Hi

Thanks for your question.

If there is a mortgage on the Seller’s property then the Seller’s lender will insist on a firm of solicitors in England and Wales being instructed. When a solicitors acts on behalf of Seller selling with a mortgage they also act on behalf of the lender to redeem the mortgage. Thus, the lender will insist a solicitor in Eng/Wal is instructed.

If there is no mortgage on the property then technically the seller need not instruct a solicitor and therefore would be able to instruct a Swiss firm to handle the conveyance. However, when applying to register the property at the Land Registry your solicitors must list the Seller and whether they have instructed a solicitor. They would not be able to list the Swiss firm and would instead have to require the Seller to execute a Land Registry ID1 form proving their identity and have this certified by a Eng/Wal solicitor. In these circumstances the Swiss firm would be acting in an administrative correspondence-handling fashion only.

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Kind regards,


Tom