Find a Law Firm
approved by Harpenden BS
Ready to buy a new home? Failing to check that a lawyer is on the Harpenden BS list of approved solicitors can put your transaction at risk of delay or failure.
Find an Approved Solicitor on the Harpenden Building Society Conveyancing Panel
FAQs : The Harpenden Building Society Conveyancing Panel
My fiance and I are first time buyers. Within the 48 hours our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Harpenden Building Society have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is usual for the purchaser's solicitors 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 solicitors should contact Harpenden Building Society and see if they can apply for membership of the Harpenden Building Society conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable Harpenden Building Society will instruct their own solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the Harpenden Building Society conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
I am purchasing a new build apartment and my lawyer is advising me that she has to reveal incentives from the builder as her firm is on the Harpenden Building Society conveyancing panel. I am on a tight deadline to exchange and I dont want to prolong the conveyancing. Is my lawyer right?
You should not exchange unless you have advised to do so by your lawyer. A precondition to being on the Harpenden Building Society approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook requirements (last updated for this lender on Harpenden Building Society). The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
How do I search for a local solicitor on the Harpenden Building Society conveyancing panel? I have a car and am prepared to travel up to 25 kilometers to meet the conveyancer.
You can use the find a conveyancing panel tool on this page. Please choose the lender and your location and you will see a number of lawyer located nearest you. Alternatively you can type in the name of your proposed law firm and see if they are listed as being on the Harpenden Building Society solicitor panel.
I was scheduled to move into my dream home last Thursday. My solicitor is on the Harpenden Building Society conveyancing panel but has moved offices 8 weeks ago and had not advised Harpenden Building Society of their new address. Harpenden Building Society has locked down the release of mortgage funds as the information from the solicitors isn't correct.
This is as unusual as it is unlucky. Most lender Terms of Conveyancing Panel Appointment specifically oblige the solicitor to inform the lender of an address change. Your solicitor needs to treat this with the utmost urgency. Do speak with or register your concern with the senior partner (assuming he or she is not your direct lawyer). Most lenders would be reasonable in this situation and expedite the resolution of this issue. It may be prudent to enlist the help of your local Harpenden Building Society branch or your mortgage broker to see if they can assist.
When it comes to mortgage companies such as Harpenden Building Society do solicitors have to be pay a fee to be on the conveyancing panel?
We are not aware of any lender fees to be on their panel although some do charge an administration charge to deal with the processing of the conveyancing panel application.
Hi, thinking about buying a house off my mate. Assuming we can agree a figure, what’s the best way to move forward? I hope to get a mortgage with Harpenden Building Society. Is there anyway to cut out the solicitors to save on the costs? My dad reckons back in the day he did a lot of it himself, just went into the land registry office and providing them with the info they needed himself
If you are getting a mortgage with Harpenden Building Society involved you will need to appoint a solicitor on the Harpenden Building Society conveyancing panel. We would not encourage you to both use the same solicitors' firm. There are clear conflict of interest issues and it's not going to make a huge difference to the speed of the overall process. So as not to hold things us you should pass on your solicitors details to Harpenden Building Society. Feel free to use our search tool to look for a licensed conveyancer or solicitor on the Harpenden Building Society conveyancing panel.
My ex -wife’s name is on the Harpenden Building Society mortgage of my property but not on the land registry. The apartment was transferred to me on our divorce many years ago by way of a sealed court order. Does my ex still have a say on the sale even though the land registry showing the property in my name alone? Will I be required to take her name of the Harpenden Building Society mortgage in order to sell?
In terms of the Harpenden Building Society mortgage, it is unusual that your ex-wife’s name remains on the mortgage but not on the title. It is conceivable that this is an oversight on the part of your conveyancers to ensure that her name was removed or even an administrative error on the part of Harpenden Building Society in failing to update their data. In any event, it should cause difficulty providing her name no longer appears on the Land Registry title and you have a court order ordering that the property is transferred to you.