find out if they are on the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society approved list of lawyers. Could you assist?
You should phone your lawyer and enquire whether they are on the lender panel. Otherwise you can get in touch with Norwich and Peterborough Building Society who may be able to confirm.
I am purchasing a detached bungalow in Leven. Our aim is to carry out a loft conversion at the property.Will the conveyancing process involve investigations to ascertain if these works are permitted?
Your property lawyer will check the registered title as conveyancing in Leven can on occasion identify restrictions in the title documents which prohibit categories of changes or necessitated the permission of another owner. Many works call for local authority planning permissions and approval under the building regulations. Certain areas are designated conservation areas and special planning restrictions apply which frequently prevent or affect extensions. It would be prudent to check these things with a surveyor ahead of any purchase.
I had an offer accepted on a property in Leven on 10/7/2025, valuation was booked five days after, received a clean bill of health. Property lawyer retained, so the only thing outstanding was my mortgage offer. Having made daily calls to Barclays and chasing them on my offer, I have now been told that my offer will not be issued unless the lawyer is on the Barclays conveyancing panel. Are Barclays entitled to hold back the Mortgage pending the lawyer being on the approved list?
A lender would not issue a mortgage until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Barclays to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the Barclays conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
I have finally had an offer on a flat in Leven agreed to, but there is a chain. The vendors have offered on a property, but it’s not yet tied up, and have viewings of other flats in the pipeline. I have instructed a high street conveyancing solicitor in Leven. What should be my next step? At what point do I apply for the mortgage with Nationwide?
It is usual to have anxieties where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to incur expenses prematurely (mortgage application is approx £1k, then survey, Leven conveyancing search costs, etc). The first thing to do is ensure that your property lawyer is on the Nationwide approved list. Concerning the subsequent stages this very much dictated by the specifics of your case, motivation for this property and on the state of the market. In a hot market some purchasers would apply for a home loan with Nationwide and pay for the valuation and only if it was satisfactory would they ask their conveyancer to press on with searches.
I used Arc property Solicitors a few years ago for my conveyancing in Leven. Now, I need my files however cannot find the solicitor. What do I do?
Do 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 Leven of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously used, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.