Our solicitor service

LMS provides a managed conveyancing service for Newcastle Building Society customers. Whether you're remortgaging or buying your first home, they can help with the legal services needed for everything to go smoothly.

For fees assisted remortgages, Newcastle Building Society will pay the basic legal fee, meaning in most cases that you will not need to pay legal costs to move your mortgage (on selected products).

Where our products are offered on a fees assisted basis (where a fees assisted legal transfer is included in the features of the product), LMS will take care of the conveyancing service from one of their agreed conveyancing firms. Also, LMS are able to do a low cost fee paying service for both a remortgage and purchase of your home where our product does not include the service.

When you remortgage to Newcastle Building Society and choose a fee assisted remortgage product, we will pay the base legal costs related to the remortgage including the basic professional fee, standard disbursements and VAT.

In certain situations, the solicitor/conveyancer chosen may need to carry out non-standard work such as Transfer of Equity, Stamp Duty, Postponement of Second and Subsequent Charges and Insurance Premiums and these costs will be payable by you. A list of the most common fees for non-standard work can be found here.

Once the mortgage application has been submitted you will be contacted by the appointed solicitor/conveyancer and they will provide a full personalised illustration of any costs that will be incurred in relation to the property being remortgaged.

LMS work with various qualified and audited solicitors/conveyancers that will carry out the legal work required to remortgage your property.

Where a fees assisted mortgage product is selected we will tell LMS on your behalf who will then in turn choose a solicitor/conveyancer to complete your legal property transfer.

When we have your mortgage application, we will instruct LMS to act on the application. On the day LMS get the instruction, LMS will issue your welcome pack and documents online to get the process started straight away. You will need to return documentation such as proof of identity, and when LMS have this information, the appointed solicitor/conveyancer will work on your property transfer.

Yes you can.

In the case of a fees assisted remortgage where we include conveyancing services the solicitor/conveyancer firm acts on the Society’s behalf and will not advise you personally. You may wish to use your own solicitor/conveyancing firm when remortgaging your home to gain more certainty, but this is not compulsory and you will be subject to additional legal fees.

In the case of a purchase or non-fees assisted remortgage, the legal work needed covers both parties’ requirements, you and the Society.

If using your own solicitor/conveyancing firm, it is important to note that included in our acceptance criteria is the need for multiple partners. Sole practitioners are not accepted to our panel and any request will be rejected. Where sole practitioners are instructed, they may act for you; however we will instruct LMS to act on behalf of the Society in all cases. In order to provide this service, there will be an additional charge to you and an outline of these costs can be found here.

If the proposed solicitor/conveyancer is declined, you can select any other firm currently present on the Society's conveyancing panel, including LMS appointed firms, without incurring additional Society fees, or you can select your own firm providing they meet the Society's acceptance criteria for admittance.