We provide a reliable, personal service for a sensible fee. All of our clients have a dedicated and experienced conveyancer available to them throughout the transaction. Our experts take pride in the individual, bespoke service that they offer each and every client. We are with you every step of the way!
Above all, people that genuinely care about the service they provide, ensuring you are happy every step of the way.
For an experienced conveyancing team you can trust, with offices in Leicester and Market Harborough please Contact Us
Details about the conveyancing team here
Read our conveyancing fees and charges here
Read our Helpful Guide to Conveyancing Terms here
Read our full Conveyancing Brochure here
As you can imagine, we’re busy conveyancers and our email response time is normally within one business day, but it can be several days, depending on your enquiry. If we have an update for you, rest-assured we endeavour to contact you within one business day by email or phone, but please don’t expect us to respond to your email on the same day you contacted us, although we’d like to, as it just isn’t feasible given the hundreds of emails we receive each day. We aim to provide a first-class conveyancing service and response, though with over 400 emails per case handler, per week, it can be challenging.Please do not email us several times to chase us, as this approach is unlikely to help speed your transaction, instead, please note our standard response times below:
Same Day
When we have an update for you or we need information from you that is missing we will call you.We aim to respond to new enquiries within one business day, with a quote for you.
Within 24 hours
We will acknowledge receipt of your email to us about your query or matter.
Within 48 hours
You may have a response from us if your query was straightforward.
Over 48 hours
You are likely to have a response much later if your query is complex, the transaction requires further work, we have not heard from the agent or mortgage provider, we’re waiting on answers or documents from others, we are waiting for searches, or we are chasing others to complete the chain.
Lenders and Mortgages
Lawson West is a qualified legal adviser recognised and approved by over 90% of primary and secondary lenders. Our accreditation and standards are reviewed and renewed on an annual basis by all the major mortgage lenders. This means we are well-placed to handle most mortgage transactions.
Conveyancing Quality Standard (CQS)
Lawson West is accredited by The Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS), a recognised quality standard for residential conveyancing practices.
For an experienced and local Leicestershire conveyancing team you can trust, please Contact Us.
You may also be interested in our Commercial Property pages, please click this link to view them.
Great client service is at the centre of our thinking, it’s embodied into how we train and develop our staff, how we help our clients and how we advise and assist people and business owners with their legal needs.
Our Core Values are Welcoming, Confident, Supportive, Knowledgeable and Dependable and we aim for clients to have a positive experience with Lawson West Solicitors.
Evidence of our great client service can be seen in the reviews and testimonials we regularly receive. We are always pleased to receive great reviews because it means our clients are happy with the service we provide, and it shows that we deliver on our core values, we don’t just talk about them. We really welcome client feedback and hope you enjoy reading some of the latest testimonials throughout this website.
Most people prefer to have at least a couple of days between exchange and completion to give them time to make removal arrangements.
However, exchange of contracts can take place up to and including the day of completion (the day you pay for your new property and get the keys, or the day you receive the net sale proceeds if you are selling a property).
If you have a particular timescale for your house move, let us know as soon as possible and we will do our best to accommodate exchange of contracts and completion dates to suit you.
If you are a cash purchaser (that is, you do not require a mortgage to fund the purchase of a property), searches are entirely at your discretion however we would strongly recommend you obtain a local authority search, a drainage and water search and an environmental search to give you a complete picture of the property you are buying.
If you are purchasing with a mortgage, searches are a compulsory requirement of most mortgage lenders.
Buying at auction is a binding commitment and carries the same legal implications as signing contracts through a solicitor – if you are planning to purchase an auction property, it is advisable to have the Legal Pack checked thoroughly before you attend the auction and bid on the property.
Once you have successfully bid for a property through auction, and the contracts have been exchanged, you are legally committed to purchase the property.
Married couples or people living together can choose to own the property as a) ‘joint tenants’ which means that upon the death of one or other of them – that person’s share automatically passes to the other owner or b) ‘tenants in common’ which means that the deceased’s share does not pass automatically to the other owner, but can be left to a third party in a Will (such as a child from a previous relationship). Owning as ‘tenants in common’ requires each owner to have a valid Will to ensure the property is passed in accordance with their wishes.
Neither of these choices is permanent and can be changed by the parties at any time, as often as they wish, throughout their ownership of the property.
The only difference between Registered and Unregistered land is simply that the unregistered land has never been formally recorded at HM Land Registry. The main reason land remains ‘unregistered’ is that the property hasn’t been sold/mortgaged in the last 40 years, as registration was not compulsory at that time.
Selling unregistered land is not a problem, providing all of the original documents are available. If you purchase a property which is currently unregistered, submission of your application to the Land Registry will trigger ‘first registration’ as registration is now compulsory throughout the UK. The Land Registry will produce an Official copy of the register of title which includes your name as the registered owner.
The main types of searches that are carried out are:
We do not carry out a Chancel Repair Liability Search because most properties now reveal a potential liability. Instead, if the Register to the property you are purchasing has not been updated since October 2013, we will obtain a No Search Chancel Indemnity Policy on completion to protect you in the event of a Chancel Repair Liability being added to the register prior to the registration formalities being completed. For further information please contact us.
Net sale/re-mortgage proceeds will be despatched to you from our conveyancing team on the day of completion by either BACS or Telegraphic transfer to your chosen bank account.
The keys are released when all of the money for the purchase has been received by the seller’s solicitor, this will happen on the day of completion and is around 1pm or 2pm, depending on the time specified in the contract you have signed.
If you are in a chain there is an element of flexibility required on the day of completion as all parties are usually moving out on the same day and your sellers will not be able to obtain their new keys until the funds reach their seller’s solicitors and so on. This will be explained in the report provided to you and also during the transaction.
Registration at HM Land Registry can take anything from a few weeks up to 1 year, if the property is already registered. If the property is unregistered or a new build property, the registration formalities can take up to 3 years due to the workload and backlog of HM Land Registry.
On a purchase or re-mortgage, we require the amount for the searches as shown in our Fee Estimate from you at the outset to enable us to request the searches on the property on your behalf.
On all transactions, we also require a payment from you at the outset on account of costs. This amount will be detailed in our initial letter.
These amounts are then deducted from our final bill at the end of the transaction.
The National Housing Federation has approached the Government with a proposal that would allow people who rent houses to have the opportunity to purchase them after 25 years. If they are granted funding they have said they will be able to build 335,000 new homes over the next four years…
You’ve just had an offer accepted on your dream home which has taken months to pick. It can sometimes be even harder to select the best Conveyancer to complete your purchase or sale. At Lawson West, we have offices in Leicester, Market Harborough and Wigston, meaning you have the benefit of instructing a Solicitor within your local area.
In December 2017 the Law Commission announced that one of its consultation areas would be Chancel Repair Liability.
What is Chancel Repair Liability?
It is a legal obligation on some property owners in England and Wales to pay for certain repairs to a local church. Homeowners have found themselves with a large bill to pay for repairs, under a medieval law which dates back to the time of Henry VIII.
