My wife and I are looking to purchase a flat in Acle and are in fact using a Acle conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Nationwide Building Society have this evening contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Acle solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is normal for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent 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 solicitor should contact your lender and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own solicitors to act. You don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Acle solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
We are about to complete buying a property in Acle but as a result of wreckage from the recent storms I have managed to agree reparation from the owner of £3k in the form of a adjustment in the price. This was going to be addressed as part of amending the contract however Co-operative will not permit this. Why were they approached?
Any conveyancing practitioner being on the Co-operative conveyancing panel is duty bound to disclose to Co-operative of any variations to the sale price. If you prohibit your conveyancing practitioner to notify the price change to Co-operative then they would have to discontinue acting for you. In addition, Co-operative and you would have to appoint a new conveyancer for your conveyancing in Acle.
The Acle conveyancing solicitors that I recently instructed on my purchase in Acle have without warning shut down. They were on acting for me because I had to have a firm on the Co-operative conveyancing panel and my previous Acle lawyer was not. I wrote them a cheque for £250 in advance. What should be my next steps?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then let them know straight away so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Co-operative conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new solicitors should be in a position to help.
We previously chose solicitors based in Acle on the Clydesdale solicitor approved list. They have just billed me a separate sum for dealing with the Clydesdale mortgage. Is this an additional conveyancing fee set by Clydesdale?
As unfair as it may appear, as long as it’s in their Terms and Conditions or estimate then yes your property lawyer is entitled to charge a fee for this. The charge is not set by Clydesdale but by your Acle property lawyer. Plenty of firms on the Clydesdale panel will levy ’dealing with mortgage’ fee and others do not.
I have today made my last payment due on my mortgage with Santander. I assume I don't need a Acle solicitor on the Santander panel to remove the mortgage at the Land Registry. Please confirm.
If you have finished paying off your Santander mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Santander mortgage from the register. Santander, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:
- but are not moving to another property
- where Santander has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
- Santander has instructed the Land Registry to do so
I have instructed a Acle conveyancer having made sure that they are on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?
Bank of Ireland will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Bank of Ireland will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. Your lawyer will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by your Acle postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Bank of Ireland, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Acle.
We are 3 weeks into a leasehold purchase having been recommend to solicitors by the estate agent to execute conveyancing in Acle. I am not happy. Can you you assist me in finding new conveyancers?
A lawyer would have to be really bad in order to consider diss instructing them. Has the mortgage offer been generated? If so you must inform them of the new contact details and have the offer are issued to the new lawyers. The conveyancer needs to be on the mortgage company approved list to avoid added fees and delays. That should be your starting point. The find a solicitor tool will assist you in finding a bank approved lawyer for your home move in Acle
I want to sublet my leasehold apartment in Acle. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask him. Is permission from the freeholder required?
A lease governs the relationship between the landlord and you the flat owner; specifically, it will set out if subletting is banned, or permitted but only subject to certain caveats. The rule is that if the lease contains no expres ban or restriction, subletting is allowed. The majority of leases in Acle do not contain strict prohibition on subletting – such a clause would adversely affect the market value the property. In most cases there is a basic requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly sending a copy of the sublease.
I am the registered owner of a 2 bed flat in Acle, conveyancing having been completed in 2006. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Equivalent properties in Acle with an extended lease are worth £201,000. The ground rent is £45 yearly. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2090
With only 65 years unexpired we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £13,300 and £15,400 as well as legals.
The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to supply a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed investigations. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other issues that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not take any other action placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.